Now that anyone can be a DJ, is the art form dead?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/08/tables-are-turning

by pmcpinto • 10 years ago

42 49 10 years ago

economist.com

SixSigma2• 10 years ago

Anyone has always been able to be a DJ

caminante2• 10 years ago

Not only that, but this article's claims are nonsense:

  "Such advances have made it easy for those with limited talent to sound
  professional. YouTube videos abound that purport to show DJs miming
  their mixes—their hands a whirl of activity over the controls, but
  never actually alighting on any of them. For many, this confirms a
  long-held suspicion that some now simply turn up with a pre-recorded
  set, press play, and rake in the cash."

Nobody cares if the DJ's beat-matching. Any paid DJ can do so. It's about the production and entertainment.

P.S. Alighting's not a verb.

edit: Alighting CAN be a verb! ("to settle or stay after descending")

pm215• 10 years ago

Yes, 'alight' is a verb; listed by the OED as 'alight, v. 1' sense 4b "To descend and settle; (of something in flight) to land. Freq. with on, upon. Also fig.". Citations back to 1330 with ones obviously like the modern usage back in 1610, eg "c1610–15 Life Holie Hilda in C. Horstmann Lives Women Saints (1886) 57 A greate number of birds alighting in her fields of corne, and deuouring it shrewdlie." Latest cite 2006, so not obsolete or archaic.

bodyfour• 10 years ago

I don't think that's quite true.

When I first started in the early 1990s, it was pretty expensive to get into as a hobby. I could have been fairly economically comfortable in my college years, but was constantly making myself broke by pouring every dollar I could spare into records.

The flipside of this was that the people who did take it up tended to be serious about it. From time to time there would be some rich kid who would blow a few grand of daddy's money on gear and music, declare himself a DJ, and then get bored a month later. For the most part, though, the financial burden meant that new arrivals would take it seriously and were interested in improving.

As CD decks and CD-Rs became common I thought we'd see a lot of fresh talent from people who wouldn't have been able to afford starting out when I did. Instead there was a flood of people who just wanted to call themselves a "DJ" but had negligible interest in learning much about their music genre or developing any technical skills. Instead of stronger wheat, we got buried in a ton of chaff.

The other underappreciated change was to how clubnight promotion works. In the olden days, the promoter would take care of making flyers and getting people in the door. They'd seek out DJs that they thought would keep this crowd happy. So as a newb DJ, if you would work yourself up the ladder by impressing the local promoters and developing a good reputation with them. They would provide the crowds that you'd make your name with.

Today, with effectively all promotion being done online the biggest thing that a rookie DJ can bring is a built-in audience. There is a huge advantage to the social butterflies of the world, who can now effectively self-promote their appearances to a wide circle of acquaintances, saving the club promoter work.

That might seem like a small shift (or just sound like sour grapes from an old geezer), but it has been a striking difference in who gets started. For a long time a lot of DJs fit a certain archetype of music nerds.. often the most introverted people at the nightclub. Once when I met rookie DJs I felt like I saw a younger version of myself in them. Now I don't get that feeling... it's just a different set of people who take it up.

It's certainly possible that there could be a renaissance. The technology available today lets DJs do live manipulation that the best turntabilists a generation ago couldn't have dreamt of. However, I'm not optimistic -- I think that realistically 95% of the people showing up simply don't care about what part of the process is being done live. I think increasingly clubs are just going to move to playing livestreams or pre-recorded sets and avoid the cost of an onsite DJ entirely. As long as people still show up and buy alcohol that works fine for them. I think ultimately the notion of a nightclub paying someone to haul in music, select what to play, and mix it live will be an anachronism.

jmcgough• 10 years ago

"That might seem like a small shift (or just sound like sour grapes from an old geezer), but it has been a striking difference in who gets started. For a long time a lot of DJs fit a certain archetype of music nerds.. often the most introverted people at the nightclub."

I'm pretty new to DJing, but that's what I've seen too. The people I know who are hardcore music nerds, introverted, and have found some success doing performances are those who get good with FL Studio and write their own music or do complex premade mixes.

SixSigma2• 10 years ago

Maybe I just grew up round too many broke as fuck DJs on the dole always partying. There were always decks and vinyl around on the scene somewhere if you wanted to have a go.

Even just making a good mix tape got reputation.

But I guess you have to be near a scene

voidz• 10 years ago

Now that anyone can be a painter, is that art form dead? Art is a form of expression, not a popularity contest. Geez Louise, if there's nothing to write about, just don't write.

th0ma5• 10 years ago

So now that anyone can be a writer, is writing dead?

puranjay• 10 years ago

So now that anyone can think, is thinking dead?

Macuyiko• 10 years ago

Betteridge's law in action.

fsloth• 10 years ago

One could read this as description of how digitalization trivializes the algorithmic parts away, thus leaving pure human skill on the play. So, not a totally void article, I would say, as it goes to some depth in explaining the parts that have been digitized into non-issues.

IshKebab• 10 years ago

Not a very good analogy. It's more like "Now that anyone can use a word processor, is type-setting dead?", to which the answer is yep, pretty much.

Or "Now that anyone can cut a vinyl sign, is sign-painting dead?" Same answer.

api• 10 years ago

There is and was an art form called turntablism. It's always been more common in hip hop than club and rave, though it showed up in all those places. You can search YouTube for examples of "scratch competitions" and that kind of thing.

There are also a good number of techno and hip hop DJS who take mixing with vinyl to amazing levels of agility.

That stuff's really hard, and those folks actually became "virtuosos" on turntables.

Just hitting beat match on an mp3 player or a dual CD deck... not so much. About the only thing you can call those is showmen and great self promoters.

JonnieCache2• 10 years ago

Before digitisation, mixing records in a nightclub was a technical discipline as difficult to master as learning chord progressions on a guitar.

This is not true. Learning to beatmatch vinyl or with CDJs is mainly a matter of rewiring your brain to hear sound from each ear separately, and a little bit of muscle memory. You can learn it with about a month of daily practice.

DJing has always been about selection, and crowd reading.

EDIT: if you're interested, everything you need to know about DJing is in this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-DJ-Properly-Science-Playing/dp/...

coreymaass• 10 years ago

DJing has always been about selection, and crowd reading.

Splitting hairs, but there's an assumption there that you're trying to react to the audience, often intending to please them. Coming from a background of DJ's playing "difficult" music, sometimes the audience's reaction is incidental.

JonnieCache2• 10 years ago

How difficult are we talking? Breakcore? Free jazz? Sound art?

I reckon the trick is in pacing the set and planning your first two or three records to keep most of them on board. If people have paid to get into the venue they must be at least a little predisposed to like what you're playing, and ideally you should be able to keep people dancing against their better nature.

Of course clearing the floor and then drawing them back in is always good too.

If you really don't care what they think then IMO it's perhaps more into the realm of performance than DJing. It's a tricky one.

sopooneo• 10 years ago

Then why not play a pre-recorded mix?

hopfog2• 10 years ago

[never mind]

ejr635wynjw35• 10 years ago

I'm willing to wager it was terrible. This anecdote is not evidence against the practice required to DJ at a professional level, sorry.

stordoff• 10 years ago

I was taught to beatmatch on CDJs a few years ago. Going from having never touched a CDJ before to being able to beatmatch two (fairly straightforward) house tracks reasonably well if given enough time took about an hour. Learning the basics is fairly easy, but that doesn't make you a DJ.

crucialfelix• 10 years ago

Well I'm not disagreeing with you, but "learning chord progressions on a guitar" isn't that hard either. But that doesn't mean you are as good as The Ramones. So I don't think the article is making an incorrect statement.

Both that and beat syncing are basic prerequisites and the real journey takes years to master and most of it isn't technical per se.

source: I can beat sync in about 6 seconds flat. 2s if it's techno or house.

kyriakos• 10 years ago

Beat matching becomes natural after a while, its like riding a bicycle or driving a car - you hardly think about it. A lot of DJs do play a pre-set mix. They pre arrange the tracks they will play but make changes as they go along.

I used to DJ myself and when I was playing on a residency I hardly prepared, I just had CDs with the latest tracks burned and carried around all my past CDs along. Then i'd continue where the previous DJ left off and depending on crowd reaction plan the next couple of tracks. Gave me a chance to experiment, and see crowd reaction to the newer tracks - if something put the crowd off, i'd discard it. In a club it's sometimes a good idea to give a chance to people to visit the bar etc (some DJs from eastern european countries I talked to said the club owners demand this!) As you get to know your music you know what 2-3 tracks match nicely together - this is what you gain from experience but new music is constantly released so you need to evolve with it. At the time when I quit, more tracks were being released every day than you could listen in a day - it became a full time job picking tracks to buy. On the other hand when I got invited to play to a larger crowd usually outdoors, I took more care of what I was going to play and had in mind in advance how the set would work.

kowdermeister2• 10 years ago

Can't bypass the paywall, but let me guess:

- It used to be the handmade art of a few select dedicated people, who were very underground - then it became more and more diluted as technology got better and better - first it was CD-s, then now MP3-s - clubs are not the same as before - now all you have to do is press the sync button and call yourself a DJ - it lost it's value, because those "oldschool" DJ-s were so dedicated that it became art

Whether my outline is correct or not, DJ-ing was never about technology or better put, it was never about fighting with technology. Because let's admit, mixing one track's tempo to another's is just the side effect of dealing with vinyl. I can beatmatch perfectly and put on a horrible set.

I think being a good DJ is not about technology, it's transforming the vibe on the dance floor from one state to another. The DJ is a pure function (for the FP folks). It's more about knowing your tracks, your audience and having an artistic integrity. Who cares if I use a software to help me be more creative?

miloshadzic2• 10 years ago

Can't really be a pure function if it's changing state

kowdermeister2• 10 years ago

I've read a different definition :)

hellofunk• 10 years ago

Ridiculous question, if you ask me. Everyone has access to pen and paper, so does that mean anyone can be a novelist? Or even wants to?

epa• 10 years ago

Maybe - but the same argument can be made for photography. In my opinion when you have more people engaging in something the bell curve tends to expand, with outlier individuals having natural talent and abilities at the highest ends being uncovered. This is similar to sports, where the genetically gifted can only be found if they participate.

gadders• 10 years ago

"art form"

jungletek• 10 years ago

Feel free to argue why you think it's not an art form, otherwise your snarky opinion is of little value other than to highlight the likelihood of you being both ignorant (of the topic) and closed-minded (in general).

_Marak_• 10 years ago

Disagree.

First off, we now have Controllerism ( see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controllerism ).

Controllerism can be vastly more complex than Turntablism, requiring custom software and several input controllers.

Second off, digging for digital tracks is just as hard ( if not harder ) then it use to be digging for vinyl tracks. There is so much new digital music available coming out everday, that being able to dig out a good not-very-well-known track is like finding a needle in the haystack.

Are some DJs simplying hit play on a Top 40 tracklist in Traktor? Sure. Does that mean the art form is dead or doesn't have room for vast improvement? Not at all.

shams93• 10 years ago

Exactly right much harder than DJing every was. Effectively you're a one man band and knowing the skills of both a drummer and a pianist can help. You really need to have great music chops and knowledge to be a great controllerist. But here in Los Angeles there is no love for controllerism we need an outlet for this amazing art form, here people are still obsessed with vinyl but controllerism elevates the art form far past what is even possible with vinyl.

arximboldi• 10 years ago

In fact. Although on some genres, digital is still very disregarded. This happens a lot here in Berlin, specially on the techno scene. I can understand how for non-techies digital is somewhat alienating---vinyl is more sensorial and helps having a more intimate relationship with the music.

However, I find that as a developer for me digital is less alienating. I play with Mixxx, a libre DJ software, and I have dug in the guts of its code... its digital wires feel intimate to me. I have also built a framework for scripting it [1] and tweak or rebuild the scripts for a specific event. Analog is for me more rigid and limiting.

I expect that as coding becomes more common in the general population, digital will be perceived less and less alienating and the current elitism around vinyl will fade...

[1] https://github.com/arximboldi/mixco

vorotato2• 10 years ago

Even if anyone could be a DJ, which is doubtful, not everyone can be a good DJ, and certainly even more so some people would be better more creative dj's.

andyidsinga• 10 years ago

The title itself implies a kind of answer. If you boil the question down to art: "anyone" has been able to do art for a very long time, and art is not dead. So, for any particular art form the same might be true.

Seem to me when more people participate in an art form, the art form will evolve and become more diverse.

tnecniv• 10 years ago

If you boil the question down to art: "anyone" has been able to do art for a very long time, and art is not dead.

No, but it can change. Centuries ago, there was a certain magnificence to seeing a famous work of art. Reprinting was difficult and there was no internet. Now, I can load up everything in the Louvre on my laptop.

The growth of DJs post digitalization is not necessarily good or bad, but it does change the experience.

Theodores• 10 years ago

DJ-ing with decks has died. DJ-ing lives on. 1210s are no longer made and although there is plenty of vinyl out there, it is not the same. Not the same? You cannot buy new stuff on a constant basis, you don't have friends that only know vinyl and times have moved on from the 90's. People have got older.

Incidentally CD came along earlier than the article states, standard equipment from the early 90's with lots of beatmatching gizmos.

DJ-ing was an analog skill. Original early dance music was analog production of digital instruments.

Kids today are using digital technology for the whole chain of music creation including DJ-ing.

lostgame• 10 years ago

> You cannot buy new stuff on a constant basis

Uh, yes I can. Play de Record, where I live here in Toronto alone would have more than enough to satisfy my lust for both brand new releases... I have 'Views' by Drake, I have 'To Pimp a Butterfly' by Kendrick Lamar, I have 'A Moon Shaped Pool' by Radiohead...I haven't been able to find a new release that I have lusted after for I haven't been able to get...not to mention the scores of breaks and house/techno I'm able to score that would be hard to find online...

> you don't have friends that only know vinyl

Again, not true at all. Not 'only' vinyl, but a lot of our friends are really getting into it and don't consider a lot of other stuff, especially in conversation.

Vinyl has made a huge resurgence in the last 5-10 years. Our band is looking at pressing ourselves. <3

ntaenta• 10 years ago

'Views' by Drake, I have 'To Pimp a Butterfly' by Kendrick Lamar, I have 'A Moon Shaped Pool' by Radiohead

These are some of the most popular musicians on earth though, not surprising that you can still find their music available in physical stores.

sneak• 10 years ago

DJ-ing with decks has died.

This is not an accurate statement.

znpy• 10 years ago

My guess is that now that anyone can be a DJ, true "art" is not dead, is just a lot more diluted.

thatswrong0• 10 years ago

Definitely not. So much more is possible with DJing now that you don't need to swing vinyl or beatmatch.. and it's still easy to tell the difference between an okay DJ and a great one. I'll paste some words from one of my favorite DJs:

And its sad, if your sport was showing off how wonderfully you can beat match, because that has really become obsolete. Although i can beat match as instantaneously as the next DJ, i don’t give an at’s rasss about doing it and making people watch me do it. I’m rather much more interested in creating and collecting awesome sounds, and layering, combining and broadcasting them as a means to conjur up an energetically cathartic experience for other humans.

More details: http://www.bassnectar.net/2012/06/pushing-buttons-or-pushing...

jwatte• 10 years ago

Now that everyone can buy paint and canvas, are the visual arts dead?

antoniuschan99• 10 years ago

The article is pretty spot on, except for the title.

DJs today are a combination of DJ and Producer. The article doesn't mention it but a lot of DJs outsource that job to 'ghost producers'.

It also seems that some groups work together in that sense too. One focuses more on Djing and the other on Producing.

Compared to Vinyl, CDJs and Controllers such as Traktor give you more freedom to manipulate the sound. With Vinyl, I've always felt limited to the sound compared to a traditional instrument. With Traktor I have more ways to manipulate the sound.

DJing has always been using technology to transcend the medium. I don't understand the argument with Digital vs. Analog. The fact that people don't have to carry crates full of songs anymore is because of Digital.

dvtv75• 10 years ago

A few years back, I was out with some friends - one's a drummer. We were sitting there, in a nightclub, drinking our way through the evening when the DJ mixed tracks with different rhythms and time signatures. The one thing that sticks in my mind about it was his physical shudder as it happened.

Now that anyone can be a DJ, is the art form dead?

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