Original Message                 Date: 31-Mar-00  @  04:38 AM   -   Why do people DJ live?

nickdej

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Why is it that when electronic music is played live that people use records? Wouldnt it make more sense to use a keyboard? Could somebody please explain this to me

Thanks

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Message 31/51                 Date: 24-Apr-00  @  10:37 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

ModAsBlue

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Heh...

"FAKIN THE FUNK"

I like that...

I'm a really CRAPPY bass player. Like, I could play well enough to be in some shite ass hardcore or punk band but nothing else. No funk, jazz, jam rock...nothing that actually takes

FUNK (in the more abstract meaning...as in "fakin the funk")

anyway

on the SASHA tip...well, he put out a CD recently (OF HIS OWN STUFF) and I've HEARD it's not bad but I haven't actually HEARD IT...so....

But I do like the differentiation between PRODUCER and MUSICIAN...

I'm definitely a PRODUCER... I MAKE/PRODUCE MUSIC but I would only loosely call myself a musician. As much as I think shit like STOMP is obnoxious as fuck and boring and mainstream...they can drum the fuck out of me, so they're one up on me...

Give them an MPC and they would still probably rip me to shreads...I just have to hope that my own sense of COOL is better. I make no pretentions about attempting crazy-phat Aphex Twin style innovation...I am after the groove only. I seek only to make bad-ass dance tracks. Hopefully I'm advancing quick enough to get some records out before

THIS VERSION OF DISCO

dies out...but as it's lasted over 10 years, maybe it won't die out... I'm not after fame or fortune...I'd just like to make a living at doing what I love (PRODUCING) music and hopefully someone will connect with a track that I make...although I don't aim for crazy fat innovation, I DO aim for INTELLIGENT dance music that somehow express some abstract emotion...maybe someone out there will get it the same way that I do...but I'll never know...



(POINT OF TANGENT: a defense of PRODUCERS who are not bad-ass musicians. Maybe you can play Nocturnes...I can't. But with the help of technology, I can transcend my slow hands...isn't music all in the HEAD, anyway?)


SINCERELY!

ModAsBlue

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Message 32/51                 Date: 26-Apr-00  @  03:51 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

MuhA

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Heh...
Well, I don't claim to be a musician... I can play a few jazzy tunes on the piano, I have my small home studio, I have a bunch of DJ friends who keep asking me when I'm either going to play live, or press a record for them to play... I'm also part of a production company, that throws parties in order to provide a place to have fun for us and as many other open minded kids that we can get our hands on... any of the money we make is simply given away, or reinvested in bigger and better parties. Basically, I started raving, I saw the "scene"... this attention based hedonistic cult which (at least where I am) seemed a bit like high school...
I had been listening to electronic music, in one form or another for a few years by the time I started "raving", and after getting sucked in at first, I took a step back, and said...
WAIT A MINUTE!!! WHATS IT ALL ABOUT??? WHY AM I DOING THIS???
to which (after much contemplation) the only answer I could come up with was, and still is:
--==FUN==--

Now, I've blown a couple grand on music equipment, I kinda skipped the whole DJ'ing bit (figgured I'd pick it up along the way, if I wanted to) and now I spend all my free time at home in the studio messing around..
and ya know what... I couldn't care less if I actually do get published, or get hired to do a live act
because.... I've decided, I'm in it for FUN, screw labels (DJ thisn'that), I don't even have a name for myself, so I just told them to put a question mark on the flyer.
No matter what you do (DJ/Produce/Masturbate)... just know why you are doing it... if you are doing it solely for fame, or fortune, well I hope you do well, if you are doing it in order to get girls, well I hope you get em', but remember.. don't loose site of your goals...
It doesn't matter what you do, just do it to the best of your ability, and try to have FUN doing it, as a life without FUN, is (in my opinion) no life at all.

Sorry about the rant, but for some reason I enjoy (FUN) sharing my opinion on this sort of thing.

Best wishes,
MuhA

By the way... note to DJ's, etc... One of the coolest guys I've met has been DJ Brian (High Desert Trance) who I chatted with for quite a while... a candyraver that I knew came up to us while we were chatting, and goes:
"Oh HI!!! You must be DJ Brian!!"
He looked at her, and said
"Uhh, yeah, whats your name?"
she said: "Tracy!"
He said "Well, uhh, nice to meet you DJ Tracy"

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Message 33/51                 Date: 16-May-00  @  09:11 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

Breakerbox

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The whole music scene wont roll without the dj's...
But they cant do with the musicians, so they depend on us. It s like cars, if there was no oil the cars wouldnt roll... Dj's are nothing without records to spin, musicians sre the source... Dj's are not musicians...
they are simply overrated, I met couple of them in Seattle and IMHO they are self-centered- ego-tastical dicks ( at least the ones i met). I cant understand how playing prerecorded stuff makes you so cooler then producing music (that happened to me couple of time, people ask me if i dj, i say no, i make music, and they are like ok, c ya later...).
People over here think it is the dj who plays the music...
I understand u nedd skills to spin but i see people spinning in a club 6 months after they started djing... it took me a year to figure out analogue sythesis i am still learning...
I am not talking about turntablists like Picklz or x-men it takes skillz to do that stuff.
Hope i explained myself....

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Message 34/51                 Date: 19-May-00  @  06:33 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

Pongoid

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JJ, son you need to do your homework. The victrola has been around for a lot longer than the electric bass guitar, so the newness of the device is not a factor. The turntable, and the synthesizer fulfill diffrerent functions as does the sampler. The turntable is only as much of an instrument as a pot or pan, when you're using it in an extremely creative fashion, and simply matching a beat and turning up the volume is just like changing the volumes on two steeos side by side. I'm not impressed and I refuse to give it the extreme validity and worship that feel is so fitting. Don't get me wrong. I love playing records, listening to other peopls' stuf, combining bit's and pieces to create different timbral and percussive textures. It's fun, but don't blow it out of proportion. It's still someone else's records. DUHHH!!!

Ape

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Message 35/51                 Date: 30-May-00  @  02:59 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

japanimation

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Ok people, this is actually a very simple debate, however your misconceptions seem to be that one style (i.e. DJ'ing, Composing) is better than the other. Now I know that this message won't stop the debate that is still likely to ensue in this forum but check this out. We're going to compare this to a completely different style of music so as not to set off any more debates that are off the topic. Take classical music. In classical music you have composers, and you have directors. There have been both famous directors and composers throughout the ages. Does one better than the other? No. The DJ is a director. He takes the music that has already been composed and molds it into his own form. If he wants to drop a part or add something new, that's his perogative. People go to watch these directors to see what they will do with the pieces. The composer is responsible for coming up with the music in the first place. He molds his ideas from nothingness into music. True, without the composer, there would be no music, but without the director, who would listen to it?

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Message 36/51                 Date: 30-May-00  @  05:47 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

damballah

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(actually it's conductor). so conductors are the lame ass superstars of the classical music world who get all the credit but are really just punk ass bitches. yes that clears it up for me really good now and all thank you very very much. i will be yelling "maestro" no more ever again. fuckin baton wavers.

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Message 37/51                 Date: 02-Jun-00  @  12:28 AM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

Grurly

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Dude you can do both I know of people who skratch there own shit Aphex and Mu-ziq do it. I believe in that capacity it can add to your muzic. Pretty fat too...

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Message 38/51                 Date: 02-Jun-00  @  07:39 AM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

Pongoid

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Yeah, sure, scratchin is cool, as is good cuttin, etc. but this bullshit about who would hear it? Jap, dude, you need to wake up and get your ass educated. i'm here in Europe right now, and there are some slammin parties with almost if not all live stuff going on, and the shit slams!! Don't go touting DJ's as 'needed' cuz they're not. People buy cd's and tapes, and there's a better profit margin in both than in vinyl. Don't get me wrong, I love spinning records too, but this idlolitry and worship shit has got to go. Most DJ's can't even keep up with what I do in the studio. I have to sample the scratches and then tighten it up, which is cool, but still something to think about when turntablists want to get 'I'm all that' about things. And by the way, most great conductors are composers as well, besides the fact that many of them have mastered several instruments, and gotten a decent grasp of the rest of the orchestra to boot. That's how you get to be a conductor. You don't just walk into a sheet music store and say 'I'll pick up the latest arrangement Chopin' and get your homies to bang it out. Drop that analogy cuz it doesn't work, and if it did, it doesn't apply.

Ape

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Message 39/51                 Date: 02-Jun-00  @  01:05 PM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

9735184

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Even if you were to push the DJ/conductor and producer/composer analogy, you would realise that what is involved in conducting is by far overshadowed by what is involved in composition. Has a conductor ever been assigned the status of genius like Mozart or Beethoven? No. Sure, without the conductor or musicians , you would not have any music, but we are talking about where credit is due, not what it takes to sustain a musical genre. Composition, regardless of genre, will always deserve the most credit since it is the most demanding. I am neither in any way denegrating highly talented DJ's/muscians/conductors who contribute significantly to music and to people's pleasure nor am I claiming that DJ/musicians/conductors are on the same level or in the same category, they do quite different things. A brilliant musician is hard to come by, but a brilliant composer is even rarer. Pongoid is right in that the composer/conductor distinction is not very clear cut plus, it is tough to compare what is involved with dance music with what is involved in classical. So leaving aside the Dj's that have serious skills and play their decks like an instrument (which is a VERY small proportion), DJ'ing involves sycing BPM's, having good taste, knowing what sits well in the mix/reading the vibe of the crowd. A producer also has to have good taste and know exactly what sits well in a mix and know what people like in advance of being in a club and having a direct link with the crowd. On top of this, a producer has to know how to program synths and beats and learn a whole load of technical jargon. Moreover, a DJ hardly 'moulds' a tune into something else. Crossfading a track in at the end of the previous one, (which is what MOST DJ's do), does not significantly alter the music. Most DJ's do not deserve the status that they have. I have even met people in clubs who think that the DJ made the tunes that he played in his set! I find it depressing the extent to which producers have not been recognised by the public.

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Message 40/51                 Date: 06-Jun-00  @  04:13 AM   -   RE: Why do people DJ live?

jj

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well yes, who could possibly espouse dj superstarism as a positive musical notion. My only concern is that musicians who use decks live, are lumped in with jimmy who just got a couple of 1200's cause he got a B average last semester. You'd be a fool to call jimmy anything but what he is (which I won't say) but I've seen insanely inspired musicians using decks, and it would be the worst possible travesty to deny them membership in your musician's club.


But how about your views on the evolution of thought from Duchamp -> Warhol -> Koonz, pongoid? Did any of those guys cross the art line for you, I'm wondering?

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