DJs in the XXI Century

This pretty much sums it up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b-VvAkH8xE

You have to realize that if Paris Hilton is a DJ it can't be that hard anymore.

On a more serious note, I used to DJ in the 90s/early 2000s both with CDs and turntables, not professionally, just for fun,  and I can say that any art in DJing is now completely lost. There are still some real hardcore DJs out there, but 99% are not.

I recently heard the following from a modern DJ: "its not about skill anymore its about selecting the right textures", whatever that means...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVDkwqm-Zcs

The music business hardly is about music anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Vn9V-tRCo

scott2000 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVDkwqm-Zcs

Click to expand...

Thanks for the smile!
/turning up the bass/

Hello

I recently start to watch a "DJ set" on a -highend french/german kultur TV- (which start with a A and end with a E  ;D )
After 3 min and a hard bandpass filter at the whole mix without any pot turned I get suspicious.... After 5 min when the "performer"
remove a vinyl at one of the turntable, walk and dance 3 steps with the vinyl in hand and put it again on the same turnatable, I feel something wrong....
I backward 10 sec and effectively the "performer" not even bother to flip and change the side of this vinyl  :

It was the end of me watching this.

Best
Zam

… And not only about "Fake" DJ …

found a thread on a famous forum about a so famous " electronic  music band duo " …
that place a large setup of many electronic music instruments on the stage , with also a large live analog mixing console, outboard fxs, etc.. ,

but seem that from more than 20 years the entire show is pre recorded on 2 digital audio track
played from F.O.H.  location or Stage Monitoring ,

also for have a right  time link sync with the lights effects show…

and the "duo"  pretend to operate on the instruments  , the consoles , etc…  (    &  :'(  )

and several in the discussion insisted that they are musicians…
musicians ? 

but if all they do is press buttons and turn knobs…. ,
are knobs and buttons musical instruments ?  :

considering that they only play their own music ,
why they do not play the show  with  4 - 6 CDJ setup and the various "add ons" ….
(as also they do in some set…)

why place on the stage setup a Juno 106 if nobody play it , not even acting on the cutoff...

and it seems that it is not much different on the mega electronic music festivals ,
where each playlist  is predefined well in advance ,
for give the time to light show designers and special fxs to build the best light show possible
with right sync on the music ……. 

….many years ago (before CDJ age.. ) an old friend who worked as a DJ in the 80'
told me that apart the taste in selecting , combining the songs, and the playlist progression ,
the DJ's skill is in improvising…


peace

Fake DJ's  (oxymoron?).

Back in 1978 I sold a DJ mixer kit, through my kit company.

I had multiple customers buy them as a cheap ways to get their club set up and operating, then figured out that it didn't suck and kept using it.

One IMO clever feature in that old DJ mixer kit was a selectable automatic cue in the headphone monitor section. By subtracting the turntable that was turned up, from a simple sum of both turntables, the turntable not playing automatically shows up in the headphone monitor at full strength for cuing up crossfades or scratching.

JR 

There are still some really talented DJs who have perfected their trade, but they are a minority. Even my old beer buddies are now DJs  ;D

What about festivals? As long as people realize they are paying to watch a guy dance in front of a computer, then I guess it is ok.

r2d2 said:

but if all they do is press buttons and turn knobs…. ,
are knobs and buttons musical instruments ?  :

Click to expand...

I once heard that a musician is someone who can still make music even if the electricity goes out.

user 37518 said:

I once heard that a musician is someone who can still make music even if the electricity goes out.

Click to expand...

+1.. some of the best jams were in the hotel bar after tearing down the booth.

IIRC there was a piano in the Anaheim hotel bar, but I recall one memorable solo played on a toy plastic guitar by a real "musician". The clinicians hired to work the trade  shows always had above average chops, but some were even better than that.

JR

I wanted to try my hand at DJ-ing.... once.  Mostly because I figured I had a decent name,  'Custodians of Technology'.

This was before the Com Truse, Farrison Hord dj-memes became popular.

user 37518 said:

......
On a more serious note, I used to DJ in the 90s/early 2000s both with CDs and turntables, not professionally, just for fun, and I can say that any art in DJing is now completely lost. .......

Click to expand...

..not only in the Djing ,
but also in playing music , composing music , & co.
... unfortunately : I

the " typewriters " are spreading ... thanks also to the MPC pads data entry interface..,

nothing against to the MPC , probably still the best hardware sequencer fro live performances ,
and as well as a very good sampler , "son" of the Legendary S900,S950,
the S1000 and the "abused" S1100 , main protagonist of thousands of songs produced in the 90 age..

but please don't blaspheme by saying it's a different way of playing music
because in fact it is not !!

it is not playing a piano ,keyboard , guitar , bass , drums , strings , brass , etc...

it is only typewriting !!
(... and unfortunately the resulting level can be felt...)

cheers

Kids today.... back in my day we had to walk 3 miles to school, up hill both ways.

JR

Technology can be a real problem by boosting untalented people and slowly eroding quality. It's horribly fascinating how TV shows and probably even novels get written today with the help of screenwriting software, using predefined suspense curves, mixing in tropes, regurgitating other people's creativity to produce the most eclectic stories in history - again and again.