2008 Woodie Awards
for the record
Emily Temple
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Arts
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I'm going to break a tenet of journalism right off the bat and start with a disclaimer: I am no disc jockey. Okay, yes, I DJ for WRMC, but that's not what I'm talking about. And yes, sure, at home I pick all the music for my friends and myself when we're sitting around my living room waiting for my mother to bring us apple slices and cheddar. I also demand the iPod on car rides, often to the dismay of my less musically adventurous friends whom I have relegated to the backseat. But I would never claim to be a party DJ - and neither should just anyone else who happens to have (dare I brag publicly) a stellar music collection and a love for the over-share. DJs who work parties have to actually learn how to DJ - it takes technique and skill that go far beyond knowing the new M.I.A album.
In today's music scene, DJs hold the questionable position of being performers and artists without actually creating their own product. Actually, that's not fair - they do make their own product, but a more appropriate word than 'create' might be 'build'. DJs - at least, good DJs - mix songs recorded by other artists in ways that can form a whole new sonic experience, or at least make for some really good dancing. In fact, the battle rages continuously between live bands and DJs - which is better for a party? Live music has traditionally been held on a pedestal, as it should be. There's a certain quality to live music that can't be captured by a recording. Maybe it's the uneven performance or the personality of the musicians, not to mention the elation at seeing a band you idolize live. But the world of late-nights, when all the kids want to do is dance, belongs to the DJs. Perhaps this is due to the versatility of sound that one DJ can spit out - no band can transition as rapidly from genre to genre and instrument to instrument as a DJ - or perhaps it has something to do with the crafted, do-it-yourself aesthetic so attractive these days.
But regardless, and unlike more traditional musicians, even if the DJ is mostly uncreative and unadventurous, if he can get the flow and the cross-fade right between songs he can produce not only a four-hour-long piece of coherent music, but also can spin a good time out of nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. But that's what makes a good DJ - someone with the ability to make the crowd dance.
In today's music scene, DJs hold the questionable position of being performers and artists without actually creating their own product. Actually, that's not fair - they do make their own product, but a more appropriate word than 'create' might be 'build'. DJs - at least, good DJs - mix songs recorded by other artists in ways that can form a whole new sonic experience, or at least make for some really good dancing. In fact, the battle rages continuously between live bands and DJs - which is better for a party? Live music has traditionally been held on a pedestal, as it should be. There's a certain quality to live music that can't be captured by a recording. Maybe it's the uneven performance or the personality of the musicians, not to mention the elation at seeing a band you idolize live. But the world of late-nights, when all the kids want to do is dance, belongs to the DJs. Perhaps this is due to the versatility of sound that one DJ can spit out - no band can transition as rapidly from genre to genre and instrument to instrument as a DJ - or perhaps it has something to do with the crafted, do-it-yourself aesthetic so attractive these days.
But regardless, and unlike more traditional musicians, even if the DJ is mostly uncreative and unadventurous, if he can get the flow and the cross-fade right between songs he can produce not only a four-hour-long piece of coherent music, but also can spin a good time out of nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. But that's what makes a good DJ - someone with the ability to make the crowd dance.
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