So as it’s now known that I have nothing to do, I was asked if I would like to dust off my turntables, sift through my 12 inches and add a mix tape to this very blog I'm now writing on. I did have a long hard think about doing this as I haven't recorded a session on the wheels of steel for ages, however in the end I decided against it. After listening to the other mixes on the blog from very talented people I decided I wouldn't have been able to face the laughter and jeering filling the comments boxes.
Not wanting to let a mate down I have instead decided to participate in another way, and after impressing the blog owner with my spelling and overuse of long words in the wrong context. I thought a small article (or bitter rant as I prefer) on how the very art and magic of mixing has changed within the dance scene. I felt this would be more appropriate, so here it is.
My love for dance music started many decades ago, well a few anyway (I’m not an old person but unfortunately I can’t class myself as young anymore). It was around 1994 that I started to take a serious note of dance music and when I first started making ‘Mix Tapes’. The old skool style of mix tape. Not a collection of songs skilfully put together via beat matching and perfect timing but solely via the use of a tape cassette recorder, a pause button and the radio. It was basically the start of music piracy and a lot better than the ‘Now That's What I Call Music’ compilations.
Recording a selection of songs from the Top 40 didn’t last long. Having a slightly older sister, I was then introduced to the essential mix. 2 hours of non stop electronic dance music brought to your bedroom/living room/garden by some of the best DJ’s in the world. I no longer had to use the pause button. But it was this weekly radio show that had planted the tiny seed in my mind of having my own turntables, which sat alongside a dream of being the best DJ in the world.
3 years later I was the proud owner of some Soundlab belt driven turntables. I was like a kid at Christmas (which would make sense as they were a Christmas present from my parents) and a total of 4 records of which to mix together. Having progressed in those last few years from just ‘House’ music I decided my music of choice was going to be good old Drum N Bass. Within twenty minutes of messing around I had realised that the professionals were indeed a talented bunch, and making two songs sound like one progressive track was a lot more difficult than first assumed. For the following months I became very familiar with the sound of herd of elephants in the middle of an active war zone. This is known as the Beat Clash.
Moving on four years and after a heap of practising and a set of Stanton turntables later, I was a competent DJ. I had confidence in the ability and power of my ears to match two songs together. With the speed and timing right, people could just continue to dance never knowing how that magic happened. I then finally became the proud owner of my Technics SL 1210s and my Allen & Heath mixer. In my bedroom I was king.
It wasn’t long after the new wheels arriving that I finally became a ‘professional DJ’ charging bars and clubs for my services and landing a few residences on the way. These were good years I would turn up with my heavy box of records, be given some free drinks, entertain the crowds with my live mixing get paid and go home. I did also notice though that whilst the majority of people would be happy to hear and just dance to the music, there was always others who would like to watch the DJ perform. They wanted to see the DJ at work, cueing up, working the mixer and swapping records. Just like I had used to. To people into the dance music scene Mixing is an art form.
Or rather, it used to be.
I haven’t DJ’d in a bar or club for around 5 years now but when I still go out (not that it’s a lot these days to be fair, being in hard times and all that) I still like to listen to the DJ’s and the music that they’re now playing (dubstep is trying to take over the world). The thing I find sad is that a lot of the places I now go don’t have a DJ any more. They have someone on a laptop. I know that technology is always evolving but it’s also taking away the talent and the personal aspect of it. I personally was never a fan of CD decks but they still worked in a similar way to vinyl, it still required a hand on approach and an ear for the music itself.
I know that I may open myself up for a bit of stick for this article but I just find the whole idea of DJing from a computer wrong. It defeats the purpose of you actually needing to be there to supply the personal touch a lot of people still want from a DJ.
It's just far too easy to get into it these days. The programs that you can use can beat match and sync almost anything together just at the touch of a button, all the ‘DJ’ has to do is download the latest tracks via itunes, an alternative online store or dare I say it, illegally. This can even be done half way through a set when the computer is doing all the 'mixing' for you.
The reason for this rant I suppose is that without listening to and seeing the Stars of the DJing world I would not have got into it myself. I fear that now when you go out and look over at the DJ box all you will see is the illuminated Apple logo on the back of a laptop and hear the same mix you hear everywhere else you go because a computer program has done it.
I just hope I’m wrong.
Well anyway I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest. I’m now off to download some torrents and have the computer make me a mixtape for my ipod.
Jay Lowry.
The Unemployment Diaries
Let us know what you think. Is DJing becoming a lost art or is it time we braced the technological DJ revolution?
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