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-- Who should get the most credit, the producer, or the dj?
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| Originally posted by Ishkur All music production can be broken down into 3 principle facets: The Songwriter. The Producer. The Performer. Up until the 60s, very rarely was one person all three. In classical parlance, the Songwriter was the composer, putting annotated music on paper, the Producer was the Conductor, completing the Songwriter's vision through symphony, and the performer was the orchestra, playing the actual music live. It wasn't until the rush of self-contained "bands" in the 60s who wrote, produced and performed all their own music (bands had existed long before this, but the Beatles were the first ones who really brought the idea to the forefront) that people began to think of them as one and the same, but in most pop music, those distinctions still exist. Consider, for instance, the hit pop song "Hit Me Baby One More Time". This would be categorized as: Songwriter(s) == J�rgen Elofsson, David Krueger, Per Magnusson and Max Martin Producer == Max Martin Performer == Britney Spears Max Martin is the brainchild behind other acts as well, including Backstreet Boys, Nsync and much of Christina Aguilera's early output, which is why their music sounds so similar. Say what you want about the music, you can't ignore his knack for a good pop hook since he seems to do it so effortlessly. Now, Britney may be the most famous member of this partnership, but only because she is the faceplate, the image to sell the music to the public. She isn't the marketer, per se; she is the product itself. But she in no way makes the most money out of all of them. Martin's been in the industry for 20 years, and long after she's become a joke of a VH1 special, he'll have moved on to create the next pop sensation. So he doesn't care that he doesn't have millions of adorating fans. In fact, he likes it that way. Puppetmasters don't want fame and attention. They just want money and power. And he has tons of it. Sometimes the songwriter is also the performer, but need help from a producer to make their songs professional. Such was the pact between Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones to create the biggest selling album of all time: Thriller. Now, in electronic music's case, typically the Producer and Songwriter are one and the same, since music production these days has literally fused with music creation (in the old days, you wrote the song first, then you recorded it. Today, most producers aren't musically educated enough to write music or even conceptualize complete songs in their head, and thus quite often write the songs as they record them, making it up as they go and do whatever sounds right to them). Who is the performer? ...why, the DJ of course. So thus, you have, for example, this dichotomy: Songwriter: Matt Darey, Red Jerry Producer: Lost Tribe/Westbam Performer: Paul Oakenfold Obviously the weird system of electronic music production management and promotion is completely at odds with the ordinary world of album-oriented marketing, but the people making the jump from the pop world to the EDM one don't know that. Thus, they really do see Oakenfold as a Britney Spears. And thus, they really do see Wizards of the Sonic or Gamemaster as Oakenfold tracks...not that he made them, but that he owns them. That they are his signature, his calling card, and that only he can play them and no other DJ can, because they're HIS tracks. HIS records that he always plays at his "shows". For any other DJ to play these records would be seen as almost blasphemous, on par with Nsync singing a Backstreet Boys song (although, sure, bands play cover tunes all the time, but not generally their direct competition). And like Britney, the DJ gets all the fame. But unlike the pop system, again the EDM scene shows its bizzaro world behavior in nullifying the success the Producer deserves. The DJ gets the fame AND the money. It has, in recent, years, forced producers to come out of the woodwork to start DJing more since that is where the money is. They make even more money when they come out and spin just their own productions, becoming 1.5 hour commercials for their own music, like mobile sales teams (Gabriel & Dresden and Above & Beyond are the biggest culprits of this). So what must be done with this? .....simple: We must educate all the newbs. You can start by getting this Tshirt:  |
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| Originally posted by Demoted I really don't see the problem with djs whoring their own productions in their own sets as you pointed out Above & Beyond and Gabriel & Dresden doing. I know there was a thread made yesterday concerning this. I think it's perfectly fine to play your own tracks in your own sets rather than everyone else's. |
dj or the producer?
the producer deserves all the credit, I can mix.
I agree with Ishkur...
Every DJ inspires to be producer one day.
I guess that answeres everything.
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| Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Now now, we all know we can only blame idiots who can't name their mp3's correctly for that. |
I often wonder this as I am learning to produce Dance and trance - one of the guys I am in contact with remixed one of my tracks into a prodigy style and it sounded fantastic - even though it was my original idea he made the track his own and has been getting some good reviews regarding it.
Should he get a pat on the back? yes he should...it certainly increased interest in some of my tracks....
As for the main DJ's I often wonder do they play live or is there a PC hidden on stage somewhere?
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| Originally posted by Xtatica I often wonder this as I am learning to produce Dance and trance - one of the guys I am in contact with remixed one of my tracks into a prodigy style and it sounded fantastic - even though it was my original idea he made the track his own and has been getting some good reviews regarding it. Should he get a pat on the back? yes he should...it certainly increased interest in some of my tracks.... |
Thanks System-J - I get it now -
and there is no embarassed smiley available....
Definately agree with Ish's post.
The thing with electronic music is, there is no performer. The music is played by machines. All there is is composition and production. But for some reason people still need to praise a performer (probably a leftover from pop culture), so they have a DJ to fill in that blank.
what came first? The chicken or the egg?
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| Originally posted by Aquarian Definately agree with Ish's post. The thing with electronic music is, there is no performer. The music is played by machines. All there is is composition and production. But for some reason people still need to praise a performer (probably a leftover from pop culture), so they have a DJ to fill in that blank. |
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| Originally posted by SYSTEM-J There are loads of live dance acts. I mentioned Faithless, here are a couple more: The Prodigy Chemical Brothers Kosheen Way Out West Audio Bullys Juno Reactor London Elektricity Moby Mylo Daft Punk The Orb Underworld Lunatic Calm (split?) Orbital (now split) Leftfield (now split) And they're just big-name acts off the top of my head. There are countless smaller name dance acts that play live, and most of the big guns have figured out how to go on the road. |
+ K90 and Lab 4
Exactly. There's an endless list.
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| Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Lunatic Calm (split?) |
Meh, I thought "Metropol" was a bit rubbish anyway.
And I mentioned Faithless in a totally different thread. Heh.
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