DJs - performance artists or musicians?

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-- DJs - performance artists or musicians?

Posted by holycow24 on Jul-05-2003 06:09:

DJs - performance artists or musicians?

I went to Bowery Ballroom last night (thurs night) to see Mr. Scruff with a few friends, one of whom absolutely adores Mr. Scruff. I was talking to him about DJs and he said that he considers a DJ a performance artist, not a musician. I can kind of see why he would think that, but I'm not sure that I agree with him.

I was wondering what you think?

Posted by pyro264jb on Jul-05-2003 06:23:

Who is Mr Scruff?

~ hes wrong

Posted by holycow24 on Jul-05-2003 06:34:

Mr. Scruff (www.mrscruff.com) is a DJ i'd never heard of before last week, and he spins jazz/hip hop/fusion.

anyway my friend is the one who considers DJs performance artists, not mr. scruff. sorry for the unclearness... i'm a little lethargic at the moment.

Posted by sym on Jul-05-2003 06:46:

My opinion may be biased, but I consider DJ's to be musicians. This is why.

DJs create moods by playing certain songs. Track selection along with the correct beatmatching and timing and knowing what to play allow to DJ to control the crowd. Sure a DJ isn't actually making the songs up there, but he is creating a mood with them. Another fact is that songs that aren't so good by themselves can be amazing when the correct DJ plays them right. I believe in alot of cases, the DJ makes the song work or not. In this genre especially, I consider a DJ a musician.

Posted by dj tek on Jul-05-2003 07:02:

quote:
Originally posted by sym
My opinion may be biased, but I consider DJ's to be musicians. This is why.

DJs create moods by playing certain songs. Track selection along with the correct beatmatching and timing and knowing what to play allow to DJ to control the crowd. Sure a DJ isn't actually making the songs up there, but he is creating a mood with them. Another fact is that songs that aren't so good by themselves can be amazing when the correct DJ plays them right. I believe in alot of cases, the DJ makes the song work or not. In this genre especially, I consider a DJ a musician.

Agrees to the fullest mothafucking extent

Posted by Victor Dinaire on Jul-05-2003 07:17:

To me, a Dj is both

Posted by Christopher B on Jul-05-2003 11:43:

quote:
Originally posted by Dinaire Force 1
To me, a Dj is both

Agreed. To quote a book I read on the subject, a DJ is actually what one might call a metamusician. In other words, they take different forms of already existing music, and by blending it into their set as a cohesive whole, a new kind of music is created.

A DJ is a performing artist on more than one level. First, mixing two songs together takes skill, and in itself is definitely an art. Next, by playing these tunes in a certain order, knowhing which track fits when, and getting the crowd stimulated is another art entirely.

That being said, one could still say perhaps that a DJ is indeed not in fact a "true" musician. However, as far as I'm concerned, any DJ that produces/remixes/writes songs in any way is definitely a musician.

Sorry if I sound like I'm repeating what has already been said. I guess great minds think alike after all.

Posted by vtec junkie on Jul-05-2003 15:21:

not every dj can be considered a musician. think about your every day dj jam that plays cd's that skip every 10 seconds at your local bar. theres a breaking point in a djs career when he/she becomes a true musician. did anybody know that BT is one of the few artist that has a md in music?

Posted by pumavisor808 on Jul-05-2003 18:14:

A few weeks ago I saw infusion live @ Centro.. One of my friends who is not into dance music at all was with me... She was amazed that all they do up there on stage is "push buttons on a computer" She was like 'there not really making music, just hitting buttons and the computer is doing it for them.'

The majority of people just don't get it. They think that a guitarist who spend his life practicing is a musician, but if you've devoted your life to electronic music, then that's not really music...

Posted by holycow24 on Jul-05-2003 18:59:

quote:
Originally posted by vtec junkie
not every dj can be considered a musician. think about your every day dj jam that plays cd's that skip every 10 seconds at your local bar. theres a breaking point in a djs career when he/she becomes a true musician. did anybody know that BT is one of the few artist that has a md in music?

Well, I think in a sense that DJ is still a musician. It's the same as with any other instrument - there are good and bad musicians. This DJ would be a bad musician.

Posted by vtec junkie on Jul-05-2003 19:11:

quote:
Originally posted by holycow24
Well, I think in a sense that DJ is still a musician. It's the same as with any other instrument - there are good and bad musicians. This DJ would be a bad musician.

yeah i can see where your coming from.

Posted by bia on Jul-06-2003 02:58:

quote:
Originally posted by Christopher B
Agreed. To quote a book I read on the subject, a DJ is actually what one might call a metamusician. In other words, they take different forms of already existing music, and by blending it into their set as a cohesive whole, a new kind of music is created.

A DJ is a performing artist on more than one level. First, mixing two songs together takes skill, and in itself is definitely an art. Next, by playing these tunes in a certain order, knowhing which track fits when, and getting the crowd stimulated is another art entirely.

That being said, one could still say perhaps that a DJ is indeed not in fact a "true" musician. However, as far as I'm concerned, any DJ that produces/remixes/writes songs in any way is definitely a musician.

Sorry if I sound like I'm repeating what has already been said. I guess great minds think alike after all.

Absolutely.....

Posted by Vlad on Jul-06-2003 05:34:

Heres my arguement to this:

What do musicians do?
Musicians make music and play music. Some music that they play is already written for them also, so that takes a load off of that. When it comes to playing music live, everything is pre-organized and setup, especially the order of the songs.

What does a DJ do?
DJ's make music, play music, or do both. And when the music is made, they also sometimes have the songs already templated, i.e. When classical songs are used as templates. When DJ's play music its all about how the crowd feels, and this means what is played is ALWAYS subject to change, not only that, whatever is playing is constantly being altered with f/x, pitch change, EQ's, sound enhancers, etc...

If you ask me, a DJ is just as big a musician as anyone else in this world. They might not do the world touring things like band and groups, but when it comes to the music.. they are equal.

Posted by MezzicanTrancEr on Jul-07-2003 19:47:

IMO - all dj's are musicians, some are ALSO performing artists...