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As someone who DJ'd on a whim for a few years to pay some bills in college, I think that takes away from the thrust of it. In other fields we expect the lumina

As someone who DJ'd on a whim for a few years to pay some bills in college, I think that takes away from the thrust of it. In other fields we expect the luminaries of a craft to have achieved that level with some significant effort/insight/accomplishments, and I don't know about you, but 6 months is NOT enough time to truly master a craft. (I say as someone who has spent multiple decades spent in multiple instruments, physical crafts and otherwise, and still find myself a joke next to real experts, and would not attempt to pass myself off as such) I would say the "luck factor" plays more a role in djing than it does in many other fields (most performance fields are similar in this way), which would be fine if it were acknowleged, but there does seem to be some deifying of the DJs, and many who I interacted with seemed to, as we put it in tech, drink the koolaid a bit too much. Like the author I got tons of praise for my sets when I would occasionally have thrown together whatever bullshit I had been listening to the day of in an hour before I went onstage, and I felt like a bit of a sham for that; I would certainly not try to pull similar shit in my professional career and I think that's quite telling. I take the article as a request to "See through the smoke and mirrors" and as a shitty DJ I'd definitely echo that sentiment. There are some amazing producers out there who get little to no credit, because they haven't gotten critical mass necessary to start passing themselves off as DJ-famous despite putting a huge amount of effort into making some damn good music. I'd be the first to nod to a "Well life isn't fair" statement, but thus the article, and my emphasizing that it's for us to see each performer for what it is and not lessen the accomplishments of either group for the other; but to me that requires being able to distinguish what each performer is and is not.

kristofferR 10y ago
I find it really weird that the unique openness, positivity and lack of pretentiousness among EDM fans/dancers is being perceived as something negative. I instead find it hugely refreshing - EDM is all about going with the blissful flow and feeling/sharing in positive emotions with the people around you. As long as the music contributes to a great vibe it's fantastic music as far as I'm concerned, I don't care one bit about if you spent an hour or a year creating the song. I spend way too much of my regular life being analytical (heh..) and thinking instead of enjoying, and I really don't understand why it's so popular among music fans to always look for the flaws in everything instead of finding the beauty. I understand that as a someone who has seen through the smoke and mirrors it may be tempting to clear the smoke. But I came because of the smoke machine, and when I look back I'll remember the warm feeling of empathy, fun and joy seemingly flowing through the hazy air - not about how much time or effort the DJ spent on the tunes. That doesn't make me stupid or ignorant, I'd argue it makes me the opposite. https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-ravers-became-new-flower-children https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-r...
- morsch 10y ago
  I like your attitude. It doesn't matter if the DJ's job is easy or not, as long as people are happy with it. I don't think that's a widespread idea though: people think making a DJ set takes both enormous talent and loads of work. I think it's because we react in such an emotional way to the music, that it'd seem odd if just about anybody could manipulate us in this way. And people pretend as if the work required to perform music had some kind of inherent value: if it took you half a lifetime to learn, it must be good, and vice versa. Plus, fandom is both familiar and entertaining. That said, I'm not sure pretentiousness is that rare in either EDM fans or DJs: https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64 https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64
- Uhhrrr 10y ago
  Musicians and more sophisticated listeners see simple music as boring and vapid, not blissful. Liking it doesn't make you stupid, but it may well mean you're ignorant. I would bet the likes of Tiesto will be much less interesting to you in a few years' time.
  - noobiemcfoob 10y ago
    Throwing Tiesto out there as "simple", "boring", and "vapid" is exactly the same. I'd ask you to apply your own argument to his music. You don't get to compose for the Olympics while being a simple hack.
  - ThrustVectoring 10y ago
    Uhh, it varies, really. There's music that's simple because the musicians don't know how to be make interesting music, and then there's music that's simple because that's the musically correct thing to do and the musicians have the confidence to be like "no, we're not playing all the notes and doing all the things right now". There's layers of sophistication. Sometimes becoming a better musician means learning to put more into a song, and sometimes it means less. A good example of this: Ahmad Jamal, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, particularly the section 50 seconds in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA More mainstream is the drumming in "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.

kristofferR 10y ago

I find it really weird that the unique openness, positivity and lack of pretentiousness among EDM fans/dancers is being perceived as something negative. I instead find it hugely refreshing - EDM is all about going with the blissful flow and feeling/sharing in positive emotions with the people around you. As long as the music contributes to a great vibe it's fantastic music as far as I'm concerned, I don't care one bit about if you spent an hour or a year creating the song. I spend way too much of my regular life being analytical (heh..) and thinking instead of enjoying, and I really don't understand why it's so popular among music fans to always look for the flaws in everything instead of finding the beauty. I understand that as a someone who has seen through the smoke and mirrors it may be tempting to clear the smoke. But I came because of the smoke machine, and when I look back I'll remember the warm feeling of empathy, fun and joy seemingly flowing through the hazy air - not about how much time or effort the DJ spent on the tunes. That doesn't make me stupid or ignorant, I'd argue it makes me the opposite. https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-ravers-became-new-flower-children https://newrepublic.com/article/118854/edm-and-hippies-how-r...

morsch 10y ago
I like your attitude. It doesn't matter if the DJ's job is easy or not, as long as people are happy with it. I don't think that's a widespread idea though: people think making a DJ set takes both enormous talent and loads of work. I think it's because we react in such an emotional way to the music, that it'd seem odd if just about anybody could manipulate us in this way. And people pretend as if the work required to perform music had some kind of inherent value: if it took you half a lifetime to learn, it must be good, and vice versa. Plus, fandom is both familiar and entertaining. That said, I'm not sure pretentiousness is that rare in either EDM fans or DJs: https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64 https://youtu.be/hOj0E_ryI2U?t=64
Uhhrrr 10y ago
Musicians and more sophisticated listeners see simple music as boring and vapid, not blissful. Liking it doesn't make you stupid, but it may well mean you're ignorant. I would bet the likes of Tiesto will be much less interesting to you in a few years' time.
- noobiemcfoob 10y ago
  Throwing Tiesto out there as "simple", "boring", and "vapid" is exactly the same. I'd ask you to apply your own argument to his music. You don't get to compose for the Olympics while being a simple hack.
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  Uhh, it varies, really. There's music that's simple because the musicians don't know how to be make interesting music, and then there's music that's simple because that's the musically correct thing to do and the musicians have the confidence to be like "no, we're not playing all the notes and doing all the things right now". There's layers of sophistication. Sometimes becoming a better musician means learning to put more into a song, and sometimes it means less. A good example of this: Ahmad Jamal, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, particularly the section 50 seconds in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7PDwzY9LA More mainstream is the drumming in "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.