A DJ Or Not A DJ? That Is The Question!

Ok so if you're not into dance music, DJ's and all of that palaver, you may want to move on now.  That said, everyone's entitled to an opinion and I'd love to hear yours so please read on and chuck us a comment.

The question really is when is a DJ not really a DJ?  Before all you producers and vinyl junkies start reaching for your laptop keyboards, let me just qualify a couple of things.
1.  This is not a rant against new technology or live production performers
2.  I do love vinyl but appreciate new tech makes the logistics of DJing much easier
3.  I am not opposed to creative DJing

Right, that's the basics out the way so, what's my point?  Well it's this… it seems there are a whole raft of new performers that bill themselves (or at least the promoters bill them as) DJ's but, are they really DJ's?  Now don't get me wrong these people are incredibly talented and there is no doubt that many of them put together incredible sets that keep dance floors moving weekend after weekend BUT, are they really DJ's?

Yes, they use other people's tracks to create their sets but, what they actually do is remix and produce on the fly more often than not twisting a track up until it is barely recognisable.  Again, don't get me wrong I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just that it's a different thing.  Different from DJing.
Maybe it's all subjective but, for me DJing has always been about sharing.  Sharing your love of the music you love to people who's love for the music you love, you  errrr love!  You see I've been playing music to other people since I was about 5 years old at my next door neighbours house parties (he was a Carnival King and used the parties to help raise money) and it's always been an exploration, using the music I love, and finding out what other people love and why? It's about finding out about artists and tracks, where the inspiration for those tracks come from and later chasing those elusive samples and finding originals.

Of course, eventually I taught myself to mix (given that dance music has always been my main passion) and as both experience and technology has improved, my mixes over the year have become more creative (at least that's the aim).  However, whilst I will use remixes, effects and the odd trick (either turntable or software) to create that story that my mix try's to convey, essentially I play as much of the track as I can so that people hear what I'm in to.  I'm proud to share with other people, promoting the artists that make the music, it's not about me at all really accept that the way I put the tracks together creates a journey for the crowd to experience.

If I'm twisting other people's tracks out of all recognition and producing on the fly, then I'm a performer a producer and the performance is about me not the tracks that I'm playing.  It becomes about how I transform what is heard and not how I share what is heard. For me that is not what being a DJ is about. Again I stress that performing like a live producer is not a bad thing, especially when done really well and I understand the setting of a club is often the right place for it too but, I suppose I'm being the ultimate pedant.  It simply isn't DJing and you shouldn't tell people that you are being a DJ when you do that.

It often is the case that these performers are also DJ's in the sense I describe above and can turn their hands to both and have every right to call themselves a DJ but, don't tell me you're DJing when you're a live remixer/producer/performer.

DJing is about other people's music and how you share it and if done well is far less about the self than most people realise.  I was reminded recently of just what a crucial role DJs can have on promoting tracks and artists, especially in the current climate of social media and sound sharing platforms.  Our job is to let people know what music excites us, who made that music and show why other people should listen to and buy that music.  A DJ's job is not to change music to the point that no-one knows what the hell you're playing, no matter how good it might sound!

Commence the abuse and arguments about proper DJs only use vinyl and all of that!

*Sean Hurley has been playing mainly dance music of various kinds to other people for a lot of years.  He now DJ's/presents under the name AudioSpyder for www.breaklondon.co.uk where he is also head of music and produces and remixes under the same name.  He uses vinyl and digital software with controller and is not interested in getting in a row about formats, even though this is probably an argument about formats at it's core.