Fluid Transmissions: The Mysterious DJ

Paul Oakenfold's back

The DJ. Perhaps there are fewer musical positions that cause more confusion and intrigue in music. In the last decade, the position has become more glamorous than a rock star and yet more misunderstood. What does a DJ do exactly?

I will tell you from my own experience. I started as a DJ when I was asked to provide music and entertainment at a church dance when I was 19. Up to that point, I had a serious CD collection and a musician friend of mine had a bunch of PA equipment and a couple of standard CD players. All we did was a simple cross-fade left to right and we made it work. We had It was a great deal of fun and I could tell people really enjoyed it. It was more of a mobile DJ gig, as I wasn't playing club music all night and I wasn't doing any beat matching. But it stuck with me. Even though I was around music a bunch growing up, and even though I had opportunities to learn the guitar from my father, I never felt a connection to that instrument like I did with a pair of turntables and a mixer.

Over the last several years, I have determined there are some misconceptions about what a DJ does and I will attempt to explain them.

#1 - DJ's are not real musicians

Brian Transeau, aka BT

This is partially true I have to admit. Your typical mobile/wedding DJ isn't working on his own material and writing his own songs and isn't honing his craft as an artist. However, I consider many DJ's as musicians in a non-traditional sense. Ask any accomplished guitarist or pianist out there how much practice and commitment is involved, and I will find you a DJ who had to do the same thing. The major difference with a DJ is instead of plucking cords and keys on a guitar or on a piano, they are orchestrating and creating music with existing recordings. The ultimate goal of any musician is to manipulate recorded sound and create music with it. However you do that, whether conventional or not, makes you a musician. Many of the most prominent DJ's in the world are also some of the most sought after music producers. Most of them are more technically musically trained than most traditional musicians. David Guetta, for example turned the Black Eyed Peas into a Hip-House act in the past couple of years. A decade ago Madonna enlisted the services of William Orbit to produce several of her most successful albums. Brian Transeau (aka BT) was trained at a nationally renowned music school and has produced several albums including the likes of *NSYNC (I feel dirty typing that into my keyboard, I promise it won't happen again).

#2 - Those songs played by a DJ in a club are all the original material of that DJ

There are exceptions to every rule, but for the majority of most DJ's this is not true. DJ stands for Disc Jockey, coming from the old days of radio stations that had a guy sitting in the studio playing records. They play other people's music. The DJ is a connoisseur of music and spends time finding the latest and greatest in music. He hears things in songs others don't, and enjoys finding the obscure yet timeless songs. What ends up happening is the uninformed fan of a particular DJ listens to a set performed at a concert or club and attributes a song he plays to that DJ, when in fact all he did ultimately was press play on the deck. It's not as easy as pressing play, but ultimately that's what you're doing.

#3 - All DJ's can do the same stuff/only one type of DJ

Not all DJ's are created equally or perform the same way or style. Often people see me behind my turntables and mixer and assume I'm going to scratch the heck out of a record. Others see me and are surprised to see a turntable (didn't they stop making records 25 years ago?) and then ask me to play that classic Steve Miller Band tune they listen to while drinking their beer. The type of DJ you are and style you play are a personal preference but they also depend on circumstance. Allow me to explain some of the different types of DJ's

DJ QBert

The Turntablist/Scratch DJ

This is probably the hardest and yet coolest type DJ in my opinion. Learning the art of scratching, cutting, and placing a needle on a record at the right place on the fly takes years to accomplish. I am admittedly terrible at this as I have not spent enough hours on this particular art form. Some phenomenal scratch DJ's are QBert, Mix Master Mike (of the Beastie Boys), Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow and Kid Koala. The Turntablist/Scratch DJ is going to perform much like you would see Eric Clapton on the guitar. Both have revolutionized the instrument they have mastered. I would classify the Hip Hop DJ in this category although they play more tracks than cut up an old record. They are hybrid of both the Club DJ and the Turntablist.

The Club DJ
This is where I fit in the most. Club DJ's are usually focused on one genre of dance music. They are the ultimate promoter. And if you can become one of the biggest promoters out there, your notoriety precedes you. Well-known DJ's of this variety are Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren and Deadmau5. Young producers, DJ's and small dance labels will send records and songs to these DJ's, or the DJ's themselves will hunt them out on their own. The key is when one of these DJ's likes and plays your song in his set, it can be a huge boost in your career. BT's career took off in the early 1990's when Paul Oakenfold got a hold of one of his early tracks. These DJ's are usually producers themselves as well, remixing tracks of other artists as well. It's all about promotion with the Club DJ.

The Mobile DJ
It's a cool Friday evening in July, you're at a wedding reception, Tim McGraw is piping through a pair of speakers while a bride and groom dance under a sparkling mirror ball. That moment was brought to you courtesy of a mobile DJ. Most DJ's start out doing this. DJ equipment is expensive and being a good mobile DJ can get you a lot of money. I have many friends and I personally do several of these a year. There is some skill involved with this. Knowing you crowd is the most important. Remember the Dr Pepper commercial when some DJ is playing sped up Trance music and Dr. Dre come in and puts the soda on the turntable to slow down the music? If you don't, there it is. It's crucial as a Mobile DJ to know your crowd and play to them, even if you don't like what you're playing. Great DJ's are masters of this.