Are DJs really musos?

[John Ed Kelly]

I put this as a reply to a ''DJ'' video posting in the ''Humor'' section.
*******************************************************************
I don't get it!

Something not plugged in apparently?

What is DJing all about anyway? When I was a young sprout I listened to commercial radio and the person who played the records on air was called a ''DJ", a disc jockey, that is.

Unless I am missing something here, a DJ is someone who plays records(made by other people) in public.

For some reason unknown to me, many of them now put out albums...........of what exactly?

I'm displaying my age...of course

[Ben Elder]

Those who can, do; those who can't, remix. (--Me)

(A lot of Northern Hemispherians like myself may no comprende exactement ... "musos.")

[Barry Blackwood]

Are DJs really musos?

Funny video. Back in the '90's I perceived most of them I encountered as talentless carpetbaggers, cashing in on the latest nightclub fad to the detriment of live musicians everywhere.

[Bill McCloskey]

I'm hardly an expert but the "art" of the turntable does require skill and musical sensibilities. The modern DJ, unlike people who just spin disks when I was growing up, really create the mood in the room: things like blending BPM, knowing when to bring the room up for people to dance and get thirsty, and mixing in a lower BPM when you want to send the dancers back to the bar for more drinks. They also realized that they could use the turntable itself to repeat dancing grooves, as well as using it to create percussion sounds via scratching and other techniques:

so yes, I would put them in the category of musicians

[Joachim Kettner]

They work the night shift. And amphetamines and other drugs are involved to keep them awake : at least that's what I heard.

[Brad Bechtel]

Based on the Urban Dictionary definition of "muso" I'd say yes, they are.

[John Ed Kelly]

Brad wrote: ''Based on the Urban Dictionary definition of "muso" I'd say yes, they are.''

I suppose that if you take any of those as a definition of ''muso'' you'd be correct.

Perhaps I should have spelled the word as ''musician'' and not the Australian used abbreviation of ''muso''.

Looking at my ''Australian Oxford Dictionary'' though, a musician is described as ''a person who plays a musical instrument, especially professionally, or is otherwise musically gifted"

It also defines a musical instrument as ''a device for producing musical sounds by vibration, wind, percussion etc.''

Two words of the first definition - ''plays'' and ''musical'' are relevant, a DJ ''plays'' a turntable, it's an instrument but is it a ''musical'' instrument?

I'll accept that probably, some DJs are ''musically gifted'', but does that make them a musician, purely because they spin records? I guess that an intuitive one will be able to discern their patrons' mood and offer appropriate music and in addition, some of them (just like an entertaining comedian - say) will have a rapport with the audience. This is all good, but I fail to see where it makes them musicians.

My final point is that of DJs making albums. What is this all about? I have asked a number of people over the years and have not received a satisfactory answer.

How exactly, are these albums constructed? What exactly is in them? Is there any original content and do these DJs actually use a ''musical'' instrument (see above), at any point in the process, whilst compiling these works?

PS. The little money I have made in my time, has been by playing clarinet in a jazz band (My SG is still a work in progress) but my colleagues and I have found that along with the jazz decline - that many punters these days prefer to hire a DJ for that pub job or wedding or whatever. There's NO sour grapes with me, I should add, I'll go with the times, but let's call a spade a spade and a musician a musician.

[Bill McCloskey]

"I guess that an intuitive one will be able to discern their patrons' mood and offer appropriate music and in addition, some of them (just like an entertaining comedian - say) will have a rapport with the audience. "

Don't you wish most musicians could do that.

As far as musical vibration, all music is vibration. Is a piano any less of an instrument because I hit keys that in turn hit strings that in turn make music rather than my trumpet where it is my very lips providing the vibration? The DJ is dealing with the vibrations of a particular record, like notes in a scale, molding it into an artistic presentation. Sounds like music and musicians to me.

[Bill McCloskey]

Only a musician would have this many terms: http://djworkshops.wordpress.com/how-to ... -of-terms/

[Ulrich Sinn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LlrIuHmCto

[Bill McCloskey]

Actually...how could I forget. I saw a dj play the Jazzfest in New York a few years ago: DEFINITELY A MUSICIAN!

[Bill McCloskey]

I guess the best thing to do is post some examples as per Ulrich

Randomly found on google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dOi_4Gebnc

This one is pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfY5s8SXcg0

[Bill McCloskey]

That second clip I posted is DJ Jazzy Jeff. If you stay with it to the end, he does some pretty amazing stuff considering all he has is a drum machine and two records. I think if you think this is music, it's music. I think its music.

[Mike Neer]

I listen to a good amount of Electronica, or more specifically IDM. I would say Squarepusher is an amazing musician (even if he wasn't such a great bassist), and so is Amon Tobin, William Orbit, Howie B and μ-Ziq and quite a few others.

[Brad Bechtel]

Here's the Invisibl Skratch Piklz from their final performance at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in 2000.

Here's DJ Kid Koala remixing "Moon River" live earlier this year at Stern Grove in San Francisco.

I think it's music.

[Donny Hinson]

Here's DJ Kid Koala remixing "Moon River" live earlier this year at Stern Grove in San Francisco.

I think it's music.

I think it was music before he screwed it up with the whoop-whoop crap and balloon noises. Remixes are to music like graffiti is to a subway train...mindless destruction, labeled as "expression", done just to get attention.

[John Ed Kelly]

Donny Hinson wrote: ''I think it was music before he screwed it up with the whoop-whoop crap and balloon noises. Muttering Remixes are to music like graffiti is to a subway train...mindless destruction, labeled as "expression", done just to get attention.''
***************************************************************************
I just re-visited this post and found some more comments, including the above.

I have to say that I agree pretty much, with Donny's observations.

I reckon anyone with a computer and a couple of turntables, can bugger up any tune they want. Did Kid Koala (not an Aussie hopefully) bugger up Moon River? That's for you to decide - I've made my mind up, as can probably be seen.

The other thing is, of course, permission from the original artist to remix, what was I believe, a reasonably tuneful version of M.R. Are royalties due to someone? The original performer, the song writer, the publisher, or someone else?

If Kid Koala is a musician, why did he not just record his own version of M.R. and add the superfluous effects at the time? Perhaps he can't sing, or play an instrument?

A set of disco equipment does not make a musician.

[Edward Rhea]

Musicians? I don't know...they're definitely competing with bands/acts and playing music! I like to think of'em as a "sound man"...we've all admired a sound man!

[Rick Campbell]

DANCING, DANCING, DANCING....... it's all about the dancing. DJ's, in the definition of a guy that takes his music collection and PA system out to play for the public, cater to dancers. Someone having a dance can pay $300 for an average band, or get a real good DJ for $50. The dancers enjoy the DJ more than a live band because he plays a broader variety of music and has all the top 40 stuff. There's a few exceptions, like the dance clubs in TX that prefer real traditional country.

That's why I prefer to play concerts where people are there to hear the music, and can appreciate and listen to the words of a good country ballad. Unfortunately, these are becoming fewer and fewer.

As for talent, I expect DJ's, like musicians, doctors, mechanics, pilots, accountants, and any other pursuit of activity or profession, come in a variety of quality ranging from bad to good and all in between. A good one knows how to please the crowd and especially the person writing the check. Like anything else, if you're going to be one, try to be a good one.

Growing up a DJ was a person that worked at the radio station and played records. He was also a news reporter, weatherman, trading post announcer, and often sold advertising when he was not on the air. Let's don't forget that a lot of our country legends like Bill Anderson, Waylon Jennings, etc... we're DJs before they became country stars. Nowadays I think they call them "radio personalities".

RC

[Charlie McDonald]

Only a musician would have this many terms: http://djworkshops.wordpress.com/how-to ... -of-terms/

One of those terms:

Bass – The lower end of the Frequency range you can normally control on a dj mixer.

[Ian Rae]

You can denigrate DJs as parasites, or acknowledge that to do their job well they need some musical sensibility.

But they are not musicians because they do not perform (or write) music. Indeed they are anti-musicians, because while they are working, musicians aren't.

Hope this clears everything up, John Ed.

[Barry Blackwood]

A set of disco equipment does not make a musician.

I concur.