Sunday 17 February 2013

The DJ; The Reality TV Celeb of the music world?

I'm a little confused as a DJ.

I just saw an advert for a dance compilation "as mixed by (insert random DJ here)". The advertisement's focus appeared to be entirely about the *DJ*, not the musicians responsible for the music itself, without which this guy would just be a bloke standing in front of some shiny gadgets.

I've never got this concept in all the time I've been er, inserting a CD, pressing play and shoving another CD on while that one plays, with the end result of following the current song with one that is similar.
No really, that's it. No magic. No pyrotechnics. Just a bloke who can press the 'play' button on a CD player seemingly better than others according to some unknown quantification of opinions.

Now, granted, I do not beatmatch. I assume that there is some modicum of talent around making two tempos the same and blending one CD into the other. I imagine it's a real shitter to do it with vinyl. Call me cynical, but I imagine that the job is made a whole load easier if a laptop is involved. I could be wrong-I have never tried it.
I'm lucky; I need not bother myself with such shenanigans. Goth is expected to be this loose, fluid arrangement of emotions, rhythms and noise that has a beginning and an end that people recognise. I'm grateful for this of course because anyone who knows me knows that my grasp on timing is less than favourable-a NASA computer couldn't help me beatmatch. But I digress.

How on earth did we get to the point where DJs get as much, if not more famous than the musicians that put them there?

How is it that this guy whose name I've already forgotten, gets a higher billing on a Ministry of Shyte dance compilation advert than the people who made the oonzty-boom-boom-gerbil-voice stuff? I mean, it wasn't him who put in the hours & money required to make this music, which despite not being my cup of tea, mostly had artistic reasons behind its making?

Don't get me wrong; I quite like that people appreciate & compliment me on whatever the heck it is I'm doing every week on various stations. That sort of recognition has got me doing some incredible events & experiencing some even more incredible moments over the years. For all of that I am more than just a little grateful. But christ only knows, I'm realistic about it.

I'm extremely aware that it's the people who write & perform the music who really *make* the shows, not me. I'm just the grout between the tiles, mate. I'd be awfully uncomfortable if I was billed at the same level as the artists themselves for essentially doing a tiny fraction of the work they did at an event or by some weird quirk of fate, a goth compilation album.

Maybe I'm wrong about it all. But it just seems a bit...odd.

1 comment:

  1. I'm gonna call you grout from now on,

    Sincerely,

    Rock Cake

    ReplyDelete