francesthemute

really interesting this topic….i can only run my thoughts and hope that something usefull comes out, let`s see:

for me there`s a difference between a musician and a dj. a musician creates music out of nowhere regardless if its a techno producer or a guitar player or a hornblower. on the contrary a dj plays music, mixes it together, but he always needs “music” for his art which has already been made/created. without music he could not do anything. one could argue that the whole hip hop music is also built up on a mixture between already existing music:soul-, jazz-, blues-samples and so on…. that`s true, but in hip hop music the samples or loops are only short cuts and pieces, which are put so `dense` (hope it`s the right word for what i mean) together, that they create a really unique character and drive. and a really good dj could do this too, but therefore he has to mix incredibly fast several different things together and bring them in a cohesive unique groove which stand on its own. the parts he mixes together should not be recognized obvious as already known things, they should be recognized from the listener as something new. i think that some hip hop djs could to something like that like kid koala or dj krush, but only because hip hop music is all about bits cuts and pieces. but when it comes to the dancefloor like for example house music or techno its a total different thing, it works different. i think its impossible to create something new, new music, only out of two synchronised tracks, even if you make some really good tricks, because the beat must go on to push the dancefloor, you can´t have break after break. you will have to add another deck or a fourth one, or maybe a roland tr-909 analogue drum machine like jeff mills did, to even get close to create out of existing music something totally new and unique. and therefore you must have incredible djing skills.

so here the result of my thoughts: if you are a dj and you want to be called a musician, you have to find a way to create new music out of the tracks which you play, means you have to create new rhythms, textures, sounds, vibes through mixing several “tracks” together. think like a producer/creator. in music production you have also several “tracks” which you lay over another. and if you want to have a unique sound/texture you have often to overlay differnt sounds or samples to get the result, but therefore you need several “tracks” in the music software like ableton or cubase. if you create a beat in an audio software you have to program and also overlay sounds to get the groove done. sometimes you need 20 audio tracks to get a techno tune done sometimes only 5. so when you compare this to a djs work: two decks mean two audio tracks, four decks mean 4 audio tracks and so on…..any producer who create music, regardless which music genre, will tell you that 4 audio tracks for creating a new piece of music is really little. and now think of the new wave of 4 deck controllers which arise only now. when you keep this thoughts in mind, it`s not difficult to understand why so many people think and argue that djs are no musicians.

but all that is only theory…in general: do music and don`t care about labels like dj or musician. cheers!