Millions of Transfixed watch the spinning record

Is this happening in America too? I always thought this kind of thing was popular in England because any sort of specialised skill (or separation of audience from performer) is seen as hierarchical and non-egalitarian, thus not OK from the class-warfare viewpoint that has a stranglehold on everything here.

you used to be able to go to the theatre and watch people spinning plates. that was more difficult because you had to balance the plates on sticks, wheras the spinning records are supported by a rubber mat.

They do?

It's fun to watch people spin when people are cyphering, or if the DJ is particularly animated (I've seen people but brass plates on their Technics and ride them. THAT'S cool) but other than that, dud.

I think it would be funny to rig it so that there is a turntable UNDER the dj and have THAT start spinnning! Hhahah!!! He'd be like "WHat the!" Everyone would laugh!

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to my attention that today's youth spents a lot of its time at so-called discotheques, where so-called DJ's do nothing more than put on records. Although it may be something of a misnomer to call these things records, because if you call that "music" than I'm the Duke of Roxbury! Where are the tunes, the harmonies, the simple songs of yore? I have been told that this so-called music is a mixture of Negroe and Teutonic influences. Surely a combination to strike fear in the heart of any God-fearing Christian. I have heard tales of young maidens drinking lemonade at these events that are spiked with gin when they don't pay attention. No wonder they all smile when these DJ-fellows do their silly tricks. I say we desperatley need a war to give today's youth something worthwhile to live for. These are dark times we are living in.

kind regards,

Dr. R.Ockist-Fool

Does it trouble anyone that in olden days people paid to show up in droves and watch someone twat abt with a guitar?

'Does it trouble anyone that in olden days people paid to show up in droves and watch someone twat abt with a guitar?'
I assume most of these people didn't have guitars at home, whereas most of them do have stereos, that they can play stuff on. Unless they're like my parents, who can't figure out how to work the stereo. Now if THEY paid to see somebody else work a hi-fi I could understand it, almost.

Nobody here is actually saying that, Omar. Very cute post, though, I must admit.

if it weren't for djs i'd never have been able to have danced to energy flash, some justice, stardancer, afghan acid or hallogallo in a club with loads of other people enjoying themselves etc

forgive me if i'm wrong, but i didn't think that anyone was criticising dance music, or suggesting that guitar based music was in some way more worthy.

what was being commented on was the elevation of the dj from someone who plays records in a club to someone who is a touring headlining attraction in their own right. this seems something worthy of comment.

btw those guys who spin plates, they keep as many as ten plates spinning at once. those guys who spin records don't seem to be able to get beyond two, i know i can't.

What I find interesting is the way in which the DJ was supposed to be anonymous = "he is the same as us" has changed in reality, yet to some extent the discourse remains the same. Moreso for claims that club music = "underground". To me, clearly, club/dance/whetever=k- mainstream, perhaps THE mainstream pop music form, yet the discourse is still that club music is some whispered, word of mouth, bubbling up from subculture thing. It isn't. This isn't a criticism of dance music, so please don't take it as such. However, whenever I hear the DJ I'm working w/ refer to some "Underground" dance music hit, I wince, and have to bite my tongue. Ultimate example of this = felix whassisname from basement jaxx on the rubbish jo whiley show, claming to be "underground". He who had just been on fron cover of famen underground publication "The Face", among meny others. Again, not a crit ov music (Basement Jaxx = ok-ish fair-to-middling IMO) but a k- annoying, + un-necessary BS hype thing IMO.

xoxo

Honestly from a musicians' perspective , if we only have to play our records to perform, that sure makes life easier!

What about watching someone "play' a laptop?

Point I was trying to make is that it prob. takes as much skill/stagecraft/practice/inspiration/talent to put together a good DJ set as it does to learn the geetar - ever tried 'mixing on the beat', Mike or tarden, 'cos I can assure you it's harder than it looks. And when it comes to scratch DJs, outfits like the Invisble Skratch Pikles are just as much virtuosos of their 'instrument' as any longhair bent over his amp.

Not a word of a lie. I saw this in a pub on Saturday night. Guy was behind a desk, playing music....from a Sony Viao. Who says rural North Yorkshire is behind the times.

Isn't the question phrased wrong, though? I thought you go to big events to dance, not watch.

In the latest Voice Simon Reynolds points out that some clubs like Body and Soul have actually got away from beatmixing and are mainly playing records back- to-back, in a move towards the "authenticity" of old clubs like Paradise Garage and the Loft. Common wisdom has it that the old school DJs like Larry Levan "respected the music" so much that they didn't want to mix the tracks. Personally I suspect this explanation is disingenuous, but it does create a less professionalized atmosphere - like hey, loosen up, we're just putting on records here.

I am chuffed that the photo accompanying Simon's article is from Frank's Lounge, a 10 minute walk from my place in Bklyn and my absolute favorite Friday nite hangout.

I wonder if DJ'ing ever had it's roots in hostessing? Can't remember the book or film, but in it - the heroine spins disks at a gentlemen's club and acts as entertainment.

What is even more interesting are the DJ-cam's online - I actually find them more lively and into the music than club DJ's who try to initiate their force-field of cool-n-distant.

In the 1880s and 1890s it was fashionable to believe that to watch the orchestra performing detracted from your understanding of and involvement in the music. You paid yer money, took yer seat, and sat watching a SCREEN which the ORK played BEHIND!!

Most keyb-based bands are far more boring to watch than many DJs. If more bands mimed to their own records, I would go out to watch music more.

I dont really care if someone uses prerecourded tracks in performance or even if they just play prerecourded tracks. But it seems weird to me when my littel brother shows me pics of huge crowds just watching Paul Oakenfailed spin records. You shoul read the transcrpits from some trance forums. People treat trance like its soul music or something. They get so into it!

Peaches is playing at Coney Island soon and she "plays" the sequencer by: RUSHING the keypads, each button-press an epic SWOOP of her arm, symbolism like a magician or king-fu master impressing his opponent, a kinetic rock compensation for solid-state stasis.

Oval was kind of like that when I saw him live, it was mostly him prancing around majestically and occasionally pushing buttons.

Pan Sonic have so far been the most interesting non-band based performers for me to watch, because they had a really cool projection screen hooked up to a spectrum analyzer, so you could watch the waveforms as they did their set. It looked cool, and it was probably about as tough to set up as configuring your WinAmp to show Geiss plugins.

Yeah that's the latest craze in the electronic noise camp, I've seen Ikeda and Casten Nicolai use the same sort of projections. As is it virtually impossible to dance to this stuff it's a nice distraction (Pan Sonic btw best live band ever).

Stand around watching the DJ = 0,1% of the crowd, those silly little trainspotting boys standing around the booth/decks. The rest is having a great time dancing. Some indeed feel this is...soul music.

People treat trance like its soul music or something. They get so into it!

is this bad? i'm not a fan of trance (or, for that matter soul) but there's an condescending implication here i'm not entirely comfortable with.

anyway, larry levan-joey beltram-mickey finn-dj ss-jeff mills- masterstepz. surely, as djs, these would, in their own various heydays, have brought something that you couldn't get anywhere else, and would have been worth paying for?

I'm not condescending , I'm just observing in awe. Its hard fo r me to relate.