Re: DJ's

["matt davignon" <mattdavignon@hotmail.com>]

Well, there seems to be 2 different groups of people who refer to 
themselves 
as DJ's.

One group will play techno records during their performance, and not 
really 
alter them too much other than making the beats match up between songs for 
a 
smooth transition. These are the guys who make "mix tapes". While doing 
these transitions is an interesting skill, I have a hard time referring to 
members of this group as musicians, since they're not really expressing 
any 
sort of creativity. They just seem to keep the flow going at disco clubs. 
Woo hoo.

The second group will actually use fragments from different recordings, 
maybe with the addition of a drum machine, to create original music. 
(Well, 
the level of 'originality' depends on the DJ.) This includes turntablists 
(like Q-Bert), and also people who use pre-programmed samples, loops and 
sequences of their own creation (like most of the DJ's mentioned on this 
thread). I have a lot more respect for these guys as musicians. At the 
same 
time, they have the ability to be good or crappy just like musicians in 
any 
other genre of music.

I'll admit, there is some grey area between the two. There are members of 
the second group who perform like the first group when they aren't 
composing, for example. It's the guys who are only within the first group 
though, that make me a little apprehensive about the word "DJ".

Matt
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