The de-evolution of live music.....yes a DJ is a musician Bobby

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An entertaining Cave thread of some 15 years ago was is a DJ a musician?

Back when it was two turntables ad a microphone it pretty much was a moot point...hell no!

But now with stuff like Ableton these one man superstars are making bank..

I ran into a NY DJ on a flight back from Amsterdam about 5 years ago but had a hard time rapping my head around the fact that someone had paid for this DJ to fly over to the EU to put on a concert...he eluded it was huge and was a great success...whatever

A few years later my nephew was building a half million dollar owl for some silly as "EDM" show...wtf?

Well I guess it is for real and this is what a large majority of the money spending youth are getting into...

I mean there are still regular old style musicians gigging but these DJ's are killing it with some major shows

Stumbled upon this one watching videos on livelist...he's got his gang jumpin...

 
Music is organised sound.

What we are used to is one or more people creating music by banging, scraping, plucking or blowing things made out of wood, metal and other materials.

In this way they are doing in an organised way what nature does randomly. But nature is not confined to creating sounds mechanically, and nor are humans. Lightning is nature's way of using electricity.

Humans can source, create and reproduce sounds electronically, and that too is a valid form of music: it is still organised sound. Being a DJ became an art form when they started using turntables as an instrument instead of solely as a means of playing a record. It's come a long way since then.
 
The thing I don't get is that slow left-right arm waving thing that everyone does in unison now days.

When they show one of the many live "___'looza" concerts...I've come to the conclusion that when I see the crowd start that arm wave thing, I'm usually not impressed with the band or song that's playing that caused the audience to do the arm wave thing. :p

And yeah...it's white hipster people in most cases.
 
So much of it has drifted into "sound design" territory...with small bits of actual songs mixed in there, but it seems that the typical party crowds that go to concerts featuring that style of music are what evolved out of the trance/dance craze...and yeah, lots of ecstasy. :)
 
Greg_L said:
Jam bands and EDM...to of the worst things ever combined as one.
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That's subjective. But it's pretty effing far from the Ramones so I can see why you'd say that. If you can't have fun at a Floozies show then you are too uptight. lol.
 
ez_willis said:
That's subjective. But it's pretty effing far from the Ramones so I can see why you'd say that. If you can't have fun at a Floozies show then you are too uptight. lol.
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I guess so. I've never been to a floozies show. It doesn't seem like something I'd be interested in.
 
Greg_L said:
I guess so. I've never been to a floozies show. It doesn't seem like something I'd be interested in.
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Didn't seem like something I'd be into either, honestly. They were at a music festival I go to twice a year and they absolutely killed it. I was completely blown away and it opened me up to at least experience bands outside of my comfort zone. It's made me like music again honestly. A lot of the bands at this particular festival do. Shit I would NEVER go see outside of this event. Dumpstaphunk headlined the Saturday May fest. Dirty ass New Orleans funk. Couple of Nevilles in there. Good shit. Sunsquabi headlined friday night. Saw them open for The Floozies in LA. They killed it.

One thing I will say is that this kind of music doesn't translate well to recordings, IMO. The energy doesn't come across at all, but at the shows, when there's thousands of people partying and shit, it works. Well.

---------- Update ----------

My stepdaughter has tried to get me to EDC for years. I'm too old. I need a festival I can nap at halfway through the event.
 
My view hasn't changed in 15 years. A DJ may well make music, they may well be expert with their manipulation of sound in ways I can't even contemplate, but unless they have designated this kind of equipment as a music instrument, then they don't play it, and therefore cannot be a musician - somebody who plays a music instrument. They can call themselves artistes if they wish, as they can do their stuff on stage in front of an audience. Until a Technics 1200 can be put into one of the musical instrument categories - a DJ isn't a musician. Maybe they can be called an arranger, producer and loads of other contemporary job titles, but one is excluded. One day, maybe the instrument categories will be expanded, but until then the DJ is on before or after the musicians.
 
I consider them....DJs. They're not musicians to me. They might be on some level, but what they do up on that stage in front of those huge crowds of white people is not musicianship. That's DJing. They're entertainers for sure.

I know some of them create their own music and sounds and samples and shit. That's being a musician. Just playing them for people from a laptop is not being a musician. That's being a DJ.
 
At the end of the day, we are all cavemen sitting around a campfire chanting and banging on stuff. That's what all music is, always has been, always will be. If banging on a turntable is what you do, bang away.
 
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