ok let me make things a little clear with my winamp comment. Let me warn you that I start with one idea and end up with something different, as I wrote this by adding on factors and slowly changing the final opinion throughout the post.
To quote Dzokayi's post (which is what my reply was directed towards):
In the end, I stand by this viewpoint: If you can rock the house, you can rock the house.
Now, if people dance to a 60 minute MP3 and I press the play button and go grab a drink, did I rock the house? No. That is what I meant to address by asking, "why are you there?"
See spinning in my opinion is giving, from one human to another. I'm pretty new school I admit, and my ideal mix is this: make people go CRAZY!
I made them go crazy. Not some mp3 or CDJs doing the work. I give them my voice in musical form.
A DJ is two things, skills and aesthetics. To say that you can have a banging party with an 100% accurate beatmatching CDJ (lets say it exists for this example) then why bother having the DJ at all? The "message" should be as pure as possible, which is why I truly respect live PAs a lot. I rather talk to you with my own voice rather than a vocal synthesizer like what Steven Hawking uses. If I know the DJ is doing nothing but picking tracks then I would tell him to get the hell off stage. Better yet I rather stay home load up a
pre-mixed CD and have the same effect musically.
There was an event in New England where only bedroom DJs were the ones allowed to spin. One kid tossed in a mix CD and faked the whole thing and got BOOED. I think him cheating a reputation is one thing but it is also insincere to the crowd. It's not his voice, or his message.
If you think rocking the house can fall under the "winamp jockey" category you're not rocking the house, the winamp is. They hear the winamp's voice (although they might never know).
What does this have to do with CDJs or digital?
Well there is talk about auto beatmatching and stuff. In my opinion, the less you do behind the decks, the less of a musician you are. I don't consider DJs much of musicians but that is for another discussion. What I mean is that if you load up a cd and press a few buttons then crossfade over, what the hell are you doing? Ok, you're picking the right tracks but its close to premixing a CD then playing it. Real musicians remix on the spot (Richie Hawtin, anyone?) or offer something that is there "voice" or "message." So even if you spend 0.1 seconds getting the tracks beatmatched, if you put effort into something else (messing with a groove box, for example) then you are offering the dancers something from
you.
Maybe I take this music thing too seriously, I keep telling myself that. Well let me finish with this. High tech is not killing the art of spinning. Davybean from the Florida Underground Resistance wrote, "our scene, as our music, is based on an ever changing dynamic." So maybe "spinning" will change, because it really means "music voice" or "musical message." Change into what? Who knows. There are a lot of creative minds out there. I'm hoping I am one of them. I'm working REALLY hard to get my skills up to where I want them. If technology allows, I will use the auto beatmatch function, and use my skills to talk with the people with something else other than the crossfader and EQs.
Be creative, use anything, GO WILD! Go out there and rock the crowd with your musical voice, tell them your message.
Stay away from playing mix CDs in the club as far as possible.
