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Is a DJ a musician

Is a DJ (as described in my opening post) a musician?

  • Yes a DJ is a musician

    Votes: 101 25.3%

  • Nope a DJ is not a musician but something else (post what he is)

    Votes: 250 62.5%

  • Carrots are good musicians. Carrots make good fretboard wood too!

    Votes: 49 12.3%
  • Total voters
    400
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#206
I voted "no"

"sampler/noisemaker/atmosphere engineer" is hugely different from Disc Jockey.

If sampler/noisemakers want any respect, they'll stop bringing themselves down to the level of dudes sitting on their thumbs at radio stations and dildos controlling an ipod at birthday parties and cheap weddings who occasionally give shout outs on a microphone and call themselves something other than DJ(whatever).
 
#208
A sculptor once told me that being a DJ is the same as being a musician. So I asked if I cut up statues and reassembled certain pieces into a collage would I be the same as a sculptor? To that she replied "No, of course not". So then I said "Now you know what I think of your statement".
 
#209
Anyone who mixes/samples other artists to create a new sounding song? Yes. Someone who plays albums and doesn't manipulate them? No. But granted, I have a lot of respect for people who can put together good mixes, as well as someone who can make a good playlist. It's not as easy as you'd think, including all the requests that go into it. I don't think these playlist DJs are musicians, but they do work with music.
 
#210
guitfiddle0409 said:
A sculptor once told me that being a DJ is the same as being a musician. So I asked if I cut up statues and reassembled certain pieces into a collage would I be the same as a sculptor? To that she replied "No, of course not". So then I said "Now you know what I think of your statement".
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't you be a sculptor? Maybe not a sculptor, but definitely an artist in my book. That's what a lot of people do who make steampunk art, as well as other fields that involve pre made artifacts. They are just rearranging things together. If you want to make that connection, that IS what art is, putting preexisting items together in a pattern or form.
 
#211
mcblahflooper94 said:
Why wouldn't you be a sculptor? Maybe not a sculptor, but definitely an artist in my book. That's what a lot of people do who make steampunk art, as well as other fields that involve pre made artifacts. They are just rearranging things together. If you want to make that connection, that IS what art is, putting preexisting items together in a pattern or form.
Click to expand...

You are correct. It is all art but in her case she got so doctrinaire about what music is when she didn't know what she was talking about. Because of that I enjoyed making her out to be a bit of a hypocrite.
 
#215
lfmn16 said:
Is a juke box a musician? If so, then a DJ is a musician.
Click to expand...

The error comes in assuming that anyone who calls themselves a DJ is only playing previously recorded albums and not creating new music.
Your answer is applicable if youre talking about a radio DJ, though not every DJ sets out to spin other peoples records.

guitfiddle0409 said:
A sculptor once told me that being a DJ is the same as being a musician. So I asked if I cut up statues and reassembled certain pieces into a collage would I be the same as a sculptor? To that she replied "No, of course not". So then I said "Now you know what I think of your statement".
Click to expand...

This makes sense only because a sculptor is a very narrowly defined term - one who sculpts. In this scenario you would not be a sculptor, but you would still be an artist - one who creates art.
Similarly, a musician would be defined as "one who creates music", yes?
While many DJs may just be spinning records (not a musician) there are plenty who do actually create music.


If youve never seen a DJ who creates their own music then its quite easy to make the case that a DJ is not a musician. Myself, having heard and enjoyed such music created by a DJ, well, I have to give credit where its due.
 
#216
MatticusMania said:
This makes sense only because a sculptor is a very narrowly defined term - one who sculpts. In this scenario you would not be a sculptor, but you would still be an artist - one who creates art.
Similarly, a musician would be defined as "one who creates music", yes?
While many DJs may just be spinning records (not a musician) there are plenty who do actually create music.


If youve never seen a DJ who creates their own music then its quite easy to make the case that a DJ is not a musician. Myself, having heard and enjoyed such music created by a DJ, well, I have to give credit where its due.
Click to expand...

With all due respect, I think that the DJ's who do create interesting music have a lot more at their disposal than just turntables. They usually incorporate beat boxes, analogue synthesizers, computer stored samples and the like. Those folks I would consider to be musicians in the broad sense of the term. For those that just use records with interesting fade ins and fade outs, we're getting back to the collage scenario which then goes back to my original argument.
 
#219
It doesn't matter what we call them. You guys can argue semantics all you want. The real tradegy is we could have taken them out easily years ago when we greatly outnumbered them. Now it wont be as easy but we can still do it.

The problem in the past has been the man turning us against one another. We have been unable to see the truth, because we have fighting for ten square feet of ground, our turf, our little piece of turf. That's crap, brothers! The turf is ours by right, because it's our turn. All we have to do is keep up the general truce. We take over one borough at a time. Secure our territory... secure our turf... because it's all our turf!

CAN YOU DIG IT!
 
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