• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

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
Status
Not open for further replies.
#362
Fergie Fulton said:
I know it is complicated, and i know it is speculative, but i also no that a DJ is not a musician, they are a DJ, they have a description.
Click to expand...

That's just silly title worship on your part then. I can just as easily say you're a bass player, not a musician- you have a description. When Herbie Hancock lists the musicians on his CDs he lists his DJs there. Good thing you know more about music than Herbie Hancock, right? ;)

Oh, and this:

Fergie Fulton said:
take away their access to others music and they have nothing to offer.
Click to expand...

Is nonsense that you're just making up. You can bend pitch and change rhythm with DJ tools. You can simply start with a single note and create any piece of music in the world. Just because they most DJs choose to incorporate other people's music does not mean they have to, nor does it mean they're not musicians. Just like how following a 12-bar blues bassline that's been played a million times before doesn't mean a blues bassist isn't a musician. Just like how following sheet music they didn't write note for note does not mean that an orchestral musician is not a musician.

At least mellowinman was honest in his reply- he's stuck in his ways and doesn't want to open his mind. Most everyone else on the "non-musician" side is trying to come up with all sorts of strawman arguments and non-sequiturs. People should just say they don't like it and don't want to call it real music, just like how half of the people two generations back made the same assertions and false claims about rock and roll.
 
#365
Is someone who specializes in mosaics or collages an artist? It's obviously different from painting or sculpting, but is it art?

A DJ that's mixing and scratching on two turntables and working a slider in perfect time live is, indeed, a musician, IMO. At least as much as any percussionist. He's not just putting records on or pushing buttons.
 
#367
Turock said:
I've seen similar polls on other websites. The results are always the same; overwhelmingly no, not a musician. It's getting close to 3 to 1 on this site.
Click to expand...

Awesome. That certainly proves....what exactly? You'd probably find even better odds on Justin Beiber being a better musician than Joe Pass going by internet polls.
 
#369
If the original question were phrased differently . . . perhaps, "Can a DJ be a musician," I could more readily understand a "yes" answer. But that's not the question. The question is, "Is a DJ a musician"; and anybody honest would have to answer, "Not necessarily so."
 
#370
My initial reaction was to vote "no," but after a bit more thought I went for "yes."

Of course, I agree with all the people who say that the DJs who simply queue up records in a club or at a party are not musicians.

On the other hand, there are artists like Mr Scruff, Beardyman, and countless others who can make interesting enjoyable music by sequencing samples. Unless you're interested in the technical side, I don't think it makes for a very interesting live show - but then if you ask me, neither does an evening with Dreamtheater.

I think the reason for my gut instinct to say "no," was the DJs who seemed to spring up in the late '90s/early '00s who just seemed to be hangers-on to a lot of the nu-metal fad. Not wishing to offend the fans, but groups like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, etc., seemed to come equipped with a DJ who, in my opinion, added nothing to the music.

So perhaps the reason for this negative opinion is that most of these DJs haven't worked out how to do it particularly well. Or, they've been shoe-horned into a rock band where they don't really get to be anything more than a bit of novelty to add that naff scratchy sound.

The Grazzhoppa Big Band that a few of our Belgian members have mentioned seem like a good example of how to do it well, even it wasn't to my tastes, and it's artists like that who make me think there is space for a form of musicianship in some DJing, even if it's in quite an unconventional sense.
 
#371
Bryan R. Tyler said:
Awesome. That certainly proves....what exactly? You'd probably find even better odds on Justin Beiber being a better musician than Joe Pass going by internet polls.
Click to expand...

Well it proves what you argue, that a definition cannot be the label others want it to be. If the polls say Justin is a better musician then that is the fact that he is in peoples eyes the better musician, the same as some people that see a DJ as a musician in their eyes.......if Justin is not better the Joe, then maybe a DJ is not a musician. ;)
 
#372
Turock said:
Yeah, but you won't find those Beiber/Pass results on musician websites like I was referring to.
Click to expand...

No, but you'll find a lot of close-minded folks stuck in their ways. We can't even run this site without having multiple rules forbidding people from bashing 5-string basses because it was such a problem for so long that people couldn't tolerate an extra string on a bass. Go to classical music forums and you'll probably find plenty of folks who think what you're doing isn't real music- probably most of them thought that just a few decades ago.

And how many of these polls did you look at from electronic, hip hop, DJ, etc. forums that you're stating the results of? Not many I'd assume...
 
#375
What would you call a group of vagrants who form a drum circle with sticks and buckets? Musicians? I wouldn't. And I would consider the creation of their music from scratch more "musical" than mixing, scratching or whatever, 2 pieces of work that have already been created.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back