superstar dj's

Alfons

Alfons

Way of the future
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/when-djs-ruled-the-world-1643535.html

article seems a bit all over the place, but still think its a topic worth discussing. The changes in a dj's status took place relatively fast, 8-10s after the the early rave days where the raver was the star the dj has become a superstar. This superstar thing never really went away either did it? Guys like Tiesto still filling stadiums and so on? There's still superclubs around too, in london, ibiza and all over.

At least rock bands don't have dj's anymore, but could the rise and fall (in terms of public visibilty and popularity) of turntablism be connected to the rise of the superstar dj? Scratching and juggling being hard to do and to master and more importantly easy for the public to understand that its hard to master, that it requires practice and its easier to see the connection between what the dj is doing and the sound that is coming out. Where as a techno dj just looks like he's playing the same tune for hours and beatmatching isn't something everyone knows about.

Thoughts?
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Erol Alkan is the best big-roomer, imo. Shame there aren't more like him. (And even he's not that big.)
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
By 2002, Cream was pulling in only 500 punters a week and losing £50,000 a week. In July, they decided to stop running weekly nights.
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I remember everybody I knew who was a bit older than me in Liverpool moaning about how Cream had gone to shit and was full of obnoxious cokeheads. Voodoo, Bugged Out and Chibuku were the places to go.
 
T

tox

Factory Girl
I'm actually reading the book that the excerpt in the article is from. The writing is horrible (imagery like "Clubland was heating up like a giant frying pan" and "DJ-ing was a lottery, with the prize there for the taking" - eurrrgh) but the anecdotes very interesting. Tales of drugs, sex and music from the UK and beyond. The sums of money those guys were commanding is incredible. As you say, I'm unsure that the age of the superstar DJ is over, it's just shifted to a different aesthetic. I'm guessing the fees for Villalobos, Richie Hawtin, Luciano et al are up there with what Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Digweed were charging.

Having been mid-teens at the millennium it's been an intriguing read. It also makes me think we should have a thread for cringe-worthy writing about dance music.
 
E

elgato

I just dont know
tox said:
"Clubland was heating up like a giant frying pan"
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LOL!

that is jokes

i read an article about this book too, seems like bollocks really, the guy wrote for mixmag so the press were keen to point out his unquestionable position to know everything about dance music, but i dunno, the whole exercise seems pretty short-sighted and overly simplified.

its an interesting subject, but it annoys me how fixated people outside of dance get on the 'phenomenon' of superstar djs
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
tox said:
I'm unsure that the age of the superstar DJ is over, it's just shifted to a different aesthetic.
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So odd
 
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Alfons

Alfons

Way of the future
tox said:
I'm actually reading the book that the excerpt in the article is from. The writing is horrible (imagery like "Clubland was heating up like a giant frying pan" and "DJ-ing was a lottery, with the prize there for the taking" - eurrrgh) but the anecdotes very interesting. Tales of drugs, sex and music from the UK and beyond. The sums of money those guys were commanding is incredible. As you say, I'm unsure that the age of the superstar DJ is over, it's just shifted to a different aesthetic. I'm guessing the fees for Villalobos, Richie Hawtin, Luciano et al are up there with what Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Digweed were charging.
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In a way the UK has lost it's position as a leader? The biggest dj's in the world (and in the Uk) aren't from the uk anymore it would seem?

tox said:
Having been mid-teens at the millennium it's been an intriguing read. It also makes me think we should have a thread for cringe-worthy writing about dance music.
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do it!
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
hint said:
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<embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></object>

So odd
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That's the most chillingly dead piece of thing I've ever watched. It's like watching music being murdered. Really strange, thank you.
 
M

mms

sometimes
biggest djs seem to be people like diplo, who is the sort of go to guy of the pitchfork demographic, he's american too.
I doubt villalobos etc get paid the fees that danny rampling etc did in their hayday to be honest.
then there are ppl who are superstars, or famous who are invited to clubs to play cds - who are inevitably totally shit but are famous so that's ok. Music just becomes another accessory at that level.
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
D

droid

Guest
Hook's miming abilities are legendary at this stage. Some great comments on his myspace about it...

It's not a rare phenomenon unfortunately.
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
T

tox

Factory Girl
mms said:
biggest djs seem to be people like diplo, who is the sort of go to guy of the pitchfork demographic, he's american too.
I doubt villalobos etc get paid the fees that danny rampling etc did in their hayday to be honest.
then there are ppl who are superstars, or famous who are invited to clubs to play cds - who are inevitably totally shit but are famous so that's ok. Music just becomes another accessory at that level.
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I'm not so sure. Those big techno DJs who are playing in clubs like Fabric, The Arches, Warehouse Project and The Custard Factory - all of which are huge and charge a fortune on the door - must be taking a fair cut.

And that's not to mention the kind of fees they must charge for Sonar, Exit, I <3 Techno and Ibiza outings. Diplo might also be booked, but its usually Villalobos, Hawtin and the M_nus crew who are playing the 5 hour headline sets.

I'm perfectly prepared to be proved wrong though. I would certainly never had known DJ Z was drawing such a big crowd in the states! And thinking about it, I bet people like Mr Scruff make a pretty packet considering the ticket prices for a one man show.
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
The big superstar / megabucks DJs are definitely in America at the moment and tend to be the Hip Hop DJs who have gone down the route of being next-level wedding DJs. All the classics you know and love, all being played on top of each other in one minute chunks.

DJ AM is a big deal:
(again... so weird!)

Z-Trip supported the Rolling Stones I think. Didn't Paul Oakenfold open for U2 in the 90s?

A-Trak and his Kanye connection, of course.

Diplo probably makes money by being everywhere, rather than by doing a few big money gigs.

Places like Fabric may charge a lot to get in, but remember that they have about 150 acts booked across 45 rooms or whatever. The bigger names will be paid handsomely of course, but not crazy money.

It's the names who can draw massive crowds on their own that really make the money. The ones you see getting peak time slots on the traditional festival stages too.
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
Oh... just remembered this. This is mind-blowing.

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It's fun to imagine some kind of 80s movie body-swap scenario where you get booked there by mistake. What would you play as your first record after an intro like that?

Does stuff like this happen in the UK at the moment? I think the superstar DJ concept is dormant over here at the moment, but clearly alive and well elsewhere.
 
T

tox

Factory Girl
hint said:
Does stuff like this happen in the UK at the moment? I think the superstar DJ concept is dormant over here at the moment, but clearly alive and well elsewhere.
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Yeah, that's incredibly over-the-top. The closest thing I can think of in the UK is probably a festival like Global Gathering - with the Red Arrows doing flybys, drawing hearts in the sky etc.
 
Alfons

Alfons

Way of the future
You have to admire the sheer scope and size of that thing, the theatricality of it... I guess they are pushing the early 90's megarave concept to the max?

I love the fact that they release dvd's of this stuff,

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

it really isn't that big a jump to the M_nus contakt thing either, imo, minimal technos megaband (does anyone know what the narod niki performances were like?)
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I guess you could maybe split these contemporary superstar dj categories into two camps from the posts being offered here: the ones who take the fatboy slim thing even further playing one minute snippets and mashups of the pop favourites of yesteryear (Z Trip and guys like that) to huge crowds and then the ones that still play underground dance music but at huge events (the Hawtin's, Lucianos', Tiestos' etc...?)
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
hint said:
What would you play as your first record after an intro like that?
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Definitely Kerosene by Big Black

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owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
Wasn't Dom Phillips the guy who gave Mixmag the 'IS SASHA GOD?' frontpage headline, then was challenged to fisticuffs by Sasha when they next met.
 
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