Electronic Music Article: The End of an Era and The Digital DJ

The evolution of DJing has reached a new pinnacle. Instead of lugging record bags and milk crates stuffed with cuts DJ’s are now carrying cases with stuffed with Macbooks or burned CDs. Yes thats right my friends the vinyl era is slowly dying. This is especially true if you are an electronic music fan. Infamous record stores like San Francisco’s Inhouse Records and New Yorks Dance Tracks have closed their doors forever. Leaving many vinyl junkies wondering where to get their next fix. If you are still trying to keep the vinyl vibe alive you can hit up your local second hand vinyl store for some recent cuts but that will end soon as well. There is just no more money left in vinyl and unfortunately record labels and stores are beginning to realize this.

You may ask yourself what caused this or who caused this. In my opinion I believe the culprit is Steve Jobs and Apple. With the advent of the Ipod the world has become a digital stomping ground with no room for vinyl relics. When the Ipod hit the scene you could sense a change as people began to cast aside the portable CD player and other gear from years past. Now I know this is just a snap shot of the consumer and not a DJ but at the same time DJ’s began to burn CDs and play them on Pioneer CDJ-1000s. This was the beginning of the end of vinyl.

Before we continue any further I need to let you know that I have slowly converted to vinyl. I too like many DJs was on the other side of the fence against the shift to vinyl but just under a year ago I stuck my head up to look around. During a weird week of musical coincidences I made the shift towards digital. First I went to a party where Barry Weaver was playing in LA and watch him spin solely on CDs. After speaking with him for a bit he explained how he didn’t care to ever play vinyl again. I could see his point basically he was tired of running around with a 60 pound bag of vinyl for just a 3 hour set. Now he totes around 200 CDs and can play for hours. Later that night we made are way over to a Fresco Gear party where Carl Craig and Gamall were playing. Both Carl and Gamall were playing on Macbooks, Gamall on Live and Carl I think was on Traktor. Earlier that month I had received a message on myspace saying that Inhouse Records was closing it’s doors. That was a sad day, I would normally make the 5 hour trek to Inhouse 3-4 times a year to pick up some new cuts. Then in passing a friend told me Dance Tracks in NYC closed. But the straw that finally broke the camels back is when I learned a friend of mine was playing on Serato. Serato!? I can’t believe and he owned a record store at the time in LA. He told me that was the future and you know what I believed. So I made the journey to Guitar Center to pick up some CDJ-800’s. When I left I already had about 50 tracks ready for download on Beatport so I had some cuts ready to go. While the CDJs were a change from vinyl they did feel somewhat similar and did not take long to adjust to. So this was my first step toward digitalism. A few months later I began to get tired of my Laptop PC as my frustration built using Vista (what a piece of crap). So on a spur of the moment decision I picked up a Macbook Pro and Traktor. Man then life as a DJ became easy no lugging countless CDs or records wherever I go. I have 5,000 tracks at the touch of a button. I may have stuck with CDs but I play hip hop every now and again for certain crowds (I know I don’t like it either but it helps make ends meet. Gotta pay the rent ya know) my Macbook may it so easy to drop a hip hop set.

Although I miss vinyl with all of my heart being an electronic musician as well as an electronic music DJ it’s tough to say no to technological changes and advances in the industry. I have read a few interviews with so called true vinyl DJs condemning those DJing on laptops and I don’t get it. Most of the DJs are producers as well but if you go into their studio you don’t see any Moog Modulars or Arp 2600’s. You see they are using MIDI and software instruments. To these folks I say your a hypocrite. If your an electronic musician who can’t accept changes in technology drop the midi and any other technical advances since technics made a direct drive turntable.

One downfall of the software DJ and CD DJ is that it is so easy to mix and one really does not need to know any music theory. This means there will be more and more mediocre DJs all over. This also means that there will never be another DJ who makes it on DJ skill alone. Mark Farina is the best example of this his only production success to date was Dream Machine. The rest of his production efforts tend to be lackluster. He built his name by making sick mix tapes and rocking parties. Another thing you will begin never to hear again is the human element of DJing. Where a record might get slightly off. Now some of you may say that is a mistake I call it flavor.

Whatever this new digital world has in store for DJs will definitely be interesting. I look forward to the new advances to a point but lets not make it so easy that any local yokel can start rocking the decks without some basic musical theory understanding and at least the ability to beat match two vinyl records.

If you have an opinion about this topic let me know by leaving a comment!