FOR THE PRICE of a couple of beer ageing hippies get to see a live rock band perform while social climbing millennials pay P2,000 to see a laptop live…
This started as a twit on Twitter that segued to Facebook then became this column and over a cup of espresso and emails it opened up a very interesting exchange of ideas and particularly opinions, mostly contrasting, some concurring, including silly and stupid ones.
Well it was my twit and unfortunately for them and fortunately for me I still have the last say, hence this column. And by the way the repartee on Facebook, emails and afternoons in Starbucks was fun, nothing “road” or untoward.
In fact someone I know who owns a “sound system” that he rents out to parties and other private affairs said this” “I’ve always felt like some kind musician when I’m there spinning on the turntable and programming music on my laptop in front of people. Now that you’ve enlightened me I know I’m not one, just a sound technician at best.”
The political scene seems boring anyway; provincial government employees wearing black shirts protesting the budget impasse.
Some people are complaining that the new Iloilo City grandstand should not be named after an equally famous siopao, but that grandstand was built purposely for the Dinagyang Festival so it’s just proper it be named after said festival.
If you prefer Roberto’s siopao to Dinagyang siopao then don’t associate the grandstand with it or eat it.
And let’s segue (pun intended) to the topic at hand. From that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
* Musician – a person who plays a musical instrument, especially as a profession, or is musically talented.
* Disc jockey, often abbreviated as DJ – a person who plays existing recorded music for a live audience. Most common types of DJs include radio DJ, club DJ who performs at a nightclub or music festival, and turntablist who uses record players, usually turntables, to manipulate sounds on phonograph records. Originally, the “disc” in “disc jockey” referred to gramophone records, but now “DJ” is used as an all-encompassing term to describe someone who mixes recorded music from any source, including cassettes, CDs, or digital audio files on a CDJ or laptop. The title “DJ” is commonly used by DJs in front of their real names or adopted pseudonyms or stage names.
In my book a disc jockey or DJ is not – repeat –not a musician. I don’t believe as most of you do that playing other people’s music in vinyl records on turntables qualifies one as a musician.
Check out Mr. Webster’s definition above and see if it fits and compare it with the definition of a disc jockey and you will see that there is no resemblance at all. Both are totally different animals.
It’s like comparing aesthetically Mae Paner a.k.a. “Juana Change” and Jover Laurio with Agot Isidro and Mocha Uson; the first two are definitely not beautiful while the next two are in terms of aesthetics only.
Of course we are not here to discuss which of the four above mentioned females have “beautiful personalities”; we are just comparing them at face and body value in the same manner we are comparing or looking for similarities between a disc jockey and a musician.
By popular and common knowledge a disc jockey’s weapon of choice is the turntable and lately includes a laptop; and unless by some weird quirk they’re suddenly classified as a musical instrument, then a DJ is a musician until then they are not.
From PASSIONATE DJ.com:
A DJ is simply someone who plays pre-recorded music to an audience… that’s it. Just like a photographer is simply someone who takes still pictures with a camera.
DJs can be musicians; they are just not musicians inherently. You don’t need to be a musician to be a DJ, but some musicians are. Can it help? Certainly, it’s just not a prerequisite.
And from /www.quora.com:
Are DJs musicians? At what point does musicianship end and knob twiddling begin? How is remixing/mashing up a track composed of other tracks creating new music?
A DJ is not a musician; you are merely a track selector and mixer. It does require a great deal of practice and some precision as does playing an instrument but one does not imply the other. Musicians can certainly be DJs and vice versa, but composing music/playing it as opposed to “just” mixing is totally different.
There was a comment on my twit that DJs are musicians as they are now giving Grammy Awards for them. For the uninitiated or those living under a rock the Grammy Awards are the music industry’s version of the Oscars.
While it may be true that the Grammys have a specific category for Disc Jockeys or DJs it still does not qualify them as musicians. Take note: the Grammy Awards also have specific categories: record producers, sound engineers, album cover designers to name a few, yet nowhere does it say that these automatically make these technicians musicians.
And the same goes for the Disc Jockey or DJ; at best they’re just sound engineers. Just because they’re good in splicing together other people’s recorded music using a laptop or a turntable does not make them musicians.
Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Jaco Pastorius are musicians while Tiesto, Avicii and the Swedish House Mafia are not.
Calling these disc jockeys or DJs as musicians is like saying the house painter is an artist. Pablo Picasso must be turning over in his grave. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
