re: long but hopefully interesting

Simon Brown (zcfbm25@ucl.ac.uk)
Fri, 17 Nov 1995 16:41:55 +0000

Is a DJ a musician?
In order to even attempt this it is necessary to work out whether many of
those who call themselves musicians are musicians. What is a musician? Easy,
someone who plays a musical instrument. OK, now imagine 2 people, one has
been playing their instrument for a few months, the other for maybe 10
years. Are they both musicians? Maybe I could be more succint: I am a
geologist. I go on a field-trip and, to assuage my boredom, take with my
battered accoustic guitar to play in the evenings. I've been playing for
close on to 10 years (with breaks for meals + sleep) so I can carry a tune.
Another geologist comes along and says, "Oh, can I have a go?" so I let
them. They have been playing a couple of months. Their
boy/girl/genderlessfriend taught them a couple of chords. Is this a C? or is
it a G? what chord's this?
I think you begin to get my drift. Most people who play musical instruments
are not in fact musicians since they are unable to play competently, they
are unable to communicate with other musicians/persons holding a musical
instrument in terms of what they are playing or are about to play.
I'm not trying to be snobbish - I spent a lot of time being shit before I
became as mediocre as I am now as a guitarist. But the most important thing
in music is communication. And what you define as a musician then becomes
someone who you could jam with and interact with musically. You don't have
to be making tonal sound - drums are rarely ever tuned to a pitch and
certainly if they were wouldn't be able to carry a melody line as such.
Equally a flautist might have trouble as the anchor of a rhythm section.
Everyone does what they do best and as long as there is a balance of
musicians the resulting music will sound good.

As for DJs, the same has to apply. You can't say that DJs are not musicians
because they don't "play a musical instrument". But you can say that the
majority of DJs who are cacky because thay haven't spent time practising,
who can't mix because they can't be bothered, who don't have any feeling for
the music because they haven't been in contact with it for long enough -
they aren't musicians, they are tape/CD/record player operators. A small
minority of DJs are good - very good. They can hear the music and interact
with it; they can hear a band on a stage and hear a gap which they can fill
and can interact with other musicians; they know music like the back of
their own hand and can communicate to whoever they wish, be it themselves,
an audience or other musicians (DJs or otherwise) and help to weave the
resultant sound. They are a minority but they are most definitely musicians
since they possess the communicative skills to do what they do.
As far as sampling is concerned, I don't think this presents a problem. A
friend of mine - a music student - is recording a demo on a 4-track tape
player with a jazz singer - just some restaurant jazz. He wants to stick
some drums down but doesn't have a drum kit or can't be bothered to set it
up, mike it up, etc. etc. So, he uses a drum machine - sampled sounds.
No-one is going to say he isn't a musician.
So if a DJ wants to sample something he or she cannot reproduce themselves,
then that is surely a fine thing to do. Additionally, as I know from bitter
experience in preparing theatre sound FX, there's more to sampling than
meets the eye (or ear) in terms of manipulating the sound, removing noise,
adding just the right amount of just the right effects, attempting to hear
it through other's ears. As long as what you are sampling is relevant and
you have many hours in which to get thoroughly pissed off with your sampler
then you'll be fine.

Some DJ's are musicians. So are some musicians.

chilled margins (Igneous rocks are cool. Just don't take them for granite.)

Simon Brown
s.j.brown@ucl.ac.uk
UCL Geology (2nd year)

(These ones go to 11)
"How come everyone giggles when I mention dykes" Dr. A. Jones, Geology dept. UCL