Thesis ID: CBB228320483

Turning the Tables: Nightlife, DJing, and the Rise of Digital DJ Technologies (2015)

unapi

DJ culture experienced a crisis as it underwent rapid changes in its tools, practices, and communities in the 2000s, a process that is still unfolding in 2015. Historically, DJing as a musical and cultural practice shifted the emphasis of recorded music playback from a one-way flow of information to a multifaceted conversation between DJ and vinyl, turntables, mixer, dancers, and the urban environment. As a consequence, the significance of the DJ was not merely the ability to weave recorded songs, but the fact that he or she connected bodies, sounds and technology in an urban ecology, creating exciting new musical experiences. However, the rapid rise of digital DJ technologies in the 2000s brought with it many new tools and formats, and economic revitalization has increasingly turned to DJ-driven nighttime entertainment. These forces have raised questions about what DJing means, who belongs in the community, and how to legitimize its practices. This dissertation analyzes an artistic community as it navigates dramatic changes in its world, and considers the processes by which DJs contribute to, respond to, and reshape new technologies. It threads histories of nightlife’s transgressive symbolism and DJ culture’s privileging of irreverent remix into more recent controversies over what tools, techniques, and performance choices make some DJs more legitimate than others in the DJ world. Drawing from over a decade of research and participation in the DJ world, as well as dozens of interviews and observations, I examine the perspectives of those DJs who embrace new technologies as well as those who problematize the rise of digital DJing. The study offers a nuanced theorization of artistic practice and technology adoption that emphasizes the role of DJing’s history, as well as the situated ways that communities define themselves in moments of flux.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB228320483/

Similar Citations

Book Kelly, Caleb; (2009)
Cracked media: The sound of malfunction (/isis/citation/CBB001181265/)

Book Kenney, William Howland; (1999)
Recorded music in American life: The phonograph and popular memory, 1890--1945 (/isis/citation/CBB001181270/)

Article Manning, Peter; (2003)
The influence of recording technologies on the early development of electroacoustic music (/isis/citation/CBB001181289/)

Book Théberge, Paul; (1997)
Any sound you can imagine: Making music/consuming technology (/isis/citation/CBB001181388/)

Book Waksman, Steve; (1999)
Instruments of desire: The electric guitar and the shaping of musical experience (/isis/citation/CBB001181395/)

Article Pennycook, Bruce; (1997)
Live electroacoustic music: Old problems, new solutions (/isis/citation/CBB001181319/)

Article Katz, Mark; (1998)
Making America more musical through the phonograph, 1900--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001181261/)

Article Lopes, Paul; (1992)
Innovation and diversity in the popular music industry, 1969 to 1990 (/isis/citation/CBB001181286/)

Book Zak, Albin, III; (2001)
The poetics of rock: Cutting tracks, making records (/isis/citation/CBB001181404/)

Article Jordan, Matthew F.; (2005)
Discophilie or Discomanie: The cultural politics of living-room listening (/isis/citation/CBB001181257/)

Article Sterne, Jonathan; (2006)
The MP3 as cultural artifact (/isis/citation/CBB001181381/)

Article Sandywell, Barry; Beer, David; (2005)
Stylistic morphing: Notes on the digitisation of contemporary music culture (/isis/citation/CBB001181350/)

Article Hennion, Antoine; (1989)
An intermediary between production and consumption: The producer of popular music (/isis/citation/CBB001181247/)

Book O'Hara, Kenton; Brown, Barry; (2006)
Consuming music together: Social and collaborative aspects of music consumption technologies (/isis/citation/CBB001181311/)

Article Aldo Brancacci; (2013)
Musica e filosofia nel I libro del "De musica" di Aristide Quintiliano (/isis/citation/CBB628791731/)

Book Patrizio Barbieri; (2023)
Tuning and Temperament: Practice vs Science. 1450-2020 (/isis/citation/CBB826943267/)

Book Young, Rob; (2002)
Undercurrents: The hidden wiring of modern music (/isis/citation/CBB001181407/)

Authors & Contributors
Albin J. Zak, III
Young, Rob
Wouters, Kees
Sandywell, Barry
Polzer, Joachim
Pennycook, Bruce
Concepts
Music
Sound studies
Sound Recording Industry
Technology and music
Sound
Musical instruments
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
4th century
Places
United States
Germany
Netherlands
France
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment