Hmm... Not particularly.
Uh... Mixes music?
Spins something?
I don't know. Yeah. Basically.
(LAUGHS) Spins something.
I actually know DJs
but I just don't know what they do
because it seems like
they're just standing there.
Do you know what I mean?
So Linda, you're a DJ, right?
Mm.
So I've been told that
it's just you press a button,
you walk away for an hour,
you come back...
Dan!
..collect your fee.
Dan! It is so much more than that.
Let me tell you a little bit
about the art of DJing.
Alright.
You can just move away.
We're not sure who coined the term
DJ, or disc jockey,
but we do know it was used in 1941
by Variety magazine.
So you get this image of someone
riding over the music
and some said that it was meant to
be a little bit disparaging,
the idea of someone
jockeying for space.
People have always thought
DJs are kind of fishy.
They were seen by some parts
of the music world as parasites,
people hanging onto something
somebody else did.
So there's that idea of DJs
as expert listeners
who can hear the best part
of a bad song
or who can make a song
sound like something new.
With the invention of the phonograph
and then radio,
our relationship to music changed.
And twist and shout
with the Beatle boys!
And the DJ became the conduit for us
to enjoy recorded music
as a group and in public.
I think when people come together
and listen,
that's...something in that moment
of listening together in this room,
people falling in love, breaking up.
The DJ is the person with the sound,
so we kind of credit them
for that moment.
When we figured out how to use two
turntables to play continuous music,
suddenly dance floors erupted.
DJs pushed disco
to its heights in the '70s,
spinning the breakbeats that became
the foundations of hip-hop culture.
Then in the '80s and '90s,
they spread Detroit techno
and Chicago house,
shepherding the subgenres
of electronic music
to clubs around the world.
And once upon a time
in Kingston, Jamaica,
the DJ was the first to bring reggae
and dub rhythms to the people,
eventually helping it
to become a global sound.
This movement developed the mixing
techniques and sound sensibilities
that DJs to this day
are still using at the decks.
# Money only buys you fake magic
# I ain't no phoney
# I'll take you far away
with no tricks. #
It's all about the way it's done.
You know, if you're a scratch DJ,
then there's a lot of talent
involved in that.
If you're a techno DJ
and it's a long journey set,
there's a lot of talent
involved in that.
Or if you're even Zane Lowe
playing a set
and every single song was a song
that we should have known
but we'd never heard in our lives.
You can feel the energy of a room
and if you know how to work that
right and build it up
and then let it explode, like,
it gets to the crescendo and boom.
If you nail that, you're a dope DJ.
Yeah.
DJs are continuing to influence
and shape modern music,
curating the sounds of the past,
present and future,
remixing, re-editing
and finding those deep cuts
that would ordinarily pass you by.
(RECORD SCRATCH)
That was great.
Are you done or are we...?
No, Dan! I've got heaps more facts.
So you might have heard this sound
before.
(RECORD SCRATCH)
And nothing announces the arrival
of the DJ in quite the same way.
It was a technique credited
to the DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore,
where the legend goes,
his mother who was angry at him
with the volume level of music
that he was playing in his bedroom
burst in to lecture him,
and instead of lowering the volume,
he places his hand on the record
and notices the interesting sound
of moving the groove backwards
and forwards under the needle.
Yeah, well, that was actually
a really good fact.
Dammit, Dan. I'm not finished yet.
There is still a show and tell.
(SLOW ELECTRONIC BEAT)
(MICROPHONE FEEDBACK)
So I'm here with my sweet buddy,
Nina Las Vegas,
and we're here to talk about DJing.
You know I am a mad sceptic.
(LAUGHS)
What does a DJ actually do?
Well, I think, generally,
we provide music for an audience.
You could be playing for a club, you
could be playing for a restaurant.
You're basically just entertaining
and working with the room.
Show us how you do it.
I do a bunch of stuff.
I collect music.
I often do it on my computer.
I go out, I Shazam a hell of a lot.
I then use this program
called rekordbox.
It is what kind of makes my MP3s
playable for the decks,
because I don't need to take
anything to gigs anymore
except a USB.
I prepare my set in this software.
It gives me an opportunity
to give them cue points,
little markers so I know
where to mix in and mix out of.
(HEAVY CLUB MUSIC)
So I set my set.
I usually do it in BPM.
Beats per minute
is kind of the language we talk in.
Also keys. Some really good DJs
love mixing in key.
I try as much as I can but
if it sounds good, it sounds good.
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
And you can hear it.
And then if it sounds good,
and that's often when practice
does help,
is that you do it again.
In your mind - oh, that goes well
with that track.
I feel like there's
this mad misconception
that you're getting paid
this amazing amount of money
for one hour worth of work.
Oh, yeah. It's not that.
But it's about that preparation
beforehand.
'Cause there's actually so much prep
that goes into choosing
what those songs are gonna be
so you can nail that hour,
or two hours or four hours.
Yeah.
(HEAVY CLUB MUSIC)
Once you get all the songs
to the USB,
the whole thing about DJing,
really basically, is using the CDJs,
which are what these are,
and then mixing it together
with the mixer.
Now, you can do the mixing
different ways.
I do this.
I go between the volumes.
Yep.
But other people
go between the phaser.
Yep.
People often have the misconception
that this isn't that important,
the mixer.
It's all about the volumes.
But I love the mixer.
Like, I do so much on the mixer.
And I use one of the six
sound colour effects.
You can filter it.
(SOUND WARPS)
Crush it.
Dub echo is always good.
(MUSIC ECHOES)
But in true DJ style, I usually
reverb it before the drop.
And swing it all the way back.
(BEAT DROPS)
So I play with the mixer like that.
Yep.
The main part about a good DJ
is song choice first.
Yeah.
The second thing
is to be able to beat match.
So what I like to do
is play the song.
In my headphones,
I prepare the second song.
So this one is going,
I know I've got about 16 bars.
And then I find the cue point
for the next song.
And in this control on the mixer,
I'm just listening to what's
coming out on the other speaker.
There's also a little number here
and it tells you what BPM
you're at, and ideally...
So what speed...
Yeah. Beats per minute.
So, ideally, I want to go
when it starts.
Do you do the thing as well where
you potentially play something
that you know is a sure-fire hit
and then you can follow it up
with something more experimental?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
It's a good trick.
Yeah, so I really try to push stuff
I like
and things that are
a little bit forward.
So what I do is I sneak it in.
I hear the kind of rhythms in, like,
a Calvin Harris track
that everyone likes
and then I chuck in, like,
a Scratcha DVA track
that no-one knows.
And so, yeah,
it's usually one song you know,
three or four songs you don't.
I also love using
that spin back function.
What they have on the decks
is two options - vinyl and CDJ.
CDJ is a bit more like a CD player
and it doesn't really move
when I do this.
Yeah.
But when you do vinyl...
(RECORD SCRATCHES)
She's a scratch DJ.
Voila.
How do you think that DJing
has affected your relationship
with music?
Now I understand what good rhythms
and good melodies can really do.
You don't know what the music's like
until it's performed live.
And sometimes in a DJ setting, that
is, like, a big part of a good song.
Also makes me, like, actually jaded
about sometimes what songs are big.
So, like, I'll play and then
and get requests for, you know,
Horses by Daryl Braithwaite,
which is not...
I'm not saying that's a bad song.
Yeah. Yep.
But it's also, like, come on, guys.
We've heard it. We've heard it.
Let me curate something new.
I'll do a good mix now.
Let me do a good mix.
(ECHOING TECHNO BEAT)
# What you wanna do
# What you wanna play
# Play it cool
# Find a way. #
(MUSIC WARPS)
(MUSIC DARKENS)
CDJ go.
(MUSIC OVERLAPS PSYCHEDELICALLY)
(BEAT DROPS)
So that is DJing.
Dan.
OK.
You're allowed to come back now.
Mm-hm.
So look,
that was the short version for you.
Great.
Does it make a little bit more sense?
It does, actually, yeah.
Also I didn't tell you that I did
have a go at DJing as well myself.
What?
Yeah.
Why didn't you say anything?
How was it?
Yeah, so it was at a party and...
You know the 'bwam'
from Inception?
(DEEP, RUMBLING SOUND EFFECT)
So I got that into a loop
and then I put in a little bit
from a Star Wars trailer
and then I put a beat under there.
That's kind of sick.
That's cool!
Mm-hm.
Yeah!
Dan Golding in the house.
Well, look, you do not need to go
as far as Dan did,
but if you get asked to DJ
at the next party,
then here are some things
that you can keep in mind.
Prepare.
Think about the music
that you want to play,
think about the mood of the night
or the day that you're playing at.
And make sure you listen
to the stuff beforehand.
Look after your equipment.
Don't forget your headphones.
Have doubles of your USBs.
Take care of your computer.
And yourself as well.
Chuck in a few favourites
into your set that you love
and that you know the crowd
will love,
but then follow them up with some fun
curve balls and some challenges.
And also, don't forget to have fun.
It's a really, really cool job,
and if you're lucky to do it,
enjoy it.
Who else gets paid to play music?
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
