What is a DJ?

What is a DJ, and what do we expect of them at a live show?

In light of Deadmau5’s recent comments about EDM producers and their dubious live sets, I set out to discover what being a deejay means in 2012.  

First off I went to Wikipedia, where, according to them, a DJ is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Pretty simple.

In the context of Deadmau5 and the DJ’s he mentioned in his interview, we are talking about guys standing behind the decks in front of a club or stadium full of fans. We're talking you're David Guetta's and Swedish 'House' Mafia.

According to Deadmau5, the main reason he is disgusted with his fellow EDM DJ’s is because they are little more than ‘button-pushers’, with a technical setup that is constrained by the elaborate lighting rigs that accompany their stage shows.

Specifically, it is the idea that they just have to ‘press play’ to fire off their sets and then they do little more than manage the transition between each subsequent track (and tweaking the levels on the equalizer).

If this is true, then they indeed share little in common with the historical rendering of the DJ - the dexterous dude standing behind the twin turntables beat-juggling and constantly manipulating the vinyl or cd in front of him.  And in this comparison, the superstar EDM DJ (or any DJ that employs this setup) suddenly resembles a curator, a crafty cataloguer of music (great or otherwise) and not a creator of live sounds.   

On the other side of the coin are the DJ defenders, who talk about their having to beat-match without headphones, constantly bring up their mixing credentials and espousing an ‘everyone else does it, so why can't I’ ideology. It's all valid, well, from the DJ's perspective anyway.

So, where does this leave us?

I don’t think it’s about defining what a DJ is or isn’t.

it’s about educating yourself about what you’re seeing and hearing.  

If a DJ is up on stage with a kick-ass light and fireworks display or dancing around the stage Skrillex-style, then chances are he’s spending about half as much time tweaking the mix and being creative as you think he is.  If you’re okay with that, hoist up your glow-stick and have a good one.

It’s also about being honest about what you do as a musician.

As hard as it is to hear Deadmau5 pull the curtain back on superstar DJ live shows, it’s a necessary evil and a refreshing perspective.

If you want to sell your show, and your brand, then this is the compromise that you make.  No matter how you spin it (pardon the pun), you’re still putting your commercial interests (your ability to entertain the largest possible demographic) ahead of your musical ambitions.


In short, you bring in more casual fans and alienate the early adopters.


If you're a DJ, don't be afraid to be truthful about what you do.


If you're a fan, don't be afraid to expect more out of DJ's.