Comments on: The Artistic Plight of the DJ http://kscr.org/blog/2007/10/05/the-artistic-plight-of-the-dj/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:25:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: (Kylian) http://kscr.org/blog/2007/10/05/the-artistic-plight-of-the-dj/#comment-11143 (Kylian) Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:40:22 +0000 http://kscr.org/bw/?p=57#comment-11143 “Artists” have been deluding themselves for centuries with the notion that they create. In fact, they do nothing of the sort. They discover. Inherent in the nature of reality are a number of combinations of musical tones that will be perceived as pleasing by a human central nervous system. For millennia we have been discovering them, implicit in the universe - and telling ourselves that we “created” them. The Western tonal gamut, as exemplified by equal temperament and the notes of the piano, has been used before, arranged in countless ways by those who write the representative dots on the paper. The primary difference between melodic quotation and the extractive sampling of a melodic hook is that, in digital sampling, timbre is appropriated in addition to pitch and rhythm. There is no “original” material. All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is not a thread that is not a twist of these two strands. -Emerson What DJ Spooky does, in employing the borrowing and re-contextualizing of existing musical and sonic material within a composition in order to affect its significance, is but an evolution of what all composers, of all genres, have been doing since the inception of thought. It is only now, in this era of recorded media and digital technology that one has access to the entire sonic spectrum of a musical event, and it is now the job of the DJ, the ARTIST, to continue to reconfigure, reassemble, and coalesce these fragments into something greater than the sum of its parts. Its all about recombinant potential…. You claim that “Rather than carve a new sound sculpture, they (Djs) segment and combine pre-existing ones.” This perception is entirely contradictory, and misses the point. By chopping up fragments of found objects and recombining them into something else, the DJ IS creating a new sound sculpture; their carving tool isn’t however, the guitar or the piano or whatever instrument you think holds unequivocal “creative” musical powers, its the turntable and the computer. Also, if you think your boy Johann S. Bach wasn’t a sampler, you’d better learn more about the history of “classical” music. Naturally, its not called “sampling”, rather “borrowing” or “quotation” because it relies on notation and not the record, but this practice is pervasive throughout the entirety of Western, White-European musical culture as well. Beethoven. Brahms. Mozart. Berlioz. Liszt. All of them. Maybe you’re giving THEM too much credit. Or maybe they deserve the credit, because they were great, and the DJ (especially one like Spooky) does as well. You’re right, there’s only one Bach. And there’s only one Well-Tempered Clavier. True too, there’s only one Bohemian Rhapsody. Great song. Likewise there’s only one “Anansi Abstrakt”, “Grapheme”, or “Juba” or any other DJ Spooky song out there. There’s only one Amon Tobin, one Maga Bo, one Filastine, one DJ/Rupture, or any other DJ who pushes the envelope and dares to call themselves an “artist” in the face of ignorance, misunderstanding, and orthodoxy. And they all borrow/quote/sample from someone else, and reassemble it to reflect their vision. This is the Mega-future, son. To deny the validity of what is perhaps one of, if not the most innovative and interesting musical practices today, and one of the only practices which constantly forces us to question our understanding of music and ourselves, and which actively combats cultural and artistic stasis, is to embark on a path of devolution. Try and keep up. “Artists” have been deluding themselves for centuries with the notion that they create. In fact, they do nothing of the sort. They discover. Inherent in the nature of reality are a number of combinations of musical tones that will be perceived as pleasing by a human central nervous system. For millennia we have been discovering them, implicit in the universe - and telling ourselves that we “created” them. The Western tonal gamut, as exemplified by equal temperament and the notes of the piano, has been used before, arranged in countless ways by those who write the representative dots on the paper. The primary difference between melodic quotation and the extractive sampling of a melodic hook is that, in digital sampling, timbre is appropriated in addition to pitch and rhythm.

There is no “original” material. All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is not a thread that is not a twist of these two strands. -Emerson

What DJ Spooky does, in employing the borrowing and re-contextualizing of existing musical and sonic material within a composition in order to affect its significance, is but an evolution of what all composers, of all genres, have been doing since the inception of thought. It is only now, in this era of recorded media and digital technology that one has access to the entire sonic spectrum of a musical event, and it is now the job of the DJ, the ARTIST, to continue to reconfigure, reassemble, and coalesce these fragments into something greater than the sum of its parts. Its all about recombinant potential….

You claim that “Rather than carve a new sound sculpture, they (Djs) segment and combine pre-existing ones.” This perception is entirely contradictory, and misses the point. By chopping up fragments of found objects and recombining them into something else, the DJ IS creating a new sound sculpture; their carving tool isn’t however, the guitar or the piano or whatever instrument you think holds unequivocal “creative” musical powers, its the turntable and the computer.

Also, if you think your boy Johann S. Bach wasn’t a sampler, you’d better learn more about the history of “classical” music. Naturally, its not called “sampling”, rather “borrowing” or “quotation” because it relies on notation and not the record, but this practice is pervasive throughout the entirety of Western, White-European musical culture as well. Beethoven. Brahms. Mozart. Berlioz. Liszt. All of them. Maybe you’re giving THEM too much credit.

Or maybe they deserve the credit, because they were great, and the DJ (especially one like Spooky) does as well.

You’re right, there’s only one Bach. And there’s only one Well-Tempered Clavier. True too, there’s only one Bohemian Rhapsody. Great song. Likewise there’s only one “Anansi Abstrakt”, “Grapheme”, or “Juba” or any other DJ Spooky song out there. There’s only one Amon Tobin, one Maga Bo, one Filastine, one DJ/Rupture, or any other DJ who pushes the envelope and dares to call themselves an “artist” in the face of ignorance, misunderstanding, and orthodoxy. And they all borrow/quote/sample from someone else, and reassemble it to reflect their vision.

This is the Mega-future, son. To deny the validity of what is perhaps one of, if not the most innovative and interesting musical practices today, and one of the only practices which constantly forces us to question our understanding of music and ourselves, and which actively combats cultural and artistic stasis, is to embark on a path of devolution. Try and keep up.

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