In the past couple of years, DJ culture has become totally demystified.
Thanks to a variety of developments, DJing is no longer shadowy or mysterious. In theory, anybody can do it. You can do it with iPods. You can do it with CDs. You can do it with iPads. You can do it online. You can even DJ with video game controllers!
Yet as the mystique surrounding DJ culture has faded away, its cache has swelled almost immeasurably. Expanded access to music and a proliferation of tools for organizing and disseminating it have created a growing interest in mixing, curating, taste-making, recommending and partying, and DJing encapsulates all of these activities at once.
That gives DJing an allure not easily replicated anywhere else in popular culture, and it also makes being a professional DJ very, very, very hard.
Think about it: everybody has access to the same recordings. Everybody has access to the same software, everybody wants to do it, and most kids that are starting out will do it for $50 and a couple free vodka-Red Bulls.
So how do you stand out? We figured the only way to find out would be to ask someone who's stayed at the forefront of the business for a long time, and that meant Dan Giove, the founder of Dubspot.
A DJ and music production school based in New York, Dubspot has been setting its students apart since 2006, and the school is poised to expand in a major way. They are launching an online academy in October, and in 2011 they will open up a branch in Los Angeles.
Produce or Perish
When I ask Giove what it takes to set yourself apart in the DJ world, his answer is almost instantaneous. “It's production. People making their own music, no doubt about it."
Fans of electronic dance music and hip hop know that there is some historical cross-over between DJing and production, but today, it's more than a cross-over. “The line between DJing and production," Giove says, “is already gone."
Today, electronic dance music producers really just set up labels to create and attract original material. “People aren't really making money from making music," Giove says. “It's more of a way to set yourself apart."
Plus, technology allows people to do both within a single piece of software. “People are now using programs like Ableton to produce music live, or play live. It's not just DJing anymore," Giove says, alluding to people like Richie Hawtin, who mixes and produces live during his famous live sets.
Giove, right, with Dubspot friend and NY legend Rich Medina
Who Inspires You, and Why?
“A lot of people think they can [DJ] because they have the same tracks that they heard Deadmau5 just play," Giove laments. “But it's so much more than that."
Before music went completely digital, having the same records as your competition was worth something. It was why paranoid Jamaican DJs bleached their favorite records' labels, why Northern Soul DJs would drill holes in coasters and set them down over the top of every record they spun, why techno DJs would lie to one another about where they got their records back in the '80s.
But today, everybody can get hold of anything. Depending on their level of scrupulousness, people don't even necessarily have to pay for it. This is why, Giove says, it's so much more important for your personality to shine through in your sets.
“Don't just make something that your favorite artist makes," Giove suggests. “Use it as a guide.
“We advise people when they come in, to bring a couple tracks that they really really love," he continues. “There's a song or two that's prompted you to put down good money to take this further. So what is that?
“Use it to understand who you are. if you came in here, I like this artist and that artist, then we can put it together and figure out, 'This is who I am.'"
Find People to Help You
One of the most important aspects of any music career is promotion, and DJing is no exception. If anything, promotion strategies are more crucial for DJs than any other musician. “It's one of the reasons I never pursued a career as a DJ," Giove admits. “I never liked promoting myself. For some people, it's difficult to do."
Social media obviously makes these tasks easier, but tweeting and e-mail blasts are no substitute for personal promotion, and for being personable. “Nobody wants a DJ that's a dick," Giove says. The days of rolling your eyes at requests are over, as are the days of trying to do it alone. If you want to build your own party, there has to be something unique about it, whether it's visual or musical. And if that takes bringing more people into the fold, then go find them immediately. “It's a lot more work than people realize," Giove says.
Giove and his partners are constantly revising Dubspot's curriculum to reflect the technological changes that are affecting his industry. Their online school will feature social media promotion tips, for example, and they're looking into teaching people more about sites that can help to promote and disseminate his students' music. They place a huge emphasis on evolving “without losing sight of how we should be teaching," which is a huge reason why they've managed to stand out.
