Re: playing w/ dj's

[Tim Nelson <tcn62@ici.net>]

At 05:26 PM 5/20/01 -0500, Skye wrote:
>Why is there such an atttempt to deny deny deny the validity of
>what they are doing as a musical expression? Before everyone tries to
>formulate why they are s dismissable, perhas it would be good to actually
>know what is involved with the art...

I know in my case my prejudice in viewing turntablists as less creative
than "real" musicians was simply because for a long time my only exposure
to this technique was seeing really bad amateur scratchers ripping off the
same bunch of beats, while someone tried to break-dance. After encountering
a few really creative and musical DJs, though, I realized that this view
was much like basing my opinion of guitarists on that kid in the music shop
butchering the riff from "Sweet Child o' Mine" just a tad bit too loud. (It
used to be 'Stairway', these days it's probably Korn or something...)

As with any instrument, the really good players are greatly outnumbered by
the wannabes.

I wish Bill Murphy's liner notes for Bill Laswell's 'Altered Beats' were
available online; he makes some comments about the turntable as an
instrument that are germane to this thread, but it's waaaaay too much to
transcribe...

Tim