As a college radio DJ, I have often wanted to venture into new musical territories. Playing music is one thing, but creating new music is a realm of its own. When I was a kid, I dabbled in electronic keyboards, fascinated by their ability to generate synthesized noise. But that was a very, very long time ago. These days, with modern technology making music more and more experimental, there have been many times that I have considered making an entry into the music-making world by means of an even more innovative, exciting, and challenging musical artform: turntablism.
On Wikipedia, Turntablism is defined as "the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph tables and a DJ mixer.” The turntablist uses the turntable as an instrument to manipulate different records. This manipulation of music, paired with a good mixer, causes entirely new sounds, and in some cases, new songs, to be produced.
Turntablism itself has a rich history; it has been around for decades (though of course, not being known as "turntablism" back in the day). The origin of the term itself is debatable. Though, regardless of the origins of its name, I find turntablism to be one of the most intriguing forms of music out there.
Through this artform, fresh, new, and strikingly different compositions are produced from pre-existing recordings. However, turntablism has yet another special function; it enables an artist to engage in contemporary forms of non-verbal discourse. Sometimes it even seems that the turntable possesses a language of its own--one that presents itself by means of scratching, mixing, and beat juggling.
The discourse of turntablism is expressed through many forms. We see this it in battles, as well as joint sessions amongst DJs. Take this Skratchcon 2000 performance by DJ Qbert and DJ D-Styles for example:
As you can see in the video, Qbert describes this as a way of having some sort of a "Question and Answer" session. But this isn’t your standard Q & A; the turntables do all the talking. Qbert and D-Styles engage in a unique form of dialogue, communicating with each other by means of their distinct styles of scratching. The way I look at it, it's an interesting way to approach a conversation between two people.
The whole college radio thing has definitely whetted my appetite for turntable experimentation. I've always wanted to get into something like this, especially after watching and meeting some amazing DJs. It would be cool to take a class at the (pricey) Scratch DJ Academy . Oh, if only there were enough hours in the day.
On a completely unrelated note, be sure to tune in to Fresh Cuts Radio tonight, if you're bored, or an insomniac, or all of the above.
1 comment:
A nice summary of the turntablism movement. It's true that Scratch Academy is pricey (my son took two classes there), but they also have free trials and public events (which I have gone to).
In the digital era, many turntablists are ironically using electronic distributed media to get their old-school message out. As you point out, great performances are often documented on YouTube. Henry Jenkins might argue that this is another example of how YouTube is like vaudeville.
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