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The Last Dance: Is the Superstar-DJ Era Over?

Avalon co-owner Steve Adelman: “I don’t think it’s over, I think it’s evolving”

A A A Comments (8) By Dennis Romero Wednesday, Apr 1 2009

...continued from page 1

Chris Davison

Deadmau5: Not a fan of bigtime spinners

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“I think the reports of the death of the superstar DJ have been greatly exaggerated,” he says. “I was one of the first people to declare that death. But compared to five years ago, I definitely think the DJ is on the rise.”

He notes that cheap laptops and easy-to-use software, such as Serato Scratch Live and Ableton Live, have made it easier than ever to deejay — virtually — for a new generation of point-and-click jocks. “It might not be like 1999,” Glazer says, “but maybe we’re just not noticing.”

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Jigs 04/23/2009 12:59:00 AM

This article doesn't really make any points. You say the era of DJs playing other people's music is done because music fans aren't creatively inspired by this anymore. But what's the difference between a DJ of that sort and a DJ of the current era that performs live with nothing more than a computer on stage? Some of the biggest acts at Coachella this year (Steve Aoki, Bloody Beetroots, Girl Talk) do nothing more than push a button and jump around to get people hyped. Sure these guys can set a party off right, but where's the critique on how they pull off their performances?

TMac 04/10/2009 6:10:00 AM

Deadmau5 is really not one to talk. Saw him in DC earlier this week and it was a total snoozefest. The biggest crowd reaction was from him putting on his mouse head. By the end of the night the only people dancing were a group of euro trash frat boys that brought glow sticks. Also, all of his tracks sound the same. The compression/eq he uses on every track remove so much dynamic range that three tracks in you think you're hearing ping noise. (The "shhhhhhhhhhhhh" sound for those that don't know pink noise.) Some of his tracks could be good if they didn't sound so bad.

Ben 04/09/2009 9:17:00 AM

He sounds like a complete cunt

Flash 04/09/2009 2:55:00 AM

I've been deep into underground electronic dance music since 1996 and all I can say is that DJ's were, are and will be, at least for the forseeable future, the messangers of dance music, just like a priest. Maybe Deadmau5, who I appreciate as a producer only relative to the excess supply of the many boring repetitive and unoriginal acts of nowadays, talks the way he does about djing only becuase he simply doesn't know the art of djing having missed out on most of club culture of the past 20 yrs. When I heard him play, he together with his friend were taking the piss at a local dj who was doing an amazing warm up simply because the guy was pitting his heart out for a handful of ppl as the event was a relative failure. U don't need to know your crowd to produce (Just like a painter) because its your own interpretation of a moment in time, but u need to know your audience (Just like a theatre actor ) when you dj cos your relationship is with the crowd and in the words of billy nasty, the 3rd track which the dj creates when mixing 2 tracks is a unique interpretion of the reationship between the dj and the crowd at that particular moment and cannot ever be recreated in the same magnitude and nature Deadmau5, stick to production and for christ's sake get a tan !!!

JJ 04/09/2009 1:49:00 AM

Deadmau5 is just bitter because he can't DJ to save his fucking life. He's a great producer no doubt, but without his Mouse head gimmick he has no legs to stand on in a DJ booth. Furthermore, the poor guy must be consuming copious amounts of cocaine or suffer from serious small man syndrome to be shooting his mouth of like this in the media. I mean really, who does he think buys and spins all his music at the end of the day? Wanker.

Clovis 04/09/2009 12:07:00 AM

Hearing Deadmau5 talk about DJing is like getting advice on being president from George W. Bush.

joey 04/08/2009 5:00:00 PM

some interesting points made, but the fact remains that most live laptop sets are simply boring, especially if they're more than one hour in duration. on the other hand, a DJ can pick and choose from decades of dance music history and proepl their set in an infinite number of directions, hopefully based on the crowd's reaction. a producer who can spend hours in his bedroom creating an incredible dancefloor track still doesn't necessarily know how to keep the club dancers engaged. after 30 minutes of their own productions the crowd can become easily bored. all that being said, i do respect producers who create their own music, but it doesn't make DJs obsolete. by the way, f*** Deadmau5. his tracks are some of the most commercial trite of the day. i would rather dance to Kenny G.

Tracer 04/07/2009 12:08:00 PM

I agree that the electronic scene is evolving, but to ask a question like that is embarrassing. There are Large events that are selling out every other week. New years alone had 30k people at one event. So please do your home work before inserting foot to mouth. With Ultra in Miami to the famed Skillz parties in SF, and LA with a two day summer festival coming up? Please DJ's are here to stay and they are getting bigger than ever.