Digging in the Crates: an Ethnographic Study of Djsʼ Work Ahmed Y
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Digging in the Crates: An Ethnographic Study of DJsʼ Work Ahmed Y. Ahmed, Steve Benford, Andy Crabtree Mixed Reality Laboratory University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK {psxaaa, sdb, axc}@cs.nott.ac.uk ABSTRACT Contemporary DJing provides a salient site to explore the An ethnographic study uncovers the work of nightclub DJs, interplay between traditional physical and emerging digital which extends far beyond the act of mixing tracks to also forms of music and so inform future music technologies. It encompass collecting music, preparing for performances, should therefore come as no surprise that there is already an and promotion and networking. We reveal how DJs value established history of DJ-related research. A previous study vinyl and digital formats in different ways, acquire music of DJs performing in nightclubs revealed how they draw on through ‘crate digging’, prepare physical and digital crates various cues to adapt their performances to the dancers of music before gigs, and how these underpin improvised [11]. Other studies have explored DJs’ varying attitudes selections during their performances. We document how towards new digital technologies [10] and the changing DJs interact with promoters, venues, dancers and other DJs, notions of DJ practice that have arisen as a result [15]. revealing an etiquette that governs how they select and Novel technologies have been developed to partially or share music, and manage an ongoing tension between even fully automate DJing such as Mixxx, which employs revealing and hiding metadata so as to maintain a automatic beat matching so as to free up the DJ’s time to competitive edge. We raise implications for technologies to engage with other creative elements of performance [1], support DJs, while also shedding light on previous studies and HpDJ that more fully automates DJing, from beat- of music consumption and sharing in other settings. matching through to the selection of records and audience Author Keywords feedback [8]. Other systems aim to enhance the DJ’s Ethnography; DJs; music; sharing; metadata; performance performance through the use of multi-touch surfaces [14], wireless or mobile controllers [6, 18], or by adding haptic ACM Classification Keywords feedback to analogue turntables [2], also reflecting various J.4 [Computer Applications]: Social and Behavioural strategies for enhancing the expressive interactions of VJs Sciences – Sociology; (video jockeys) [12]. A quite different approach is to sense General Terms the movements of dancers in a nightclub and use this to Human Factors drive the music directly [13, 20]. We return to this body of work later on, suffice to note here that up to now the INTRODUCTION overwhelming focus of these various studies and prototypes While the origins of DJing as a musical form can be traced has been on the moment of live performance within the as far back as the ‘sock hops’ of the 1950s, the nightclub setting. contemporary DJ is most likely to be found in a crowded nightclub, using turntables and mixers to provide a While undoubtedly a critical part of what DJs do, this continuous stream of music for a frenzied crowd. The moment of performance is far from being the whole story. traditional craft of the DJ lies in the skillful manipulation of In this paper, we present an ethnographic study of the work vinyl records on turntable platters and especially in ‘beat of DJs that takes a more holistic view of their craft. By matching’ – i.e., the smooth mixing of one track into the observing and interviewing DJs in their homes and studios, next [4]. However, modern DJs are increasingly turning to as well as at gigs, we document the complexities of how digital music, using specialised software to manipulate they collect music, prepare for bookings and perform. Our digital music files on laptop computers. Vinyl emulation study elaborates ‘the work to make the performance work’; systems such as Traktor and Serato Scratch Live strive for that is the range of socially organised activities that the best of both worlds by allowing DJs to use specially underpin live performance and provide for its marked vinyl controllers to manipulate digital music files. accomplishment. We show how the organisation of a DJs’ work is constituted in and through the sequential ordering of varied music-making activities that they must undertake Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for to deliver a live performance. This is not to say that each personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are activity in the sequence is ‘busied’ with the making of not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, music, but rather that the making of music relies on them. or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior We also document how these various activities are specific permission and/or a fee. organised socially with regard to other DJs, promoters and CHI’12, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA. clubbers, including the etiquette of how DJs share music. Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1015-4/12/05...$10.00. Our findings raise implications for a variety of music- personal music collection is a significant ongoing activity related technologies, from those that directly support for a DJ. Building up a collection involves four key work- musical performance to those that support music sharing, practices: buying new releases, crate digging, gift-giving, while also speaking to more general studies of the social and making beats. We briefly elaborate each in turn. sharing of music away from the DJ’s booth [3, 5, 17, 21]. Buying new releases STUDYING DJS’ WORK Our participants purchased music in two key formats – Adopting an ethnomethodological approach that focused vinyl records and digital downloads; the purchase of CDs the ordinary day-to-day work-practices of DJs, we visited was rare. They had a preference for vinyl records due to the DJs at the various places they do their work so that we tactile nature of the format and the perceived superior could observe the naturally accountable ways in which they sound quality of analogue recordings, despite vinyl being conduct and organise it. We carried out observations in more expensive than digital downloads and the latter being their homes and studios, witnessing how they prepared for easier to get hold of. Buying vinyl means buying an entire performances, taking photographs and video recordings, recording, even if only part of it is required at the moment and talking with them about their work-practices and the of purchase. This wasn’t seen as a particular problem practical reasoning involved in doing them. We then however, but as something that often occasioned the accompanied them to performances in nightclubs where discovery of new tracks. further observations, photos and videos were captured. “With vinyl there are records that I bought for one side, but now play Follow-up interviews provided clarifications and further the other side more … Having both is quite cool because you might elaborations of the work we had witnessed. Throughout, our play the same record in different parts of the set and in different contexts.” focus has been on the ‘job’ of being a DJ, and of a particular kind of DJ at that. While the term DJ potentially Digital downloads, by way of contrast, allow single tracks refers to a wide range of people such as radio DJs or to be purchased. While this pick ‘n’ mix approach may wedding and function DJs, our study focuses on DJs in the make buying music cheaper and more convenient, it also world of electronic dance music who are engaged with the results in ‘narrower’ digital collections. This makes artistic and creative elements of mixing and DJing for (re)discovering music from within one’s own collection far nightclubs. All of the DJs in our study could be referred to less likely, thus reducing the scope for creativity. as experienced ‘DJ/Producers’ who are actively involved in “With MP3s, you basically just buy the ones that you want, so it kind making dance music as well as performing regularly to of kills the idea of an EP [Extended Play], because you don’t have to buy the whole EP, so it’s not a real collection as such.” audiences in clubs. Regardless of the medium, our participants purchased the We accompanied three DJs to three different events that vast majority of their music through specialised online were staged in the same city in the UK. ‘Detonate’ is a stores such as juno.co.uk, boomkat.com and chemical- long-standing urban music event which started as a Drum records.co.uk, which provide resources that are attractive to and Bass and Hip-Hop night in 1999 and has since grown to DJs, including relevant metadata that helps them select encompass many more styles of electronic dance music tunes with a view to how they can be mixed with others. such as Dubstep, Breakbeat and UK Garage, attracting top Two important attributes of this metadata are the key and national and international DJs along the way. ‘Wigflex’, tempo of the tracks. Tempo is essential to predicting another electronic dance music event run by a record label whether a new track can be mixed with existing ones in the of the same name, also encompasses varied musical styles collection, and key is important in determining whether two and is known for its experimental and forward-thinking tracks will mix together harmoniously. music. ‘Give Them’ is a smaller UK Garage event with a “Some websites tell you the key and tempo as well, which maybe more student-oriented focus.