In the unregulated industry of DJing, it feels like a reckoning is coming for all you non-mixing-by-ear, button-pushing, Serato face-having, sync button-using, influencers rebranding themselves as DJs because you have no other measurable talents.
At this year's Coachella, "DJ" Grimes experienced some "technical difficulties". She put out a statement on X, which read:
"I want to apologize for the technical issues with the show tonight. I wanted to come back rly strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself - to save time this was one of the first times I've outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm's and letting someone else organize the tracks on the sd card etc. I had a bad feeling beforehand not having run everything thru the cdjs myself and tho I flagged it I wasn't insistent. 1 if u want it done right, do it yrself
2 be a cunt even if ppl feel bad
3 probably pretend it's fine and engage w the crowd rather than spend a whole show slumped over the desk trying to fix software when ur meant to be entertaining.
I will personally organize all the files next week. I will not let such a thing happen again.
I've spent months on this show, making music and visuals, and admittedly am not in the best mood atm
But, yeh - next week will be flawless, everything will run thru my hands
Some good lessons learned. Bless y'all. The cdjs were showing me bpms like 370 so I couldn't even mix manually by ear and the front monitors were off so it was literally sonic chaos on my end trying to guess how stuff was sounding for u guys
Plz forgive me! Love, always 
"
Grimes basically tried her best to scam a Coachella audience into believing she could DJ but when "all of the tracks on the playlist she outsourced read "double the tempo," the DJ gods exposed her for being the DJ fraud she is! So, her only recourse was to fix her shades and grab the mic and admit she was "trying to do the math," on the fly with the song tempos but they were "unmixable". A true DJ knows playing music is an art, not a science. The solution to her Rekordbox snafu was simple, mix the damn songs using her God-given sense of hearing. This begs the question, why would you "DJ" in front of tens of thousands of people at a music festival if you don't know how to DJ?
Grimes’ recent Coachella debacle is what happens when the pervasive lies catch up to fake “DJs” who take undue advantage of their social status by exploiting the art of DJing for the sake of sustaining popularity. Grimes, Deadmau5, David Guetta, the list goes on and on, are self-promoting cheats who use software like Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor, Ableton, etc., to mask the reality that THEY CAN’T DJ!
Granted, many influencers do unethical things to gain more public adoration but scamming your audience into thinking you’re a DJ is the height of Party and Bullshit, and to hell with any DJ or person who claims, “the audience doesn’t care if you can’t mix by ear because they just want to hear good music”. The obliviousness to creativity from a faceless crowd isn’t more worthy of questioning than a DJ’s failure to be truthful. There’s no honor in deceit. When you rely on the advent of technology that makes the process of DJing easier to present your “creativity” to audiences that paid upwards of $719 to hear you spin, you’re a fraud. IDGAF how often you get booked. Quantity of gigs does not legitimize a DJ’s artistic abilities when the whole reason you’re appearing on stage is because you’re projecting a gift for playing music through an artificial intelligence proxy.
From deep fake DJs like Grimes to the platforms that promote them, It seems like everyone's a sellout in the industry now. Social media has made it so that if your aesthetic is right, you'll be invited to speak on every DJ podcast and perform at music festivals despite your inauthenticity as a DJ. If you advocate for A.I. "DJs", then you’re a spokesperson for grifters who’ve devalued the art of DJing, respectfully.
“Why learn to write if you can type”
“Why cook if you can order”
“Why listen if you can see the BPMs”
Don’t think, AI will…
This is what happens when the computer fails and you’re relying too much on technology…
If there’s a silver lining to what happened, I guess it proves the point that not everybody is on the pre-recorded tip as Deadmau5 would like to suggest.
Wow!!
David Guetta is djing for 40 years. He has a long history mixing with vinyl. It’s not that he can’t dj, he just doesnt care anymore as he realized that his new audience cant tell the difference anyway
Careful just listing names off the dome without proper thought, Deadmau5 is a very capable DJ (and much more when it comes to live performance anyway)
Careful about what you think you know Bailey Sparks. “I’m not a DJ. I play live and think we put on a show. That’s it.” ~ Deadmau5
Party…..and Bullshit!
From a large scale promotors POV (and most other financial based services such as radio) they want whoever will pull in the most people/cash.
In the old days the DJs who could DJ the best were the spectacle and would pull the crowd. CDJs and then further more sync completely tipped that on it’s head. Now it’s whoever is the prettiest and best social media sales technique.
Newer generations are frequently more unaware what it’s like to watch and dance to a DJ who is playing on the fly, whilst the taming turntables. It’s understandable how and why things moved in the direction they have but something very special was lost along the way.
Grimes’ Coachella f**k up felt like the exposure that a lot of people were waiting for. This is hopefully a wake up to the industry and paying crowds for them to shift the focus back to those who have mastered the craft.
Let’s celebrate people who have devoted all their time and effort into something rather people who just ‘look the part’.
“Grimes’ Coachella f**k up felt like the exposure that a lot of people were waiting for.”
The DJ industry has devolved into a shit show of influencer and grifter DJs who are being subsidized by janky promoters, blood-sucking booking agents, and party people who are content with a DJ’s set so long as he/she plays the song they requested. The entire ecosystem of DJing needs to be gutted from top to bottom.
This is one reason why I never call myself a DJ and use turntablist or scratch artist instead, I can’t mix for shit in the traditional sense off two decks, let alone a controller and software I’ve only ever used less than a handful of times, so I don’t feel right misrepresenting myself as one. I’ve always used a combination of samplers and drum machines for my beats while my tables were just another instrument for me to play but even then, im still working way more off my ear then anything else for making samples blend. And then at the same time I get hassled on Twitter all the time for using that identifier by genZ kids who claim I’m just an elitist segregating a part of hip hop, that aren’t even a part of the scene to begin with and don’t understand that turtablists scratch to more then just hip hop beats either. But for real, to end on – fuck the entire festival ecosystem that birthed and convinced these plug and play hacks that they were worth ppl spending hundreds to go see the most mediocre tracks possible
I appreciate your honesty Dank Reynoldz. Respect.
In 20 years there will be no human DJ, but there will also be no soul and euphoric experiences channeled through a great DJ. Young people are being conditioned to listen to crap and some of them yearn for what people talk about in the past and it’s why vynl has made a come back. Older generations experienced hearing new music, different music, different off the beaten path selections from DJs that influenced their taste in music through a meticulously engineered sound system in a club that was sonically perfect. That looks to be gone.
I been saying it for years eventually the fans are going to realize all these djs that can’t mix by ear or spin vinyl are con artist
I do live sound/stage work (I tour a lot) but also am a hip producer with the upmost respect for the DJ Culture. One summer I was on a major national tour for a sponsor running sound but part of my gig was playing music and working with them emcee we had on cues for different engagements we had throughout the course of the day but my main gig was doing sound for our acoustic sets daily. Anyways, between the dead time I would be the playing the music at the activation all day. One day a few of the production people approached me to “DJ” an after party for the whole tour and the bands on the tour. My response was “Ehh, I’m not a DJ though. I just know what music to play for the audience we have here during the day on Spotify and make playlists to cue from. I’d rather y’all get one of the DJs from the small hip hop tent to do it. They can rock a party the right way.”. They were acting like I was being humble and modest which wasn’t the case at all. Mind you I did start DJ’ng before I was producing but it had been years since I did it. I ended up not doing it but the point is normal people really don’t have a clue at all about what a actual tried and true DJ is and only go by how much they like the music they choose to play. I wish people respected the craft enough to know when to draw the line and say no.
I do live sound/stage work (I tour a lot) but also am a hip producer with the upmost respect for the DJ Culture. One summer I was on a major national tour for a sponsor running sound but part of my gig was playing music and working with them emcee we had on cues for different engagements we had throughout the course of the day but my main gig was doing sound for our acoustic sets daily. Anyways, between the dead time I would be the playing the music at the activation all day. One day a few of the production people approached me to “DJ” an after party for the whole tour and the bands on the tour. My response was “Ehh, I’m not a DJ though. I just know what music to play for the audience we have here during the day on Spotify and make playlists to cue from. I’d rather y’all get one of the DJs from the small hip hop tent to do it. They can rock a party the right way.”. They were acting like I was being humble and modest which wasn’t the case at all. Mind you I did start DJ’ng before I was producing but it had been years since I did it. I ended up not doing it but the point is normal people really don’t have a clue at all about what a actual tried and true DJ is and only go by how much they like the music they choose to play. I wish people respected the craft enough to know when to draw the line and say no……..
WOW! SMFH!
Wait what?? Deadmau5 can’t DJ??? Yes, it is true that he leans on Ableton and but he has openly stated that his Deadmau5 shows are “live” performances. He’s never claimed to be a DJ and therefore, I’m not even sure why his name was included or compared to Grimes here.
However, have you ever watched a Testpilot set?? I have seen him use CDJs for these sets and NOT any kind of software.