OPINION: Do You Consider DJs Musicians?
 

Up for debate...do you consider a DJ as a musician or only a person that plays an actual "instrument" a musician? Is or can a turntable be an instrument? What do you think?

yes.....


..in my eyes anyone who uses music and gets a reaction is a musician.....using other peoples music is a point of contention...but thats for another thread.....

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][SIZE=6][FONT=Times New Roman] I Wrecon They shud! Ya need a bit of talent to do that dont ya!

i dont really like dem there 2 cheezy i much betta prefere a live rock band wid instruments but much betta muzic!!!:)

Yes definatley. Have any of you ever tried Djing? I did it for about a 2 years and even with my basic set-up its very complex. and any professional dj's have such a incredible sense of rhythm its insane. Does anyone know what beat matching is? you dont wanna know.

DJs could be consider musicians. I see musicians as ppl who can play an instrument and sing live without the help of tapes or cds to help them.

Definitely, I have a few friends who dj, one of them tried to teach me, it's really complicated. I see musicians as anyone who creates music, or tailors music to their own personality, mixing in their own creativity with the original artist's creation. So in that respect, dj's are definitely musicians.

Making music through a computer isn't the same as making it with a guitar granted but I doubt most rock guitarist could program a keyboard or scratch a turntable. The two aren't related and therefore isn't really fair to compare them together.

^ the tuba and the guitar aren't related either, so does that mean you can't compare the two as musical instruments? they're both instruments used to create music, as is a computer program or a turntable.

learning how to program a computer and how to turn a record the right way to get that super cool scratch noise is nothing compared to learning a real insturment like guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, violin etc..

djs dont create music, they simply alter it.

maybe i should have been more clear. They are both instruments to an extent and both can create music but its like walking and dancing they use the same movements but in a very different way and therefore are realted but at the same time aren't, you see what i mean?

Dj's are definately musicians they produce music so they are. Dj'ing is a brilliant hobbie and is very complicated. I gave it a try and was very hard :( ... My brother used to DJ he was well good and did his own gigs :)

they dont produce music though. they simply throw a record or 2 together and make them sound neat. i could do that with 1500 dollars in dj equipment

^ a guitarist throws a few notes or chords together and makes it sound cool. and there's lot more to it than just throwing it together. you have to match the beats, find two melodies that work together, whats more they have to blend it all together seamlessly and artistically, making sure the new melody isn't monotonous or repetitive, its alot more complicated than just throwing on a few records at the same time.

I would consider a musician to be a person that CREATES music using an instrument.

A DJ is someone that uses music that is already created by other people to make his sound.

i agree that although the have to have an extreme amount of talent to perform their sound to a high standard, i still cant help thinking they are piggybacking off the sound that other musicians have created.

Interesting, what would that make a singer or band doing a cover song?

i would still consider them as musicians seeing as they are still using instruments to create the music even though the music has been made before

I say yes,but i don't like my own answer.

Sure, DJing is a skill, but just because it is a skill, does not make it musicianship. spution said "in my eyes anyone who uses music and gets a reaction is a musician." By that logic, politicians are musicians becuase they "use" music at conventions and they do get a reaction. Throwing a record on does not make you a musician.

according to www.dictionary.com

the definition of a musician is

One who composes, conducts, or performs music, especially instrumental music.

and in my opinion a deck is not a musical instrument, it is a peice of equipment that plays recorded music.

that logic would work out great if all dj's did was put a reconrd on a deck, but they do a lot more than that. They match beats of many different songs to create something that sounds completely different. And anyway, that definition did not state that a musician HAS to play and insrument. It said it is someone who composes, conducts, or performs music. isn't that pretty much what a dj does?

For a start a dj does not compose original music, they use EXISTING music therefore the sound they produce is not original, they do not conduct, that would mean having to arrange all the different instruments to creat the music, and they dont perform music as they would need to "To give a public presentation of" or "To enact (a feat or role) before an audience", to do this requires instrument that creates music.

i think you misinterpreted the last part of the definition "especially INSTRUMENTAL music" this comment suggests you need to use INSTRUMENTS

I think if peeps copy ova songs as long as its gd & it wasnt a legend they copd its alrite wot do u tink dude?

My thought process here (and for the sake of argument), was a comparison in that if a DJ was considered to NOT be a musician BECAUSE he was only using music created by others, does that therefore mean that a singer or band that performs a song made famous by another artist equate to making that artist doing the cover version less of a musician? He did not create that song.

I still believe that a DJ CAN be considered a musician...that's my stand and I'm sticking to it. Music, like art, is in the eye (ear) of the beholder, and indeed, a very controversial subject! I pass the microphone over to the next person on the soapbox....

DJing is definatley a form of musicianship.

DJ's do, to an extent, compose their own music. During a mix set, which is completely unrehearsed, a DJ has to spontaneosly invent a sound, a rhythm, a flow. It takes EONS of practice.

A guitarist certainly didnot "invent" the G chord, yet they use it in the composition of their musical pieces to invoke a reaction or response from the audience. A DJ, takes a pre-existing song, or musical piece (it is NOT uncommon for a DJ to arrange their own ORIGINAL songs and then ReMix them during a live set) and makes on the spot tweaks to it, such as rearranging the pitch, tempo, BPM, bass and treble counts and can even edit out entire sections of the rhythm to invoke a reaction or response from the audience. Songs are to a live set of a DJ as a chord or riff is to a composition of a guitarist.

In my eyes both are bona fide musicians. Happy to say I do both.