DJ is a music composer?

Posted on

Member Since: May 25, 2002

until today i still hv a question in my head, those dj like fat boy slim, chemical brothers,n etc... r they a musician? they know any intruments? do they nid to hv any music knowledge in order to create music like them? they seems like combining different sample of beat n sound to create such music..m i correct? i still doubt bout those dj create their own sample or get it somewhre?

[ Back to Top ]


Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 08:39 am

I don't feel I have any place telling anyone they are or are not an artist...

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 09:31 am

Here's some questions we must ask ourselves-

1) what is music? is tapping your pen on the desk music? hmmmm- tough question.

2) if you answered yes to the first question, then the tapper must be a musician. Musician- one who makes music.

i guess you can go from there.

sloppy dice, drinks twice
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2003


Oct 08, 2003 09:42 am

I don't really listen to that genre of music so I can't really comment on those artists named. Yes, they are musicians. I don't think that music is an area where you can rate others as pass/fail about whether or not they are musicians... I agree with the other posters. Tapping a pencil can count as making music.
If you were to ask instead whether I respect the work, the art, or the abilities of those individuals who reshape the music of others into new arrangements, the answer would typically be no. I am not usually impressed by people who add a dance-type drum track to an existing song and call it new art. I don't think that imaginative cover songs fall into this category, though - some cover songs are done by people who really put a new spin on the music.

Cone Poker
Member
Since: Apr 07, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 09:49 am

the way I determine if something is art to me is simple. I ask myself "can the majority of people do it, can I do it". Truth is, the majority of people cannot take samples and create a drum beat and have them work together in a song, much less have that song get so well known that people remember it. DJing is music, if you don't think it is try cutting up some samples and creating a drumbeat and synthline and have it sound good. The only way to appreciate something is to try it.

Member
Since: Jun 28, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 11:05 am

i feel that if you like what you are doing you are an artist. i believe everytype of music is art. just because you don't like it dosn't mean it dosn't totally satisfiy somebody elses musical needs. tonyd1970 said it best thou

Freeleance Producer/Engineer/Gtr
Member
Since: Aug 11, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 11:12 am

yes they are musicians. if you consider someone that sits in front of a PC and programs music with fruityloops and posts his mp3's online a musician, then they are no less of an artist then we are.

DJ's that just rip samples from other artists and make new arrangements out of them don't usually do ONLY that. the debate there would be if they are creating something original or not, and usually those DJ's don't just remix they create there own music too... granted it might be a combination of beats from other tracks but how it's arranged is pure creativity. personally i think of sampling no different then two other artists using the same keyboard patch to make different songs.

oh and yes tapping a pencil is music, i do it all the time and i believe Trent Reznor would agree. it doesn't however make me a drummer.

Freeleance Producer/Engineer/Gtr
Member
Since: Aug 11, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 11:19 am

what else is quite strange is that many artists are overlooked today because they create art with PC's rather than canvas. i believe that is wrong too. just look at some of the work a friend of mine does: www.risingconviction.com/bryandhughes/artwork/
which is all original and done with Photoshop.

of course it may not be your cup of tea but are these types of artists any less deserving than Picaso?

Frisco's Most Underrated
Member
Since: Jan 28, 2003


Oct 08, 2003 01:33 pm

I agree with el musico in his reference to the keyboard. But if you take it a step further, when you play a wave table synth, you are, at a basic level just triggering pre recorded samples to make music. DJ Composers like those mentioned in the first post are basically doing the same thing, only they are finding samples from different places.

The way I look at it is, music is just latent sound ready to be played. It doesn't really matter if the sounds are in the computer about to be triggered by a program, or if they are released by a finger plucking a guitar string.

However, I do think it is pretty un-creative to sample whole music phrases, the way lots of hip hop songs have done over the years.

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 01:49 pm

Fat Boy Slim and Chemical Brothers are producers. They don't just spin other people music, they produce their own. When shows like this play live, they're not just two turntables and a mixer. There's synths, drum machines, samplers, laptops, etc involved.

ANyone who thinks it's easy to product good electronic music, i dare them to download the FruityLoops demo, (or Reason or P5 whatever's your cup of tea) and come up with something that compares with anything the Chemical Brothers have done.

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 01:54 pm

"tonyd1970 said it best thou"
hahhahahahaha. if i had a nickle for everytime i heard that, id have a nickle! hahhahaa.

its odd- i think of most of you as, well... sorta part time hacks at music. (myself most of all, and i know some of you are pro or nearly pro so dont slam me. its a general thing.)
anyway whats odd is- a thread like this- then hearing some of the most intelectual, intellegent, and thought provoking analysis of an idea.
I think im an artist because:
im doing my job one second, then something forms in my head.... i take pen and paper and write a lyric. thats art to me

or im watching star trek and my mind wants tau- pall, but the corner of my ear hears what my fingers have done on the guitar on my lap and during comercial- i find the lyrics and put it together. and actually make a song. thats art.
as a joke i always say im more autistic that artistic but i do create original music from almost scratch.

if you had a dictionary- totally un-abridged- then you'd have every book ever written. doesn't make it as scary as steven king, or exciting as robin cook. do you consider them artists? all the words have already been written.... its just how You arrange it. (Can i get another Tonyd put it best?) ohhhhh Duff man!

sloppy dice, drinks twice
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2003


Oct 08, 2003 02:00 pm

If I hear something that makes me say, "wow, now THAT'S music" - then I am duly impressed and rate accordingly the skills of the composer/performing artist. If I hear something that makes me say "yawn" or "it's been done" or doesn't engage me - it's still art, I just don't care to hear it. One man's killer cd is another man's coaster. The fact that a piece of music might have taken 100 hours to record doesn't mean I'm going to like it - it doesn't matter to me whether it's recorded on a computer, recorded live, or pieced together step-by-step by someone who can't play a traditional instrument. Art makes impressions - impressions make Art.

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 02:16 pm

having never "really" thought about this.... my beer says that i dont have to be impressed at all to think that its music. What i like and dislike dont have anything to do with it. Hard work doesnt have anything to do with it. all of the music in side me has evolved from what I like and have heard over the years.

heres an odd question- phil collins did a solo album playing all the insturments as keys on his keyboard (except the drums which he played for real)- we all know hes a musicain- but is he a guitarist for this or a sampler with a great ear??

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 05:09 pm

Phil Collins is musician wether he's writing the soundtrack for Miami Vice or tapping a pencil on his desk

The fat one always watches us.
Member
Since: Nov 08, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 05:15 pm

yep yep yep jamie- but is he a guitarist because he used guitar samples and played keyboard?

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Oct 08, 2003 05:18 pm

does it matter? i have some stuff i'm working on where i sampled myself playing guitar and then triggered the samples in fruity loops. i'd say no, unless he played the guitar himself for those samples. i was just making making rhetoric

Member
Since: May 25, 2002


Oct 09, 2003 06:59 am

thanks u guys, i think i m clearer bout it..

Member
Since: Apr 24, 2003


Oct 10, 2003 04:28 am

so long as it comes from the right place and hits the right place with someone, it's music.

as someone who makes dance music and breakbeat i can say that at least as much thought and effort goes into that as any band i have ever been in. i use some samples, nearly all manipulated, but the basis of all songs is melody, harmony and rythm, and it's how you construct them, or even if you construct them, that makes the difference between prefabricated noise and music.

i too am retiscent about fatboy slims current remixing phase, he's created some great moments in music over the years, from the housemartins, pizzaman, that funk band and as himself, but his remixes are ususally pretty lame money making ventures i reckon.

chemical brothers are very good live, saw them anout 6 years ago and they blew me away.

Member
Since: Apr 24, 2003


Oct 10, 2003 04:30 am

oh, and some djs are musicians too, especially folk like qbert, mixmaster mike etc use their 1210s as instruments. anyone trying to do what they do can try and dispute that!!!

Member
Since: Dec 16, 2002


Oct 10, 2003 06:32 am

These guys are cutting edge. Why do I say that?

Well because what they do today they could not have done 20 years ago, the technology just wasn't available. Theirs in THE music of today - of now. Its looking at the possibilities that technological change has made possible and saying 'let's see what we can do with this'.

They can't be compared to anything that went before because what they do is brand new ie cutting up samples of others mucic, adding electronic beats/instruments, lining it all up and creating some music to dance to. You just couldn't do that in the 1960's and 70s. When Lennon created Revolution Number 9 (on the White Album) he had to cut up pieces of tape and splice them together. If had been doing that now he would instead have used samples.

So yes they are artists, just like an artist can take newspaper articles bits of magazines, old rope, plaster, etc and 'mix' them all together to make a piece of 'art' so these guys do the same with sound.

Incidently Fat Boy Slim used to be a musician in a UK pop band in the 1980s - can't remembr their name though.

...bringing sexy back
Member
Since: Jul 01, 2002


Oct 10, 2003 01:04 pm

he was in the housemartins with that geezer out of the beautiful south wasnt he?

Related Forum Topics:



If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.