DJs need more than spinning records

DJs need more than spinning records

John Badalu, Contributor, Jakarta

The floor is crawling at a notorious club in downtown Kota, West
Jakarta. People are not looking at each other. Everybody is too
busy to wait for that beat to sway their bodies. The music is
pumping harder and harder and people are getting hysterical.

This music guru of the night definitely knows how to fulfill
people's needs for melodic release. DJs have arrived in a big way
in the entertainment world in the past two decades.

Looking back at the history of deejaying, turntables started
out as toys for lower classes. The turntable was invented at the
end of the 19th century, but almost nobody had heard of its
existence.

It only became popular among poor Jamaicans and Puerto Ricans
(at that time the Puerto Ricans who lived in New York were called
Nuyoricans) in New York. They couldn't afford to hire live bands
and singers, so they played records nonstop on two turntables
just to keep the party grooving.

This was when the term disc jockey was used for guys who
happened to have a collection of records and knew how to operate
a turntable. The music played by the Disc Jockey at that time was
called Nuyorican beat and was considered to be decadent.

It was not until the 1980s that deejaying broke through to
make a mark on pop culture. When French DJ Jean-Michel Jarre
composed Zoolook using samples of different kinds of music,
people turned their head and listened to this bizarre sound. At
the same time hiphop music and break-dancing were taking the
world by storm.

DJ culture peaked in the 1990s. Suddenly DJs were competing
fiercely with live singers. Clubs started to open in towns around
the world, showcasing the talents of DJs, who were creating their
own identities, mixing tunes and generally taking over as the
kings of the night. It seemed like every singer and group who
released an album included a bonus track remixed by a DJ.

Take the duo Everything But The Girl, for example. Their
single Missing was an average seller, but when the same track was
remixed by a DJ, it sold millions and millions of copies.

Nowadays, world-class DJs have their own legions of screaming
fans. The quiet island of Ibiza in Spain got a facelift and
became famous for dance parties attended by clubgoers from all
over the world.

DJs are the hottest commodities in entertainment. They travel
fast and earn thousands of dollars a night to play records in the
most glamorous cosmopolitan cities. What a life!

While the economy struggles, the DJ business has never been
better and it keeps climbing. DJs now have their own record
labels and are chased by producers, party organizers and
beautiful women.

Here in this country, the DJ scene started in the 1980s. Back
then, the only DJ we knew was Adam Jagwani who resided in the
notorious and famous Stardust Discotheque in Kota. But he sure
was one hell of the disco king. People rushed to buy the disco
song compilations that he mixed and recorded.

Aside from Stardust, the hot places to go and be seen were
Ebony in Kuningan, South Jakarta, and Oriental in Jakarta Hilton
International and Musro in Hotel Borobudur, both in Central
Jakarta.

Creeping into the 1990s, more clubs were opened and people had
more choices to go dancing. The music started to shift into
heavier beats and a scratching mix of different sound. More
amateur DJs appeared and tried their best to win the crowds.

The decade was definitely the highrise of clubbers here. There
were parties going on almost every weekend. Tanamur, one of the
oldest discos in town which is located in Tanah Abang, Central
Jakarta, was always packed on weekends. It was such an
interesting place, with all kind of people can be found. From
prostitutes (male and female), to businessmen, expatriates,
students and also celebrities.

Around 1993, however, the DJ phenomenon was always related to
drugs, with ecstasy pills inundating dance floors. People who
craved for the beat seemed not to get enough by dancing. They
needed a boost, more energy, more hard beats and adrenaline. And
the music that only goes with it was the monotonous house music.

Things went better by the late 1990s. There have been many big
parties sponsored by cigarette companies that used DJs as
entertainment. Parties got more various and more creative in
concept. And names like DJ Riri, DJ Anton, DJ Deni, DJ Romy, DJ
Wingky and scores of others emerged.

They play more of mellower tune at a lower tempo instead of
house music. Chill out music, new age, ambient, eclectic, soulful
sound is preferred instead of hard techno, tribal or trance.

Those popular DJs don't play in one certain club anymore. They
prefer to spin the vinyls for big organized parties. The clubs
are more for the young emerging DJs to start their professional
careers.

Although the live bands in cafes are still favorite
entertainment, slowly and convincingly the scratching DJs are
stealing the market bit by bit. Clubs like Embassy and Lava
Lounge in Senayan, Retro in Semanggi, Musro and Stadium in Kota
are always packed any day of the week.

Some big international DJs have also toured Indonesia,
including the famous Ministry of Sound, Graham Wallace, Mario Piu
and many more.

The DJ scene is heating up right now. The demands are high,
and so DJ schools are now flooded by young music spinner freaks.
Whatever the music is, DJs rules. They are absolutely the music
masterminds who make people keep grooving.