Selecting in a sea of mediocrity
We have a ‘selectors’ brand, supposedly it is for a specific type of DJ who has a unique capacity to dig up hidden gems, bring together lost classics, shine light on forgotten sounds. Certainly there are some DJs who will be more inclined to doing this, others might be more narrowly focused on contemporary releases. Either way, the job is the same, even if it feels like less people are aware of that now.
The technical barriers of entry to DJing have been getting lower. With first laptops, and now CDJs, it is easier to take up DJing. This has reduced the amount of time and skill needed to be able to play in public without trainwrecking everything. There are definitely positives to this, it gets more people exploring and trying DJing, some of who might have otherwise being dissuaded. Yet the learning curve that came with vinyl was never just about beat mixing. It is a process of learning the craft, discovering what a DJ needs to do and not do, all while sharpening one’s ear.
Where does that leave us? More DJs with the capacity to mix and string tracks together, but who lack the learning and experience necessary to select tracks well and build a set properly. This is not necessarily a new problem, and the learning curve differs from person to person, but overall, I would say this gap - between sufficient technical capacity and actual DJing sense - is more widespread and apparent. I’d also say that it is less easy for the DJ to be aware they suffer from this weakness. When you are trainwrecking every mix on vinyl, you really know you still have a lot to figure out…
The point of this is not a vinyl reactionary kind of argument, that is pointless and tiresome. There are advantages and disadvantages with each medium, and it is possible to become a great / good DJ - or remain a bad / mediocre DJ - with whatever format you prefer. I have seen amazing and terrible DJing in all shapes and sizes…
There is also a lower barrier of entry when it comes to getting access to music. With the huge shift to digital, it is cheaper and easier to get tracks to play. Again, this is generally positive. I have never really understood those who try to restrict or limit access to music, having super limited releases and so on. But what this means is that if needed, you can quickly pull together enough music to be able to play a mediocre set of whatever. It does not take much time or effort to put together a basic playlist.
Not only is it is easier to find music, it is easier to produce and release music. Again, this is generally positive. More opportunities and easier access. Yet again, one consequence of this lower barrier is that there ends up being a never-ending and constantly growing flood of music. And, of course, there is a lot of bad music. That is relatively easy to spot and avoid. Not as easy as I thought, based on current trends, though. But I will complain about bad 90s trance rips another day, although the trends I am discussing here help explain why we have more DJs playing bad 90s trance rips. Anyway, what I want to raise here is the problem of good music. Increasingly the difficultly is finding the great amidst the good.
Coming back to DJs as selectors: yes, all DJs are selectors, it is a dumb label. Still, it does remind us that selecting the right tracks is a fundamental part of DJing. And I would say the challenge of selecting has been changing. We are overwhelmed with music that is good / ‘good enough’. It works, on first / casual listen it sounds fine. But it is not special, it is not distinctive, it will not survive careful inspection. And here we come back to the issue of developing the ear a DJ needs, learning how to sort the great from the good. If this isn’t happening, then you are not getting that careful inspection. And so, you end up with mediocre DJs playing mediocre music. I guess that is a form of selecting, but not the kind we want.
The pandemic has really worked to speed up and amplify many dynamics in our world. This is something I will talk about repeatedly here, I expect. Right now, it is relevant in terms of amplifying this flood of average and good music being released. With producers grounded, more and more music was churned out, yes, some of it great, but so much of it has been ‘good enough’. And so, the haystack gets bigger and bigger, the needles more and more difficult to find.
Sifting through the constant flow of releases, wading through the mediocrity, finding the right music needed, identifying rare special tracks, and figuring out how to put it all together to create something with meaning and purpose, this is increasingly what selecting entails in 2021. To do this, there needs to be a strong recognition that ‘good enough’ is not good enough.