By David Thacker
Have you ever heard a song for the first time and felt like its love at first sight? You are drawn into the music but then the chorus starts and it does not live up to your expectations. Or maybe you have wished that your favorite singer would forget their current band and start a new band to better fit his or her style? What if you could fix that, what if you had the ability to redo an artist’s music to be “your way”? This is the goal of a DJ, to take music and give it new life. To create new sounds and styles, to blend a variety of genres into one package so smoothly and effectively that the audience cannot resist the urge to dance.
People in Nashville are constantly exposed to music, but do they ever hear it from the hands of a DJ? Historically Nashville is known as the Music city and musicians have come to Nashville for decades each hoping to develop a name for themselves. However, I am interested in a different type of musician, the DJ. How do they fit into the cavernous music scene of Nashville Tennessee?
I have always been intrigued with music. I grew up playing violin and later taught myself guitar. I constantly experimented with new genres and was eager to create unique music. In High School I started making electronic music, programming drum machines and synthesizers through digital software. But it was not until my Junior year that I was introduced to Djing, a new form of expression outside of what I could create with instruments. I began starting my own shows and developing a decent repertoire of original mixes. I found it fascinating how I could combine all of my favorite songs, then remix them into totally new concepts. The music still retained original elements, but it sounded completely different.
Today, I continue to have an interest in the DJ world and am eager to learn new techniques and improve my skill. I DJ at clubs in Nashville in addition to Belmont events. Yet because I am in school, I find that I never have time to immerse myself in the trade. I am a DJ, but I have little knowledge about other Djs in Nashville and I definitely am not part of the DJ culture in Nashville. I am always wondering, “what are all those other Djs up to around Nashville?”. I am taking this opportunity to find out and answer the question: what is the style of Nashville Djs?
A DJ‘s style is derived primarily through their music, however there are many other elements that form style. Thus it is important to gather information focusing on a variety of characteristics. I will study a Dj’s equipment, technique, his interaction with the audience, what kind of venues he performs at, and his purpose or goal. In addition, when I asses the style of Djs in Nashville, I must also explore the cultural elements involved. I need to learn how the city of Nashville and the people that reside in it affect the style of a DJ.
Overall I am interested in discovering if one popular style exists, or if there are a variety of styles; there might not even be any vibrant DJ culture at all. Whether it is a combination, or none of the above, I am excited to see where my journey will take me and what I will be able to learn when studying the style of Djs in Nashville.
~Methods~
It took me a while to become acquainted with the Nashville DJ scene and I stumbled around searching for ways to access the heart of it. Interviews would be crucial in collecting data, but I did not know who to interview. I felt like a detective looking for his first lead. Finally a friend of mine told me he knew DJ Illegal, who is a great DJ and a part of the club scene in Nashville. I gained some valuable leads in the process of interviewing Illegal. I found that an influential club called Gilligan’s was located in Murfreesborough and all the good Djs played there including DJ Wick-It, who was apparently a big deal in Nashville. With these two pieces of information and a lot of internet searches, I was able to connect the dots and start becoming informed about the Nashville DJ scene.
Interviews played a major role in my research and were extremely helpful to answer my research question. I had a phone interview with DJ Illegal but finding other Djs who were available to do the same was difficult. Thus I started sending out messages consisting of five questions. 1) How did you become interested in Djing? 2) How would you describe your own style? 3) How would you describe the style of the Nashville DJ scene? 4) What motivates you as a DJ? And 5) Are there other Djs in Nashville whose music you enjoy? I received responses from Seth Williams, DJ Orig, DJ Rick Ross, DJ Radio, and Amerigo Gazaway; In addition, I found interviews with DJ Wick-It and DJ Bateman online.
Not only did I interview Djs, but I also wanted to hear from club owners and managers. I emailed a short interview to them as well and asked: 1) As a club, what type of DJ are you looking to hire? 2) Has there been a DJ that has been successful at your club? And 3) How would you characterize the style of DJs you employ or encounter? I thought that it was important to see what aspects clubs valued because this would determine how Djs marketed their styles. The feedback was helpful but I only heard from Mercy Lounge, 12th & Porter, Wildhorse, and 3rd & Lindsley.
When collecting these interviews I was surprised that almost no one returned an answer to my questions, most DJs simply ignored my interviews. Before I started using Soundcloud the only DJ that responded was DJ Illegal, and even through Soundcloud more than half of my requests were ignored. It was the same story for the clubs. I sent out questions to over twenty clubs and only got a reply from four.
In addition to Djs and clubs, I conducted a survey of Belmont students and asked for their thoughts on Djs in Nashville. The survey was ten questions that focused on what types of music they liked and what types of Djs they liked. I also surveyed what they thought about the local DJ scene and how involved they were with it.
I also used other hands on methods to examine the style of Nashville Djs. I visited Play and McFadden’s and observed the two sites, took field notes, photos, and some videos. After my initial reactions I did some reflections on the materials I had collected in the field and drew diagrams of the sites. Halfway through the project I did some prewriting exercises to help give body to my thoughts about the DJ scene. These consisted of my compiled glossary of DJ language and writing about lists in the DJ world.
Lastly, I was constantly doing extensive internet research, which helped focus what I looked for in my interviews and field observations. I also found interviews and reviews of local Djs as well as a handful of live shows and video interviews on YouTube. One invaluable tool turned out to be the discovery of Soundcloud.com, an online community of musicians where Djs have profiles and post music. I listened to what the local Djs were producing but most importantly I conducted most of my interviews through Soundcloud. For whatever reason this was the best way to get in contact with Djs.
After I had collected my information, I gathered everything together and started compiling it into text documents on my computer. This allowed me to easily organize the different information into folders and it also helped me find what would be most helpful for certain themes.
In order to analyze my research I began looking through my collection and coloring text to show different themes. I used nine different colors to highlight text and display nine themes that emerged from the data I collected. After coloring all of the applicable text I started to outline which themes I wanted to discuss and which themes would either be thrown out or combined into other sections. Finally I decided on five themes that I used to answer my research question: what is the style of Djs in Nashville?
~Findings ~
The Key Players:
The first step that helped uncover some answers to my question was to find out which Djs were influential in Nashville. From the interactions I had on Soundcloud, I started to recognize the key players. I quickly saw the most notable Djs were Wick-It the Instigator, DJ Kidsmeal, and DJ Coach. These three all received praise from Djs I interviewed, clubs, and local magazines. Nashville Scene writes, “Wick-It's been a staple of the Nashville underground for almost a decade” (Nashville Scene, ). Daniel Slezinger, manager of 12th & Porter, boasts “Coach has successfully thrown what was declared ‘best party in Nashville’ by the Nashville scene for the last (2) years called ‘Y2K‘”. Finally, if you ask other Djs in Nashville, they will tell you their favorite is Kidsmeal. DJ Bateman declares “if you haven’t heard Kidsmeal… you are missing out. Way out.”
Wick-It and Kidsmeal are part of the DJ crew Mashville which includes DJ Bateman, DJ Orig, and Mike Vulcan. The group started in 2007 and is Nashville’s longest independent DJ showcase. The founders wanted to create a “monthly event rooted in hip hop, but also open to anything else the DJs wanted to play” (Culture Bully). It gives Djs a place to perform in Nashville, and does a great job promoting local talent . Members like DJ Bateman “enjoy having the opportunity to help introduce people to our project and get them excited about what we are doing for the Nashville DJ scene” (Quiet Entertainer). Without Mashville, Wick-it, Kidsmeal, and Coach; the style of Djs in Nashville would be quite different.
The Underground DJ Movement:
Mashville is gaining recognition, yet this particular DJ scene will not have their turntables spinning at Tootsies. The Music City is home to more than just conventional musicians but it has developed little to nourish them. I asked Third & Lindsley about Djs in Nashville and their reply was, “Thanks for thinking of 3rd, we don't do DJ's”. Wildhorse also gave me an interesting response, they said “our DJ’s are primarily Country Line Dance Instructors first and foremost”. I discovered the demand for unique Djs is not prevalent here. Nashville is devoted to its roots in country and rock, thus it is hard for DJs to gain exposure.
When I surveyed Belmont students, they also exhibited a lack of interest in Djs. Fifty percent made negative comments about Djs in Nashville. One student described them as “mediocre”. Not a single student considered an electronic genre to be their favorite music. Overall, most students enjoyed other forms of entertainment. Only four said they went to an event with a Dj a few times a month; the rest attended events with Djs only once a month, or even once a year.
So where are all the good Djs, and why do people prefer other entertainment? The Djs I spoke with, such as DJ Radio, claim DJ culture is “underground”. According to them , the serious Djs are not the ones commonly found at venues. DJ Illegal says “all the good DJs in Nashville know each other”, there is “very good talent in Nashville but its underground.” Groups such as Mashville and DJ Coach’s Y2k event at 12th & Porter work hard to gain public attention. However, the underground Djs who consider this their profession, receive little notice in a city built on voices and instruments.
The Underground Nashville Diversity :
What motivates the underground Djs and what is their purpose? I investigated the motivations and goals of Djs and discovered they all shared a few common outlooks. First and foremost they want to give their audience something to enjoy. DJ Radio said it was important “to have fun with it and make sure everyone else with you is having a great time”. Second, underground Djs value expertise and skill. DJ Orig describes that his motivation is “the growth and knowledge of the art form. Learning new scratch patterns and production techniques is primary for me”. A great DJ will invest years of work into refining their skill. Whether it is taking time to practice scratching or working on other skills such as remixing or beat matching (the ability to play to songs at the same tempo), the underground Djs of Nashville are hard at work perfecting their trade. Finally, underground Djs strive to form a creative style that stands out in the Nashville music scene. DJ Illegal states, “I want to provide a sound that is something unique to me and give somebody a great experience at a club”. Each DJ experiments to find a style that they can call their own; they want to set themselves apart from the pack.
In Wick-Its opinion, the drive to be different is what makes Mashville so successful. He says “we attribute most of the event’s lasting power to the wide variety of genres it includes” (CultureBully.com). DJ Bateman, also a Mashville member, echoes the sentiment and describes the Nashville music scene to be “never-ending… we have a robust, healthy assortment of competition” (quiet entertainer). The diversity of the underground Nashville DJ scene is almost overwhelming. One example is Amerigo Gazaway a local DJ and producer. He hesitate to confine himself and states, “I guess I am always experimenting and trying out new things so I try not to limit myself to one particular style or genre”. The diverse scene also includes DJ Ron, who I observed at Play. He created a special niche, combining his talent as a disc jockey and a video jockey. Metromix.com writes that DJ Ron is “cutting-edge” and reports he is able to “ beatmix dance music videos together, then add effects and visuals, remixing the video live in real time.”
The styles of underground Djs in Nashville are growing and constantly evolving. The local movement of Djs search for new ways to stay ahead of the curve and provide their audience with the sound of a true creative DJ. This intrinsic motivation distances the underground DJ from their more prevalent counterparts¾the bar Djs of Nashville.
The Bar DJ Versus the Club DJ:
The more information I collected, the more I saw two distinct styles emerge amongst Nashville Djs: the underground club DJ, and the bar DJ. The wealth of bars in Nashville all want upbeat, popular music to satisfy their customers; thus, there is an abundant demand for anyone who has basic DJ skills and equipment. It feels like “anyone in Nashville can be a DJ” according to DJ Rick Ross. He observes some Djs who “show up to a gig, press the sync button on their laptop, and call it a night” which is “not really [disc jockeys], more like BJs, button jockeys”.
Every DJ I interviewed had similar thoughts. DJ Orig calls the Bjs “push-button” Djs. DJ Radio confirms these “DJs are found in most of your bars in Nashville”; he portrays them as Djs who “just play tracks and just volume fade the tracks”. Yet another DJ, Seth Williams (or Details Details) describes the bar DJs as “the normal scene”. He sas the normal scene involves “playing top 40 or club classics and just letting the track play until the crowd would get bored and move on”. None of the underground Djs had positive remarks about button pushers and Bjs. Rick Ross even said “a majority of the Nashville BJs would find themselves without gigs” in other cities. Finally I thought one of DJ Illegal’s comments explained the situation well, when asked about his thoughts on Djs in Nashville he said:
It gets really political, and club owners are kinda taking the low ball DJs. They got DJs that come in and say yeah I'll do it for 50 bucks and some beer, and then there are the real DJs who are like I can't do that because that is how I am paying my rent.
My visits to Play and McFadden also portrayed the two different styles. At McFaddens Seth (not Seth Williams), who was previously a bartend, was given the role of DJ for the night. I could tell McFadden’s had little desire to hire a better DJ who would be more expensive. The crowd reflected this mentality and was filled with an older group of people, interested in drinking and hanging out. However at Play, DJ Ron runs the show. He layers every track he with interesting beats and his songs fade perfectly from one to the next. As a result the club is filled with people who are there to dance.
DJ Ron exemplifies the underground/club DJ, he dictates the atmosphere of the night; whereas, Seth resembles a Bj or Bar DJ, tucked away in a corner at McFadden’s simply providing background music.
Turntables and Technology:
The art of Djing relies heavily on technology. Djs must own many different components in order to start playing music at clubs. In order to be a professional DJ hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars must be spent on equipment. I’ve developed a glossary of DJ terms in one of my prewriting exercises. Interestingly, as I began to compile a list of terms it seemed to grow exponentially on itself; I found for every one term there were five more to explain it. The DJ profession is truly an art of combining music and technology; thus, new styles emerge with technological development . The style of many Djs has become rooted in digital software, and today a DJ can perform using only his laptop.
The rapid growth in technology is one reason that the button jockeys have become so prevalent in Nashville. Formerly Djs had many hoops to jump through. DJ Rick Ross relates,
I eventually bought my own Technics 1200s at [age] 15 and bought a lot of records over the internet imported from Europe, Italy, U.K., and Spain. When I first started this was the best way to get progressive, trance, and hardcore tunes... before the internet. Exchange rates and international shipping was pricy but also limited DJing to those who were really about their music.
However today, with access to the internet, Bjs can download software and all the music they need to start Djing. The days of pure analog turntables have disappeared and laptops are appearing on every stage.
This is a major reason why the “normal scene” has become dominated by Bjs in Nashville. They can land a gig at a number of different bars who only want someone to provide the same hit music from the Top40 charts that is played everywhere else. Technology also impacts the underground Djs of Nashville. Seth Williams says “technology is a huge motivator for me. I'm a bit of nerd so when I hear about a new technique or piece of gear being used out of context then I’m instantly drawn to experimentation”. Djs in Nashville are able to create new types of music with the advanced technology and like Seth Williams, they are experimenting with new styles and genres.
The Dubstep Revolution:
A new genre, dubstep, is a form of electronic dance music that surfaced in London around 1999. It is known for its “Wobble Bass”, a type of heavy bassline that moves rhythmically with a filter. Dubstep is quickly growing in Nashville and when I interviewed Djs, almost all of them mention this in their responses.
DJ Orig describes the style of Nashville DJs saying, “It seems like dubstep is the trend for the local scene”. Almost every DJ that plays electronic dance music is playing some sort of dubstep and the Nashville crowds love it. Andrew Mischke, manager of Mercy Lounge, characterizes dubstep as “the current craze.” He notices that it is “what the most successful DJs are playing”.
Mischke is right, major Nashville Djs such as Wick-It and Mike Vulcan, are having great success spinning dubstep at clubs. Both Djs released a series of albums entitled “Strictly Dubstep,” and have also created numerous popular dubstep remixes. Wick-It’s remix of the “Bed Intruder Song” even generated around 85,000 views on YouTube.
Armed with their laptops and software, young and hopeful dubstep Bjs are popping up everywhere. But others have mixed thoughts about the new genre. DJ Rick Ross said he has seen these new Djs “replay the same dubstep playlist over and over with no turntables, or CDJs”. Others like DJ Orig are disappointed to see the “slowly fading group of turntablist DJ's” give way to what he calls the “explosion of electronic controllerist DJ's”. A lot of underground Djs oppose the dubstep genre, but many embrace it and are hoping to gain exposure by jumping on the bandwagon. Currently a dubstep revolution is taking place, and wild dubstep fans may finally bring some public recognition to Mashville members and other underground Djs.
~Conclusion~
So what is the style of Djs in Nashville? The main aspect of style I found was the classification of bar DJ and undergound DJ. It is this distinction which defines the entire set of Djs in Nashville. A DJ’s music, technique, equipment, and the places he performs are all contained in the two separate styles.
The bar DJ’s style is characterized by Top40 music that is popular throughout the country. Thus their musical genre is all the same, they derive their set from the same source and as a result are always playing the same music. The BJ normally uses a laptop either alone or connected to a midi controller. They prefer this type of equipment because it is cheap, and easy to understand. Their techniques are not extremely varied, there are better Bjs in the “normal scene” than others, but overall each keeps their technique simple. They do not include fancy transitions, they do not normally match the tempo or key of different songs, in fact they do not normally mix two songs together. However the BJ continues to be the most prevalent style of DJ. Nashville’s bars are filled with the button jockey and a lot of people in Nashville expect, if not want, this type of music to be played at a bar.
The contrasting underground or club DJ has a much different style. Within the set of underground Djs, the genre of music they play varies; no two club Djs would describe their genre to be the same. Each DJ prefers a slightly different brand of music and is able to produce music that sounds unique. The equipment underground DJs use is high quality and expensive. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be able to use it but it allows them to have complete control over their sound. The club DJ creates remixes and mashups and most have mastered advanced turntablism techniques such as scratching, crabbing, and beat juggling. Unfortunately these Djs are limited to a select group of clubs whose audiences enjoy electronic dance music and good DJs. There are simply a majority of bars in Nashville and not many true clubs for underground Djs to perform at.
Nashville is divided between these two styles of Bjs and underground Djs, yet within the underground movement a diverse range of styles are growing and taking root in Nashville. Djs like DJ Ron, Kidsmeal, and the wonderful DJ crew, Mashville, each have created styles that are different than other club Djs. Overall they can be categorized into the same classification of “underground but once you examine this classification individually a wealth of diversity is found.
However one trend cannot be ignored: the dubstep trend. The one musical genre that a lot of club Djs share is dubstep. The growing trend is creating a buzz in Nashville and it appears that most of the underground fans are dubstep fans. Although many aspects to club Djs are different, when discussing genre most Nashville Djs have become part of the dubstep bandwagon, incorporating the new style of music into their sets.
Finally I took a step back and saw that overall I have discovered an even broader set of style that encompasses the Nashville DJ scene. I believe that the two types of Djs, bar Djs and underground Djs, can be summarized with one word to describe the difference in their style: artistry. The underground Djs are not in it for the money, but according to Amerigo Gazaway are motivated through
an awesome crowd, other DJs killin' it, finding cool records. Every single fan, "like", "favorite", comment, download, cd purchase, remix, spin, and shout-out.
They pursue creativity, innovation, uniqueness, talent, and above all the ability to entertain an audience. Hence the underground DJ can be described as an artist. In contrast, the bar Djs can not be described as artists at all. They have similar genres and are driven primarily by a monetary goal; as a result, the Bj lacks all forms of artistry.
The style of Nashville Djs is split into two groups, but in order to describe this collective style I characterize it in terms of artistry: either a DJ is full of artistry, or he is lacking in artistry.
Sources:
"Batemen Design Addvs Value to the Nashville Music Scene." Quiet Entertainer. Web. 2 May 2011. .
"BEST OF METROMIX NASHVILLE 2011." Nashville.metromix.com. Web. 2 May 2011. .
Deline, Chris. "INTERVIEW WITH “THE BROTHERS OF CHICO DUSTY” PRODUCER, DJ WICK-IT." Culturebully.com. Web. 2 May 2011. .
Maloney, Sean L. "Six Degrees of Chico Dusty." NashvilleScene.com. NashvilleScene. Web. 2 May 2011. .
"Nashville DJs Bring the Dance Party to the Boro'" Buropulse. Web. 2 May 2011. .
