DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music

The DJ stands at a juncture of technology, performance and culture in the increasingly uncertain climate of the popular music industry, functioning both as pioneer of musical taste and gatekeeper of the music industry. Together with promoters, producers, video jockeys (VJs) and other professionals in dance music scenes, DJs have pushed forward music techniques and technological developments in last few decades, from mashups and remixes to digital systems for emulating vinyl performance modes. This book is the outcome of international collaboration among academics in the study of electronic dance music. Mixing established and upcoming researchers from the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Australia and Brazil, the collection offers critical insights into DJ activities in a range of global dance music contexts. In particular, chapters address digitization and performativity, as well as issues surrounding the gender dynamics and political economies of DJ cultures and practices.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction Hillegonda C. Rietveld Chapter 2: Subjectivity in the Groove: Phonography, Digitality, and Fidelity Bernardo Alexander Attias Chapter 3: DJ Technologies, Social Networks, and Gendered Trajectories in European DJ Cultures Anna Gavanas and Rosa Reitsamer Chapter 4: ‘Journey to the Light’? Immersion, Spectacle, and Mediation Hillegonda C. Rietveld Chapter 5: The DJ as Electronic De-Territorializer Mirko M. Hall and Naida Zukic Chapter 6: ‘It’s Not the Mix, It’s the Selection’: Music Programming in Contemporary DJ Culture Kai Fikentscher Chapter 7: Electronic Dance Music and Technological Change: Lessons from Actor-Network Theory - Jonathan Yu Chapter 8: DJ Culture and the Commercial Club Scene in Sydney Ed Montano Chapter 9: DJs and the Aesthetic of Acceleration in Drum ‘n’ Bass Chris Christodoulou Chapter 10: The Forging of a White Gay Aesthetic at the Saint, 1980-84 Tim Lawrence Chapter 11: DJs as Cultural Mediators: the Mixing Work of São Paulo’s Peripheral DJs Ivan Paolo de Paris Fontanari Chapter 12: War on the Dance Floor: Synthscenen’s Military Power Games Johanna Paulsson Chapter 13: DJ-Driven Literature: A Linguistic Remix Simon A. Morrison Contributors Index

About the Author :
Bernardo Alexander Attias is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at California State University Northridge, US. Dr Anna Gavanas is Social Anthropologist and Docent at Remeso, Linköping University, Sweden. Dr Hillegonda C. Rietveld is Professor at the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University, UK.

Review :
What is enjoyable about the Attias, Gavanas, and Rietveld collection is that it not only draws on perspectives from academics associated with musicology but also includes specialists in social anthropology, cultural studies, communication studies, and media practice. Not only are the local scenes discussed diverse, but the academic perspectives and disciplines represented include multiple views … for this reason, it should be on the radar of scholar’s associated with popular music, and certainly those interested in EDM. Selections from this book would also be well-suited for introductory courses in popular music or music technology. DJ Culture in the Mix offers not only a much broader picture than the standard monolithic account, but a refreshingly different type of picture - a cubist approach, with a dozen viewpoints thrown unpredictably together . . . A timely representation of just how broad the subject is - and should be A merit of the book consists of its insights into particular scenes, which is in itself a characterising trait of DJ cultures. Valuable field research, historical research and interviews with scene operators and participants spot light on various contexts...Overall, this makes for a kaleidoscopic look at DJ culture. There are good books on dance clubs and dance music, but this is the first volume on the figure of the dance music DJ and it is most welcome. DJ Culture in the Mix is well-organized, up-to-date and genuinely international, and brings together many of the leading figures in dance music studies. Highly recommended. Like a good DJ set, DJ Culture in the Mix is an invigorating, well-conceived collection that leaves us both satisfied and eager for more. Many thanks to this excellent group of scholars for a multifaceted exploration of the rich, but little understood world of the electronic dance music DJ. Exploring everything from the fractious taste politics of New York gay clubland during the post-disco Eighties to the cult of speed in 21st Century drum ‘n’ bass, DJ Culture In the Mix is a collection of probing, insightful essays that will provide stimulation and enlightenment for dance music scholars and dance music fans alike. DJ Culture in the Mix fills a long overdue void in DJ and electronic dance music literature. Interdisciplinary in focus and approach, the essays within raise thoughtful questions and offer a range of critical insights into the complexities of DJ cultures and practices around the world. One of the strongest points of this collection is the attention it pays to issues of gender in relation to DJs, their careers, and their representations in EDM scenes. … Gavanas and Reitsamer refuse to content themselves with merely observing that the DJ profession is male-dominated, instead striving to understand how this has come to be, how it persists, and what efforts are being made to change it. … DJ Culture in the Mix is an original, valuable, and much-needed contribution to the scholarship of DJS and their activities in the EDM scene.