Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music,
Turntablists, who are often called DJs (or "deejays"), generally prefer direct-drive turntables over belt-driven or other types, because the belt can be stretched or damaged by "scratching" and other turntable manipulation such as slowing down a record, whereas a direct drive turntable can be stopped, slowed down, or spun backwards without damaging the electric motor. The word turntablist is claimed to be originated by Luis "DJ Disk" Quintanilla (Primus, Herbie Hancock, Invisibl Skratch Piklz).[3] After a phone conversation with Disk, it was later popularised in 1995 by DJ Babu[4] to describe the difference between a DJ who simply plays and mixes records and one who performs by physically manipulating the records, stylus, turntables, turntable speed controls and mixer to produce new sounds. The new term coincided with the resurgence of hip-hop DJing in the 1990s.
According to most DJ historians, it has been documented that "DJ Babu" of the "Beat Junkies" / "Dilated Peoples" was the one who originally coined the term "turntablist". In 1995 while working on the groundbreaking mixtape "Comprehension", DJ Babu hand wrote the name "Babu The Turntablist" on hundreds of copies of this mixtape to describe his style of DJing, while working on the track "Turntablism" with "D-Styles" and DJ Melo-D, Babu would say "if someone plays the piano, we call them a pianist, if someone plays the guitar, we call them a guitarist, why don't we call ourselves Turntablists?" found in the documentary "Scratch (2001 film)" which was released in 2001.
John Oswald described the art: "A phonograph in the hands of a 'hiphop/scratch' artist who plays a record like an electronic washboard with a phonographic needle as a plectrum, produces sounds which are unique and not reproduced—the record player becomes a musical instrument."[5] Some turntablists use turntable techniques like beat mixing/matching, scratching, and beat juggling. Some turntablists seek to have themselves recognized as traditional musicians capable of interacting and improvising with other performers. Depending on the records and tracks selected by the DJ and their turntablist style (e.g., hip hop music), a turntablist can create rhythmic accompaniment, percussion breaks, basslines or beat loops, atmospheric "pads", "stabs" of sudden chords or interwoven melodic lines.
The underground movement of turntablism has also emerged to focus on the skills of the DJ. In the 2010s, there are turntablism competitions, where turntablists demonstrate advanced beat juggling and scratching skills.
History
Precursors
The use of the turntable as a
Examples of turntable effects can also be found on popular records produced in the 1960s and 1970s. This was most prominent in Jamaican
Direct-drive turntables
Turntablism has origins in the invention of direct-drive turntables. Early belt-drive turntables were unsuitable for turntablism, since they had a slow start-up time, and they were prone to wear-and-tear and breakage,[9] as the belt would break from backspinning or scratching.[10] The first direct-drive turntable was invented by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at Matsushita (now Panasonic),[11] based in Osaka, Japan.[9] It eliminated belts, and instead employed a motor to directly drive a platter on which a vinyl record rests.[12] In 1969, Matsushita released it as the SP-10,[12] the first direct-drive turntable on the market,[13] and the first in their influential Technics series of turntables.[12] In 1971, Matsushita released the Technics SL-1100. Due to its strong motor, durability, and fidelity, it was adopted by early hip hop artists.[12]
A forefather of turntablism was
The most influential turntable was the
Hip-hop
Turntablism as a modern art form and musical practice has its roots within African-American inner city
To understand the significance of this achievement, it is important to first define the "break". Briefly, the "break" of a song is a musical fragment only seconds in length, which typically takes the form of an "interlude" in which all or most of the music stops except for the percussion. Kool Herc introduced the break-beat technique as a way of extending the break indefinitely. This is done by buying two of the same record, finding the break on each record, and switching from one to the other using the DJ mixer: e.g., as record A plays, the DJ quickly backtracks to the same break on record B, which will again take the place of A at a specific moment where the audience will not notice that the DJ has switched records. Using that idea, Grandmaster Flash elaborated on Kool Herc's invention of break-beat DJing and came up with the quick-mix theory, in which Flash sectioned off a part of the record like a clock.[16] He described it as being "...like cutting, the backspin, and the double-back."[16]
Kool Herc's revolutionary techniques set the course for the development of turntablism as an art form in significant ways. Most important, however, he developed a new form of DJing that did not consist of just playing and mixing records one after the other. The type of DJ that specializes in mixing a set is well respected for his/her own set of unique skills, but playlist mixing is still DJing in the traditional sense. Kool Herc instead originated the idea of creating a sequence for his own purposes, introducing the idea of the DJ as the "feature" of parties, whose performance on any given night would be different from on another night, because the music would be created by the DJ, mixing a bassline from one song with a beat from another song (Greasley & Prior, 2013). The DJ would be examined critically by the crowd on both a technical and entertainment level.
On stage the DJ would provide the music for the MCs to rhyme and rap to, scratching records during the performance and showcasing his or her skills alongside the verbal skills of the MC. The most well known example of this 'equation' of MCs and DJ is probably
Despite New York's continued pre-eminence in the hip-hop world, scratch DJing was modernized less than 100 miles down the road in Philadelphia, where the climate for the return of the DJ was created by inventing transformer scratching. Developed by DJ Spinbad, DJ Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff, transforming was basically clicking the fader on and off while moving a block of sound (a riff or a short verbal phrase) across the stylus. Expanding the tonal as well as rhythmic possibilities of scratching, the transformer scratch epitomized the chopped-up aesthetic of hip hop culture. Hip hop was starting to become big money and the cult of personality started to take over. Hip hop became very much at the service of the rapper and Cash Money and DJ Jazzy Jeff were accorded maybe one track on an album – for example, DJ Jazzy Jeff's "A Touch of Jazz" (1987) and "Jazzy's in the House" (1988) and Cash Money's "The Music Maker" (1988). Other crucial DJ tracks from this period include Tuff Crew's DJ Too Tuff's "Behold the Detonator" "Soul Food" (both 1989)", and Gang Starr's "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" (1989).
Decline in role of DJ in hip hop
The appearance of turntablists and the birth of turntablism was prompted by one major factor – the disappearance or downplaying of the role of the DJ in hip-hop groups, on records and in live shows at the turn of the 1990s. This disappearance has been widely documented in books and documentaries (among them and other studio techniques that would ultimately push the DJ further away from the original hip-hop equation of the MC as the vocalist and the DJ as the music provider alongside the producer. This push and disappearance of the DJ meant that the practices of the DJ, such as scratching, went back underground and were cultivated and built upon by a generation of people who grew up with hip hop, DJs and scratching. By the mid-90s the disappearance of the DJ in hip hop had created a sub-culture which would come to be known as turntablism and which focused entirely on the DJ using his turntables and a mixer to manipulate sounds and create music. By pushing the practice of DJing away, hip hop created the grounds for this sub-culture to evolve (Greasley & Prior, 2013).
Coining of terms
The origin of the terms turntablist and turntablism are widely contested and argued about, but over the years some facts have been established by various documentaries (Battlesounds, Doug Pray's Scratch), books (DJ Culture), conferences (Skratchcon 2000) and interviews in online and printed magazines. These facts are that the origins of the words most likely lay with practitioners on the US West Coast, centered on the San Francisco Bay Area. Some claim that DJ Disk, a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, was the first to coin the term, others claim that "DJ Babu", a member of the "Beat Junkies", was responsible for coining and spreading the term turntablist after inscribing it on his mixtapes as"Babu the Turntablist" and passing them around. Another claim credits DJ Supreme, 1991 World Supremacy Champion and DJ for Lauryn Hill. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between all these facts.
In an interview with the Spin Science online resource in 2005, "DJ Babu" added the following comments about the birth and spread of the term:
It was around 95, I was heavily into the whole battling thing, working on the tables constantly, mastering new techniques and scratches...[I] made this mixtape called "Comprehension", and on there was a track called "Turntablism" which featured Melo-D and D-Styles. And this is part of where this whole thing about turntablist came from. This was a time where all these new techniques were coming out, like flares and stuff, and there were probably 20 people or so, in around California between Frisco and LA, who knew about these. So we worked on them, talked about it and kicked about the ideas that these techniques and new ways of scratching gave us.[citation needed]
Mid- to late 1990s
By the mid- to late 1990s the terms "turntablism" and "turntablist" had become established and accepted to define the practice and practitioner of using turntables and a mixer to create or manipulate sounds and music. This could be done by scratching a record or manipulating the rhythms on the record either by drumming, looping or beat juggling. The decade of the 1990s is also important in shaping the turntablist art form and culture as it saw the emergence of pioneering artists (
) and the evolution of scratching and other turntablism practices such as Beat Juggling which are viewable in the IDA (International DJ Association/ITF) World Finals.Techniques
More sophisticated methods of scratching were developed during that decade, with crews and individual DJs concentrating on the manipulation of the record in time with the manipulation of the cross fader on the mixer to create new rhythms and
Beat juggling was invented by
Studies
One of the earliest academic studies of turntablism (White 1996) argued for its designation as a legitimate electronic musical instrument—a manual analog sampler—and described turntable techniques such as backspinning, cutting, scratching and blending as basic tools for most hip hop DJs. White's study suggests the proficient hip-hop DJ must possess similar kinds of skills as those required by trained musicians, not limited to a sense of timing, hand–eye coordination, technical competence and musical creativity. By the year 2000, turntablism and turntablists had become widely publicized and accepted in the mainstream and within hip hop as valid artists. Through this recognition came further evolution.
Evolution
This evolution took many shapes and forms: some continued to concentrate on the foundations of the art form and its original links to hip hop culture, some became producers utilizing the skills they'd learnt as turntablists and incorporating those into their productions, some concentrated more on the DJing aspect of the art form by combining turntablist skills with the trademark skills of club DJs, while others explored alternative routes in utilizing the turntable as an instrument or production tool solely for the purpose of making music – either by using solely the turntable or by incorporating it into the production process alongside tools such as drum machines, samplers, computer software, and so on. Digital turntablism techniques later was coined into a term called controllerism, which inspired a movement of new digital DJs such as DJ Buddy Holly and Moldover. DJ Buddy and Moldover went on to create a song called "Controllerism" that pays homage to the sound of digitally emulated turntablism.
New DJs, turntablists and crews owe a distinct debt[
Techniques
Chopped and screwed
Starting in the 1990s in the Southern United States and burgeoning in the 2000s, a meta-genre of hip hop called "
DJ Screw of Texas, innovated the art of chopping and screwing coining the phrase "chopped n screwed", taking original contemporary hit records and replaying them in the "chopped n screwed" art form. This gained a very large following finally paving the way for small, independent rap labels to turn a decent profit. However, it is thought by many that DJ Michael Price started slowing down vinyl recordings before the era of DJ Screw.
This form of turntablism, which is usually applied to prior studio recordings (in the form of custom mixtapes) and is not prominent as a feature of live performances, de-emphasizes the role of the rapper, singer or other vocalist by distorting the vocalist's voice along with the rest of the recording (van Veen & Attias, 2012). Arguably, this combination of distortion and audial effects against the original recording grants greater freedom of improvisation to the DJ than did the previous forms of turntablism. Via the ChopNotSlop movement, "Chopped and screwed" has also been applied to other genres of music such as R&B and rock music, thus transcending its roots within the hip-hop genre.[17][18]
Transform
A transform is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is made from a combination of moving the record on the turntable by hand and repeated movement of the
Tear
A tear is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is made from moving the record on the turntable by hand. The tear is much like a
Orbit
An orbit is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is generally any scratch that incorporates both a forward and backward movement, or vice versa, of the record in sequence. The orbit was developed by
Flare
Flare is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is made from a combination of moving the record on the turntable by hand and quick movement of the crossfader. The flare was invented by its namesake, DJ Flare in 1987. This scratch technique is much like the "transform" in some ways, only instead of starting with the sound that is cutting up off, one starts with the sound on and concentrate on cutting the sound into pieces by bouncing the fader off the cut outside of the fader slot to make the sound cut out and then back in a split second.
Each time the DJ bounces the fader off the side of the fader slot it makes a distinct clicking noise. For this reason, flares are named according to clicks. A simple one click forward flare would be a forward scratch starting with the sound on as the DJ bounces/clicks the fader against the side once extremely quickly in the middle of the forward stroke creating two distinct sounds in one stroke of your record hand and ending with the fader open. In the same manner, 2 clicks, 3 clicks, and even more clicks (if a DJ is fast enough) can be performed to do different types of flares. The discovery and development of the flare scratch was instrumental in elevating this art form to the level of speed and technical scratching that is seen in the 2010s.
Chirp
A "chirp" is a type of scratch used by turntablists. It is made with a mix of moving the record and incorporating movement with the crossfade mixer. It was invented by
Stab
A "stab" is quite similar to the chirp technique but requires the crossfade mixer to be "closed". The stab requires the user to push the record forward and back quickly and moving the crossfade mixer with a thumb pressed against it, which results in minimal sound coming out, producing a sharp "stabbing" noise".
Crab
A "crab" is a type of scratch used by turntablists and originally developed by DJ Qbert. It is one of the most difficult scratch techniques to master. The crab is done by pushing the record forward and back while pushing the crossfader mixer open or closed through a quick succession of 4 movements with the fingers. Variations can also include 3 or 2 fingers, and generally it is recommended for beginners to start with 2 fingers and work their way to 4. It is a difficult move to master but also versatile and quite rewarding if done right.
Visual elements
Visual elements may be linked to turntable movement, incorporating digital media including photographs, graphic stills, film, video, and computer-generated effects into live performance. A separate video mixer is used in combination with the turntable. In 2005 the International Turntablist Federation World final introduced the 'Experimental' category to recognise visual artistry.
Contests
Like many other musical instrumentalists, turntablists compete to see who can develop the fastest, most innovative and most creative approaches to their instrument. The selection of a champion comes from the culmination of battles between turntablists. Battling involves each turntablist performing a routine (A combination of various technical scratches, beat juggles, and other elements, including body tricks) within a limited time period, after which the routine is judged by a panel of experts. The winner is selected based upon score. These organized competitions evolved from actual old school "battles" where DJs challenged each other at parties, and the "judge" was usually the audience, who would indicate their collective will by cheering louder for the DJ they thought performed better. The DMC World DJ Championships has been hosted since 1985. There are separate competitions for solo DJs and DJ teams, the title of World Champion being bestowed on the winners of each. They also maintain a turntablism hall of fame.[21]
Role of women
This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (January 2019) |
In Western
In hip hop music, the low percentage of women DJs and turntablists may stem from the overall male domination of the entire hip hop music industry. Most of the top rappers, MCs, DJs, record producers and music executives are men. There are a small number of high-profile women, but they are rare. In 2007, University of North Carolina music professor Mark Katz's article stated that it is rare for women to compete in turntable battles and that this gender disparity has become a topic of conversation among the hip-hop DJ community.[23] In 2010, Rebekah Farrugia stated that in the EDM sphere, a male-centric culture has contributed to the marginalisation of women who seek to engage and contribute.[24] Whilst turntablism and broader DJ practices should not be conflated, Katz suggests that the broad use, or lack of use, of the turntable by women across genres and disciplines is impacted by "male technophilia".[23] Historian Ruth Oldenziel concurs in her writing on female engagement with engineering technology.[25] Oldenziel argues that socialization is a central factor in the lack of female engagement with technology, insisting that the historical socialisation of boys as technophiles has contributed to the prevalence of men who enage with technology.[25]
Lucy Green, professor of music at the University College London, focused on gender in relation to musical performers and creators, and specifically on educational frameworks as they relate to both.[26][page needed] She suggests that women's alienation from fields with strong technical aspects such as DJing, sound engineering and music producing should not only be attributed to a feminine dislike towards these instruments.[27] Instead she argues that women entering these fields are forced to complete the difficult task of disrupting a dominant masculine sphere.[27] Despite this,[original research?] women and girls do increasingly engage in turntable and DJ practices, individually[28] and collectively,[29] and "carve out spaces for themselves in EDM and DJ Culture".[24] There are various projects dedicated to the promotion and support of these practices such as Female DJs London.[30] Some artists and collectives go beyond these practices to be more gender inclusive.[31][page needed] For example, Discwoman, a New York-based collective and booking agency, describe themselves as "representing and showcasing cis women, trans women and genderqueer talent."[32]
Some pioneers of turntablism
-
Afrika Bambaataa (l.)
-
Grand Wizard Theodore
See also
- Audio signal processing
- Battle records
- Beatmatching
- Controllerism
- List of turntablists
- Plunderphonics
- Sampling (music)
- Scratching
- Vinyl emulation
- Wave Twisters
References
- ^ "The Art Of Turntablism | History Detectives | PBS". PBS. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- ^ globaldjacademy (March 10, 2019). "What is Turntablism? | Turntablism Artists | Turntablist vs DJ | Turntablism Songs". Global Dj Academy. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- OCLC 609824040.
- ^ Newman, Mark "Markski" (January 3, 2003). History of Turntablism. Archived March 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-8264-1615-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-86861-7.
- ISBN 978-1-135-86598-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-107-01093-2.
- ^ a b c Coleman, Brian (January 7, 2016). "The Technics 1200 — Hammer Of The Gods [XXL, Fall 1998]". Medium. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-634-05833-2.
- ^ Steve Trainan (May 21, 1977). "Tracking the next century's disk spinner". Billboard Magazine. Nielsen Business Media. p. 140.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-538894-7.
- ^ a b c d Mayhew, Jess (October 2015). "History of the Record Player Part II: The Rise and Fall". Reverb.com. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c Blashill, Pat (May 2002). "Six Machines That Changed The Music World". Wired. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
- ^ a b Hansen, Kjetil Falkenberg (2000). Turntable Music Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Norway: NTNU and Sweden: KTH, p. 4
- ^ a b Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Picador, 2005, p 113.
- ^ "The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw". texasmonthly.com. January 20, 2013.
- ^ DJ Screw
- ^ "DJ Cash Money". NAMM.org. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
- ^ "Hip Hop Family Tree: DJ Jazzy Jeff / Boing Boing". boingboing.net. April 28, 2015.
- ^ DMC staff. DMC World Champions. Retrieved October 17, 2007
- ^ a b c Ncube, Rosina (September 2013). "Sounding Off: Why So Few Women In Audio?". Sound on Sound.
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 978-1841505664.
- ^ S2CID 108698842.
- ISBN 978-0521555227.
- ^ a b "Music – GEA – Gender and Education Association". genderandeducation.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ "Female Turntablists on the Rise". BPMSUPREME TV. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ "9 All-Female DJ Collectives You Need To Know Right Now". The FADER. February 7, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ "Enter". femaledjs.london. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0822346739.
- ^ "About – Discwoman". discwoman.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- Alberts, Randy. "Scratch and the Hip-Hop Book of Grand Mixer DXT." DigiZine 1/7 (October 2002).
- Shapiro, Peter. Rough Guide to Hip-Hop. Rough Guides, 2001, p. 96.
- White, Miles. "The Phonograph Turntable and Performance Practice in Hip Hop Music." Ethnomusicology OnLine 2 (1996) Retrieved February 4, 2013]
Further reading
- Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun. Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8025-0
- Katz, Mark. "The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the DJ Battle." Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, pp. 124–45. ISBN 978-0-520-26105-1
- Katz, Mark. Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-533111-0.
- Poschardt, Ulf: DJ Culture. London: Quartet Books, 1998. ISBN 0-7043-8098-6
- Pray, Doug (Dir.). Scratch. 2001. A documentary about the History and Culture of Turntablism.
- Schloss, Joseph G. Making Beats: The Art of Sample-based Hip-hop. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2004.
External links
- What is New York Rap? Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A 1979 radio report on the "new" phenomenon of turntablism.