Friday, February 08, 2008

Whatever happened to Turntablism?



Once upon a time (in 1990s if I remember correctly) there used to be this really really really trendy thing called 'Turntablism'.

Scratch DJs, or better yet 'Turntablists', used to be heroes of teenage kids dreaming about getting Technics SL1200s for Xmas looked up to. But somehow everyone seems to have collectively forgotten about that, or is everyone maybe just in denial? Also, the market value of (often trashed to death) turntables sees to have dropped near zero.  

Well, who cares because the video clip posted above proves that like Japan's DJ Tucker, you can still use the words 'interesting' and 'scratch DJ' it the same sentence, if you have an organ, that is. That's called evolution, I guess. 

Or:
Is that just an illustrative example showing how stupid it is when the turntablists claim that they are 'playing their decks like instruments'? I mean, obviously the sounds that come out of the organ as Dj Tucker rocks it are not the most musical ones in the conventional sense of the word. So if that's what scratching is when transferred to a real instrument, then, like even a half paralyzed deaf & mute one-handed person could probably do that, right? 

So maybe better keep scratching 'em vinyls instead, mmmkay? 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmm. a bit disturbing.... can't really say i dig it, but still... interesting

Anonymous said...

hmmm. a bit disturbing.... can't really say i dig it, but still... interesting

Anonymous said...

Whoa... my comment got here twice,,, luv technology, luv technology