are you a DJ or a musician first?

"I think there's a great support in this industry for those who want to believe that techno is dance music, because the majority of the people in it now are not musicians. They came into this world wanting to be a DJ, and don’t know anything other than that.

Most techno DJs from my generation (myself included) were musicians first... " -Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance

so I am a musician first... I can DJ, have spun my share of sets... but I don't even own decks anymore and haven't spun at all outside of the odd house party since 2005, but I periodically dust off my synths and produce electronic music, though its not always for dancing -- if I never spin again I will have no regrets, but I cannot imagine my life without electronic music

how many of you began as DJs and how many of you began as musicians? How many of you are sound scientists and how many reach for presets????

is that you in the picture on the front page?

https://youtu.be/g8huXkSaL7o

After looking up what that is, I am chomping at the bit for a conversation the topic. I will skip it.

DJ? No, Never. I work with a DJ. He says he gets paid $400 to do unlimited amount of music, which usually comes out to 3-4 hours of work. Me and him have had some hard conversation on the subject. I've asked him what he actually does at these events. He said he just plays whatever music people ask for and does so if he has it. I then asked him what he did that a $200 iPod couldn't do or a phone with bluetooth and a subscription to Pandora for $20. He claimed he got the crowd riled up. I don't recall ever being around a live DJ and feeling their presence at all. At best, my interaction with them is requesting a song that they don't have.

For the price of a DJ, I would rather pay a band to play the gig and tell them in advance what songs I'd like to hear and give them the chance to learn any songs they don't already.

while your friend is technically a DJ that's not what I meant by DJ.... this is not something I can explain to you, or rather its not something I'm going to try to explain.

feels like DJing is only 10 to 25 percent MAKING music depending on your approach and if you maybe have a little smapler or your own drum machine thrown into your rig and the rest is more like curating.