In danger of losing the world's best DJs--
July 26, 2016 4:14 PM Subscribe
Burn Out, Depression, Insomnia, and drug abuse are among other ills destroying lives “We’re like a pinball, free and easy to fly around the world,”
Working conditions eroding your physical and/or mental health? Unionize dudes. Of course easier said than done what with the vast pool of people waiting to step into these guys' shoes and willing (at least in theory) to live with the consequences. But, if high profile musicians and the little guys could get it together to form professional associations that could help them negotiate better working conditions with promoters/venues, then everyone's lives could be better. (Virtually) everyone suffers in the present industry, the musician's union where I live pretty much only exists to negotiate contracts between orchestral performers and a half dozen orchestras across the country. We need to organize our labour better. I think I'm going to go rant at my students now.
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:25 PM on July 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:25 PM on July 26, 2016 [7 favorites]
I know a lot of people in touring bands and I get tired just looking at their schedules. It's one thing in your 20's, it's tough when you get older but that's the way you make your living. These guys are flying all over, not constrained by the logistics of driving equipment. I got tired reading it.
posted by bongo_x at 9:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bongo_x at 9:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
The greatest trick capitalism ever pulled was convincing us that art isn't labor.
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 12:52 AM on July 27, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 12:52 AM on July 27, 2016 [15 favorites]
The greatest trick capitalism ever pulled was convincing us that art isn't labor.
This is totally backwards. The Romantic and Artistic complaint AGAINST capitalism is entirely that Capitalism reduces art to a kind of labour or work. The 19th C Romanticists in particular were reacting against Capitalism's tendency to treat all artistic activity as merely another kind of commodity producing labour.
posted by mary8nne at 2:58 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is totally backwards. The Romantic and Artistic complaint AGAINST capitalism is entirely that Capitalism reduces art to a kind of labour or work. The 19th C Romanticists in particular were reacting against Capitalism's tendency to treat all artistic activity as merely another kind of commodity producing labour.
posted by mary8nne at 2:58 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
threecheesetrees: Unionize dudes. Of course easier said than done what with the vast pool of people waiting to step into these guys' shoes and willing (at least in theory) to live with the consequences. But, if high profile musicians and the little guys could get it together to form professional associations that could help them negotiate better working conditions with promoters/venues, then everyone's lives could be better.
No chance. 'Making it' in music is basically a lottery, with hundreds of thousands of players for ever winner. And you aren't going to persuade people who are playing a lottery to negotiate as a collective.
posted by memebake at 3:53 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
No chance. 'Making it' in music is basically a lottery, with hundreds of thousands of players for ever winner. And you aren't going to persuade people who are playing a lottery to negotiate as a collective.
posted by memebake at 3:53 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Though is DJing art, in the romantic sense, any more than, say, editing a magazine or curating an exhibition is art? It's working with art, though at one remove.
posted by acb at 4:25 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by acb at 4:25 AM on July 27, 2016
acb: Though is DJing art, in the romantic sense, any more than, say, editing a magazine or curating an exhibition is art? It's working with art, though at one remove.
It depends on the DJ. Plenty of big and small names have moved beyond merely shuffling other people's vinyl/CDs/mp3s and now drive as much of their overall set via sound-mangling samplers, twiddling with compact modular synthesisers, complex filter banks, generative art software and the like.
Now, as to whether that better qualifies what they're doing as art, I'll leave that to the beholder.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 5:48 AM on July 27, 2016
It depends on the DJ. Plenty of big and small names have moved beyond merely shuffling other people's vinyl/CDs/mp3s and now drive as much of their overall set via sound-mangling samplers, twiddling with compact modular synthesisers, complex filter banks, generative art software and the like.
Now, as to whether that better qualifies what they're doing as art, I'll leave that to the beholder.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 5:48 AM on July 27, 2016
a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist: "The greatest trick capitalism ever pulled was convincing us that art isn't labor."
I understand how you might want to claim this as your achievement, she-capitalist, but I don't think it applies in this case. People believe that painters and directors and animators aren't working because they are making "art." But when it comes to DJs and rock-lifestyle-type musicians, the belief that it isn't labor isn't due to capitalism, it's because the musicians get sex and drugs and alcohol, and people who haven't done that work, or know someone who has, or read interviews or articles with them, don't see the shitty side of it. They see people who apparently party for a living, so they don't think of it as labor. That has doodly-fuck to do with capitalism.
posted by Bugbread at 6:05 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
I understand how you might want to claim this as your achievement, she-capitalist, but I don't think it applies in this case. People believe that painters and directors and animators aren't working because they are making "art." But when it comes to DJs and rock-lifestyle-type musicians, the belief that it isn't labor isn't due to capitalism, it's because the musicians get sex and drugs and alcohol, and people who haven't done that work, or know someone who has, or read interviews or articles with them, don't see the shitty side of it. They see people who apparently party for a living, so they don't think of it as labor. That has doodly-fuck to do with capitalism.
posted by Bugbread at 6:05 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is totally backwards. The Romantic and Artistic complaint AGAINST capitalism is entirely that Capitalism reduces art to a kind of labour or work.
Pah, only a half-assed Romantic would make that criticism. A true Romantic would take it to the next level, accept that art is labor, but romanticize labor.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:54 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
Pah, only a half-assed Romantic would make that criticism. A true Romantic would take it to the next level, accept that art is labor, but romanticize labor.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:54 AM on July 27, 2016 [3 favorites]
It was self-indulgent twaddle when rock stars started writing songs about how rough the road life is and it's self-indulgent twaddle now.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:08 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by entropicamericana at 7:08 AM on July 27, 2016
All art is self indulgent. None is strictly "necessary." That's what makes it art. So?
posted by saulgoodman at 7:42 AM on July 27, 2016
posted by saulgoodman at 7:42 AM on July 27, 2016
I remember going to see a few musicians in parts of Brazil - where the idea is that you would go whatever favella the people you wanted to hear lived in - and go and listen to them there. The locals seems keen to welcome and protect their audience who came to listen (and spend money in) their neighbourhood. The musicians seemed happy to play in the places that had brought them together amongst those they knew best.
So maybe the idea is that we go to see Moby in Darien, Connecticut. The gig could be at The Sport Shop - and his mum could make salad while he told us about his great, great uncle Herman.
posted by rongorongo at 8:15 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
So maybe the idea is that we go to see Moby in Darien, Connecticut. The gig could be at The Sport Shop - and his mum could make salad while he told us about his great, great uncle Herman.
posted by rongorongo at 8:15 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
mary8nne:
This is totally backwards. The Romantic and Artistic complaint AGAINST capitalism is entirely that Capitalism reduces art to a kind of labour or work.
saulgoodman:
Pah, only a half-assed Romantic would make that criticism. A true Romantic would take it to the next level, accept that art is labor, but romanticize labor. ... All art is self indulgent. None is strictly "necessary." That's what makes it art. So?
Exactly. And with a coming age of automation and AI, we'll have less 'necessary' labor - thus all we'll have is the 'art' of living our lives, which may (or not) include what was once classically thought of as 'work' or thought of as 'art' or thought of as 'craft' (somewhere between the two). We should, therefore unionize the entirety of humanity. I propose we call it 'society'.
posted by eclectist at 9:15 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is totally backwards. The Romantic and Artistic complaint AGAINST capitalism is entirely that Capitalism reduces art to a kind of labour or work.
saulgoodman:
Pah, only a half-assed Romantic would make that criticism. A true Romantic would take it to the next level, accept that art is labor, but romanticize labor. ... All art is self indulgent. None is strictly "necessary." That's what makes it art. So?
Exactly. And with a coming age of automation and AI, we'll have less 'necessary' labor - thus all we'll have is the 'art' of living our lives, which may (or not) include what was once classically thought of as 'work' or thought of as 'art' or thought of as 'craft' (somewhere between the two). We should, therefore unionize the entirety of humanity. I propose we call it 'society'.
posted by eclectist at 9:15 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
The reason the schedules are so hectic is that the top DJs don't "tour" the way a rock band does, they play a series of parties, festivals, and clubs all over the world for the highest bidder. They will literally go from Las Vegas, Mykonos, Shanghai, Ibiza, Las Vegas, Ibiza, Las Vegas, New York, a festival in Kentucky, Ibiza, etc. all in a two week period instead of an ordered tour by geography like a rock band would.
The main reason for this is that historically the shelf life of a DJ is pretty short, so it's a cash grab to play as many places as possible in the shortest period of time. In theory a DJ could book a "tour" that would make sure they play all their gigs in the Mediterranean in the same month, the United States another month, and Asia a different month but they would be leaving potentially millions of dollars on the table by booking it that way.
posted by cell divide at 9:46 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
The main reason for this is that historically the shelf life of a DJ is pretty short, so it's a cash grab to play as many places as possible in the shortest period of time. In theory a DJ could book a "tour" that would make sure they play all their gigs in the Mediterranean in the same month, the United States another month, and Asia a different month but they would be leaving potentially millions of dollars on the table by booking it that way.
posted by cell divide at 9:46 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
It was self-indulgent twaddle when rock stars started writing songs about how rough the road life is and it's self-indulgent twaddle now.
Writing songs about it. This was an article.
posted by bongo_x at 11:41 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
Writing songs about it. This was an article.
posted by bongo_x at 11:41 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
I thought this was just gonna be about having any full-time job in America or combination thereof
posted by aydeejones at 2:42 PM on July 27, 2016
posted by aydeejones at 2:42 PM on July 27, 2016
Cell Divide, I think that "Vegas-Mykonos-Shanghai-Ibiza-Vegas-Ibiza" thing is only really true for the very top DJs, while the difficulties the article discusses applies to all successful DJs. Looking at the schedules of DJs I enjoy that are successful, but not "even people who hate electronica know their name" successful, I see plenty of hectic schedules that are more like "New York-Newark-Boston-Raleigh-Miami" or "Shanghai-Beijing-Seoul-Osaka-Tokyo", where the order makes some sense geographically, but will produce the exact same sleep deprivation, never seeing the sun, always sleeping in hotels, etc. that the article talks about.
posted by Bugbread at 3:43 PM on July 27, 2016
posted by Bugbread at 3:43 PM on July 27, 2016
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posted by howfar at 4:41 PM on July 26, 2016