Mr. DJ

Corbett | February 14, 2004 3:55 AM

I was just reading through a Pots magazine tonight, and marvelled at how much seemingly interesting music nightlife was going on in Taiwan. Or was it that they did a good job of making the mediocre sound marvelous? What was most interesting to see was how DJs are now the busy touring musicians. These guys run around with their flight case full of LPs and a small Vestax mixer tucked in a backpack, making hour-long appearances all over town. We still call it gan chang, which means literally "rush stage", and is what most musicians/performers here have to do to get paid. You gan from one gig to a chang somewhere else. Then on the weekends you spread out to include Taichung, or maybe some rave party. I like the stripped down touring business model that these guys have. They don't have to deal with equipment (it's already there), or bands (they spin alone). They don't have to schedule practice (alone in the bedroom), or learn to read music or understand changes (we're DJs dude), or sing, or even dance. They can wear an old T-shirt and a pair of Pumas and be stylish. Just as digitalization has cannibalized the old fashioned music industry, we see the same thing happening with old fashioned music performance. It's interesting to see. I remember trying to mix in grooves with live music back in 1991. They thought I was some whacko. One shocked listener even wrote a concerned letter to me to tell me that she felt "scared" by the "black jungle sounds" created in my music. She didn't know how to "feel" when she listened to this weird music. Now Taiwan is finally getting up to speed on music culture, or so we think. We've been doing an "underground" hip hop night at the Living Room, and some cool DJs turn out. We've got guys from South Africa, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, and the UK. What's even more interesting are the Chinese kids in their basketball jerseys that read "Iverson" on them, walking in with their high tops, jogging pants, and sideways baseball hats. They got the look, but most of them can't book. Still, it's the beginning of something different, and we have to thank Mr. DJ for putting that record on.

Category: Music