Archive for 2012
5 Smarter Ways To Buy Music Online

Last time in Is Music Worse Than It Used To Be?, we talked about whether creativity has been lost in dance music. I didn't agree with that conclusion, and more felt we're simply saturated with product – yet there's still plenty of good music to be found.
So if you still find yourself on your favourite online shop, going over loads of music, and feeling like nothing is reaching out to you, here's a whole host of ways to fight the "saturation blues".
Is Music Worse Than It Used To Be?

Dance music's recent mainstream acceptance as "EDM" has brought about a fury from certain elements in the artistic/underground scenes, which is nothing new in itself – it happens whenever anything "underground" finds love from the mainstream.
From articles like a recent one in SPIN Magazine to those carried by a plethora of blogs, many DJs, critics, and producers have been claiming that the music has hit a creative zero. That we’ve lost that innovative spark that can do things like make one sound explode into a plethora of ideas and genres, as has happened in the past. That it’s lost its soul.
DJ Contests: Which To Enter & How To Win

Whether you've been a DJ for a month or many years, you'll probably have encountered a "DJ competition" at some point—if only the "DJ X-Factor" hype from earlier this year. It's not surprising: DJ contests have for a long time been used to generate healthy competition among DJs, to get bodies in nightclubs, to build hits on websites and so on.
Some of you might have entered DJ contests, and had both positive and negative experiences with them. Others might have never tried, but be curious. The goal today is to giver you a potted guide to DJ competitions, whether to enter them, and the best way to approach them.
Superstar DJs: We Know You Sometimes Mime. So Why Hide It?

Lately, it seems to be a regular occurrence to see well-known superstar DJs outed for what I call “miming a set”. That is where a big-name DJ will play a pre-recorded mix while pretending to DJ at a large club or festival.
First, it was Steve Angello, and now David Guetta has been busted several times for this… both artists using the rationale that a visual / pyrotechnics show had to be in sync with the music. Even Fatboy Slim got up to a bit at the Olympics closing ceremony.
Hey Paris Hilton, Here’s 6 Ways To Get Respect As A DJ…

Socialite Paris Hilton's debut as a DJ unleashed a firestorm all over the internet. Most of it was negative, a tiny bit was positive, but overall her debut was as we pretty much expected: Mainly flash, little substance.
It's been a few weeks, and recently the thought hit me to explore what I would actually tell someone like Paris Hilton if she were to ask me how she could be taken seriously as a DJ.
A male perspective on why men aren’t growing up

It's been all over the news and blogsphere. Modern men apparently aren't "growing up" as they go to college and never seem to leave that mentality, despite aging. They'll want to spend all their free time playing video games, watching sports, partying, looking for sexual hookups, and/or masturbating to porn.
It's also led to many female friends constantly breaking up with new boyfriends, claiming "he won't grow up". I've also seen many "experts" try to explain this, but I think too many are pulling out psychological and sociological theory rather than really try to understand the modern male and why he's not choosing to live as his father might have. My hope today is to explain it as I see it, from a male perspective.