In the summer of 2008, the Welsh actor Christian Bale was shooting the science fiction filmTerminator Salvation. Bale was in the middle of a scene when cinematographer Shane Hurlbut ruined it by walking the wrong way. This caused the star to lose his temper and vomit a torrent of insults that lasted almost four minutes.
After the incident, everything seemed to be there. But in early February this year, a website made the recording of the expletives public. Right away, Lucian Piane – a young music producer and composer who goes by the stage name Revo – Lucian – had the idea of making aremix, or remix, of the recording. He modified it with his own music and made a song worthy of the most popular dance floor. He added images of the furious artist to accompany the sound, and the new version, called Bale Out, became a viral hit when he posted it on the YouTube video site. In a few days, it had more than 2,500,000 visits.
Swearing at full speed
More surprising than the worldwide impact of the subject is that Piane did it in a couple of hours, from his home, on his laptop. No studies, musicians, recordings or waste of money. “That week I was finishing up the new album by RuPaul – an African American actor and drag queen – so when the Christian Bale thing came out, I said to myself ‘I don’t have time for that.’ Still, I knew I had to do something. ‘ RevoLucian account. “I gave myself two hours, although I ended up taking almost three. Then I shared the remix with friends and uploaded it to YouTube.”
It wasn’t the first time that Piane had turned a celebrity’s untimely outbursts and tirades into a dance mix: “I’ve been working with him.Apple Logic Studio, quite powerful software. In fact, that’s how I made the entire RuPaul album. I had to add some elements to perfect the sound, but in essence, we recorded the album in my room, and we used the closet as a vocal booth. Every time I said “this looks like a ghetto,” RuPaul would correct me: “It’s the future.”
Today, anyone with a little computer knowledge, the right software, and a keen ear for rhythm can create music and reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of listeners. It ismusic born with technologyand that, thanks to it, either through digital stores such asiTunesORhapsody, free services -music. download.com, acidplanet.com- and pages such as MySpace or YouTube, do not require traditional record stores or radio announcers to make themselves heard. In thismusical revolution, producers anddisc jockeysAvant-garde stars in a phenomenon in which, through the sounds they invent or mix, how they make them and where they are played, they can become international celebrities or even renowned academics. This is the case of Paul Miller, whose artistic alter ego isSpooky, That Subliminal Kid.
Turntable at 40,000 euros per night
The possibilities of what digital media can achieve in a society increasingly linked to information channels is the basis of Miller’s bookSound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, a successful collection of essays published by the publishing house of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is used as an academic text in prestigious educational institutions, such as Harvard and Georgetown universities. “For me, everything is connected.Sound is writing, writing is music, music is art“says Spooky.” The idea is to overcome the mentality of the twentieth century that sees everything divided into separate components, as in a factory. Today, we are all factories: I burn and mix CDs and DVDs daily, all the time. The way we’ve consolidated the production tools allows the DJ metaphor to move forward. “
ThatDJ to which Millar refers has become a kind of popular arbiter who takes samples – he does what is calledsampling – from infinite sources. For Spooky, as for other turntable heroes, his profession has become art, science, and language.
“There are DJs that affect the general music scene, and that cannot be ignored,” says Tony Lima, vice president of marketing and communications for the Miami Science Museum, and responsible for bringing two exhibitions about music to the Florida city. same time: American Sabor, or the role of Latinos in the musical history of the United States, and Access All Areas, which explores its technological side. “I think thatpeople don’t see music as science, although it includes it in its technological elements and in the composition. To make science more universal, more popular with the masses, you have to look at the arts and how it is involved in them. That was my motivation, “explains Lima.
“In recent years, thanks togrowth of dance music and hip hop, many DJs have taken the profession to another level. Earning more than 40,000 euros for playing one night in Ibiza, as happens with the great figures, has also served as an incentive “, says veteran Sama, with 25 years of experience.” People see how DJs perform, winning prizes, hitting the charts, mixing for artists, going to the best parties, and getting a lot of money. So who wouldn’t want to be? “
Although in the decades of the 70s and 80s there were already DJs in the United States who managed to make a name for themselves by contributing to the development of variousrhythms-disco, rap, freestyle, new wave …-, the international phenomenon of the DJ-celebrity took off in the 90s. It was produced thanks to several factors, such as the celebration of raves-mass parties in which electronic music is played, trance and techno-, the promotion of the DJs who entertained them and the records they released for their followers around the world. If all this is mixed with the availability of portable players ofdigital musicsuch as iPods and Zunes, music downloads via the internet, online streaming type transmission and a generation that seeks instant gratification, you get the perfect musical cocktail.
“Many musicians who maintain an old mentality believe that things should always stay the same. The new way of thinking is because everything is going to change. And that’s fine,” says Spooky. “The creative act – he adds – is going to be reflected in the tools used to create music.The composer will have to learn a new kind of languageIt has been in constant evolution, not only in this century, but since the first decades of the past, when the innovations of various inventors modernized music. Technology has transformed the way a song is made, how it is made. listen, distribute and promote.
“With current techniques, everything is easier,” says Carlos López, a member, along with Luigi Rodríguez, of the DJ duo from Puerto Rico.Plumpy Bitches. It stands out for its performances of techno, electro and house rhythms, and for setting the mood for after hours parties, which can last from 4 in the morning to noon. “In our presentations, I take care of the mixes and Luigi of all the special effects and cappellas,” explains López. “We carrytwo laptops, where we store the music, and aMIDI controller-a device that coordinates the functions of the different programs through a language called MIDI-. Then we use software that allows us to interact with the club equipment that we have at our disposal, such as turntables and CD players. “
Given the number of songs that López stores on his computer, if he had to physically carry them it would be equivalent to carrying a score of suitcases full of records. In your file you have8,000 songs, which would allowDJing for 32 days in a row without repeating the same theme. Buying compact discs or vinyl is not entirely a thing of the past, but its appeal is increasingly eroded by the convenience of digital offering. “Until not long ago, it was normal to go to record stores,” says Aulden Brown, who works within an innovative concept as a resident DJ in the stores of the Armani Exchange chain, in the south of the city. Florida. “Now, we have gone from buying vinyl records with two or three remixes for between 8 and 10 ea to acquiring digital master formats -which reproduce the quality of the song as it was recorded- for about 2 euros.”
11 years ago, Brown moved to Miami, which for nearly two decades has hosted theWinter Music Conference, one of the most important annual meetings of DJs and a meeting point for artists of thedance and electronic musicand industry professionals. Brown has been a DJ for 10 years and has experienced the huge role that technological advances have played in his career. “With the amount of digital stores that there are, I can buy all the music I want without fear that it will run out, as happened with records,” he says. “Now, you go to iTunes, and for 99 cents you download the song inmp3, a lower quality format than the professional one we DJs use, but almost as good as CD. I like to use thewav, which reproduces the song as the artist recorded it, so that it is heard as well as possible “.
The old broken record is over
Access to various audio formats and all kinds of musical genres means that not only are DJs-stars the only ones who get the music of the moment, as was the norm. This was discovered just two years ago by Alfredo Barrios, who studied advertising, but had always had a passion for music and an attraction for what DJs do. One night, a friend asked him to take care of the repertoire at a small but well-known South Beach club in Miami. That fortuitous circumstance transformed his life and boosted his career as a disc jockey, today known as FR8-O. “What I did was put one song after another, according to my tastes, and people seemed to like it,” says Barrios. “It was my first time working on a DJ console.”
A fan of pop and dance from the 80s, he gradually built his curriculum in different places in the city. At first he didn’t even charge. Today, like other colleagues, instead of carrying a briefcase full of compact discs, he only carries his laptop.
The next step in the development of a nascent career like yours is to enter the production of your own records. That elevates the DJ to another level, giving him prestige, fans, financial gain and the opportunity to produce for other artists.
Rocky Balboa and Las Supremes, a duo
With a single song, whether remixed or original, a DJ can stand out like this and enter the celebrity club, as happened for example to Víctor Calderone after his remix of the hit Madonna Frozen in the late 90s. A style it can also become a springboard: DJ Enferno -Eric Jao-, famous for using turntables as musical instruments and other devices as if he were a man orchestra, received an invitation last year to join Madonna’s company, as a member official tour of his Sticky & Sweet Tour.
Such is the siren song generated by DJs-stars that when a private plane crashed in the state of South Carolina shortly after takeoff last September, the news focused mainly on two of the passengers: musician Travis Barker , from the group Blink 182, and DJ Adam Goldstein, known as AM. A favorite for the parties of Hollywood celebrities like Steven Spielberg or Tom Cruise, AM became well known for a style called mash up, in which, for example, he mixes a classic cut of yesteryear likeBaby Lovefrom The Supremes with something as different as the film’s soundtrackRocky.
More and more media, the DJs of the future will evolve with music and technology. Some are already learning to be VJs, or video jockeys, since they mix songs and videos that accompany the rhythms at the same time and are displayed on huge television screens. Others will become magnates, the way that Maximus 3000 -Alex Ferbeyre- goes who, without having turned 30, plays in numerous large clubs, is in charge of their promotion, represents budding artists, hosts an online radio program, runs his record label and produces his own songs.
“You’re going to have to become a brand, be professional and do everything,” considers Ferbeyre. “When there’s so much music out there and so many DJs, things get a bit clouded. I’m in favor of people expressing themselves musically, and technology has leveled the opportunities for everyone. You don’t have to have a lot of money to do big projects anymore. The other side of the coin is that then many fans emerge. I hardly sleep, but I love what I do. My goal is to have a global reach, “concludes Ferbeyre.
Juan Carlos Pérez-Duthie
