The history of turntablism spans nearly 65 years. Like any other instrument, the turntable went through many stages and variations as an instrument.
Two musicians constitute the prehistory of turntable music. As early as 1937 American avante-garde composer John Cage had ideas for using records to create music, which he describes in his book, "The Future of Music: Credo." By 1948 a French avante-garde composer, Pierre Schaeffer, used multiple turntables to cue desired sounds from existing recordings and altered the music through changing the speed, adjusting the volume and playing the sounds backwards.
Nothing revolutionary occurred in the history of turntablism until 1973 when Bronx DJs like Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc showed what could be done with turntables. Kool Herc invented what is called "breakbeats," which is when a DJ fuses together different parts of songs into a musical collage. Grandmaster Flash is known as the DJ who expanded the most upon Kool Herc's breakbeats discovery to invent more turntablist techniques.
In 1977 an entertaining piece of turntablism history took place when Grand Wizard Theodore invented the "scratch." 14-year-old Theodore was messing around with his record player when his mom walked in his room. As she walked in, Grand Wizard stopped the record with his fingers to listen to her while unconsciously moving the record back and forth over the same drumbeat, creating a scratch. The "scratch" has been a major component of turntablism ever since.
From 1979 through the early 80s, DJs drifted out of the spotlight as commercial hip-hop musicians chose to use live funk bands on their recordings instead of DJs. Turntablism reached the mainstream in 1983 when jazz musician Herbie Hancock performed the song, "Rockit," with Grandmaster D.S.T. Kids across the world were captivated by Grandmaster D.S.T. as he scratched a record to the beat of the song.
The next step in the evolution of turntablism took place throughout the 1980s as turntablists showed off their skills at DJ battles. At these battles, extremely competitive DJs showed how fast and creative they could DJ while maintaining the rhythm.
DJ Cynsere, a Lawrence turntablist, said in the 1980s DJs were the spotlight of hip-hop and MCs (rappers) were in the background. He said nowadays this has unfortunately reversed to the point that the DJs are on the backburner while the rappers reach fame. Cynsere said DJs have been able to get a little more exposure over the last few years.
In the late 1980s popular culture lost interest in turntablism, and it went back underground where it continued to thrive with its truly devoted fans and musicians.
Throughout the 1990s turntablists continued to expand the vocabulary of the instrument by inventing new techniques. According to Kembrew McLeod, a turntablism historian, the amount of full-length turntablist albums by individual artists has grown exponentially since 1996. Presently turntablists like DJ Q-bert, Rob Swift, DJ Shadow, Mix Master Mike, DJ Spooky and Cut Chemist experiment with their turntables and demonstrate the dynamic range of the unique instrument.
Turntablism's history continues to sculpt itself. Without a doubt, turntablism has much room to expand into the future, and it will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve...
Who I'd like to meet: Santa!! Ask him wheres my pressies??? :)
Rpo Records Presents : Tekno Minimal Sound Sampler 04 The new summer compilation with Exclusive unreleased tracks By Rick Pier O'Neil Aka Rpo Exclusive in Beatport Store
Still Available Rpo & Mar C - Over Me Charted best sales progressive Beatport Click on Pic To listen Or Buy Our Music Bye Rpo Records
Don't miss this beautiful housy little groover „Tu me manques“ @ Love Hertz features a sexy spoken word performance by french singer/songwriter Valeria Pacella Remixes are courtesy of Zade & Kayne Cross from the UK and Italy's Andrea Crestani.
OUT NOW!!!!
thanks a lot for your support!!!
This release is supported by Martin Eyerer, Phonogenic, Gene Le Fosse, Jens Lissat, Michel de Hey, Ascii.Disko, Mijk van Dijk & many more
Helo, DJ. SHAQ :-) I’m here to keep you updated about my next release in Bonzai Music (Bonzai Club Grooves). I have received the final master of ‘On The Groove’ (included in this maxi) from Madrid (it was masterized by an old member from Deepblue Records UK) and now it is available in my player. This track was made 2 years ago and It was uploaded (and, later, removed from my player) to myspace long time ago aswel. Then, I need to say thanks from here to all the remixers from this label who are working in this maxi. Special thanks to Liquid Nations and Tosch. It has been a real real honour to work with you all. The countdown has just begun!!
Helo, DJ. SHAQ and happy New Year!:-) I hope your holidays have been full of good fun. I’ve been working with my collaborations as usual and, to start a good year, now I’ve got ready a new track featured by Omeed Taheri (www. myspace. com/omeedtaheri ). This time I’m present a really drummy track, closer to electro than trance but I think good enough for dancefloors (yeah, this is an advertisement for djs too) ;-) I need to say thanks to Omeed for his hard work and, of course, asking you for your listen and feedback. If you are a member in thedjlist, I have an account there so if you think I deserve your vote I’ll be really gratefull :-) Many thanks for your reading and let’s enjoy 2009!
New Releases Exclu Beatport TRIBAL MEMORIES PART 4 Included all the best electronic tribal sound with artist like Rick Pier O'neil - Ajai - Simon & Shaker... And MINIMAL TEKNO SOUND Included Rpo - David Weed - Adf - Joy Marquez - Omar Labastida .... best sounds and releases from 2008
Thanks for your support for our music and artist all this year 2008 Bye RPO Records Team
Hello! How are you? :-) I'm stopping by in your myspace to ask you how things are going and, second, to present you my new remix of a new track by the guys of Dawnfine called 'Crisis'. This is the second remix I made for them (www. myspace. com/dawnfine ) and it's a real honour :-) This time I haven't made a clubby tune, well, it's clubby but I think it's not the best for djs because of its slow bpm (120). Anyway, I think people who enjoy melodic trance and a bit of progressive styles will like it. The first minutes are almost a "ballad" and, in the last ones, it turns into an almost progressive tune (what a mixture!) :-P Then, Marcus (the singer of Dawnfine) has written some emotional and superb lirycs (for my taste) plus has recorded some amazing vocals. I'm wondering if you think it may work on the dancefloors cos, maybe I'm too worried about the bpm and it's not so important :-) Thanks, Dawnfine for giving me this second oportunity to remix your new stuff and thanks to you for your listen, feedback and support. Hugs from me as always!:-) Iris
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