Turntablism
Turntablists typically use two or more turntables and headphones to cue up desired start points on different records (Greasley & Prior, 2013).
The word turntablist is claimed to be originated by Luis "DJ Disk" Quintanilla (Primus, Herbie Hancock, Invisibl Skratch Piklz).
Experimental composers (such as John Cage, Halim El-Dabh, and Pierre Schaeffer) used them to sample and create music that was entirely produced by the turntable.
Though this school of thought and practice is not directly linked to the 1970s–2010 definition of turntablism within hip hop and DJ culture, it has had an influence on modern experimental sonic/artists such as Christian Marclay, Janek Schaefer, Otomo Yoshihide, Philip Jeck, and Maria Chavez.
[8] Beyond dub music, Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1968 self-titled debut album features a backspin effect in the song "Walk on the Water".
[13] The signature technique he developed was playing two copies of the same record on two turntables in alternation to extend the b-dancers' favorite section,[8] switching back and forth between the two to loop the breaks to a rhythmic beat.
As they experimented with the SL-1200 decks, they developed scratching techniques when they found that the motor would continue to spin at the correct RPM even if the DJ wiggled the record back and forth on the platter.
[15] Kool Herc's invention of break-beat DJing is generally regarded as the foundational development in hip hop history, as it gave rise to all other elements of the genre.
Though Theodore discovered scratching, it was Flash who helped push the early concept and showcase it to the public, in his live shows and on recordings.
The DJ, Jam Master Jay, was an integral part of the group since his turntablism was critical to Run DMC's productions and performances.
While Flash and Bambaataa were using the turntable to explore repetition, alter rhythm and create the instrumental stabs and punch phrasing that would come to characterize the sound of hip hop, Grandmaster DST was busy cutting "real" musicians on their own turf.
As great as "Break Dancin'" was, though, it highlighted the limited tonal range of scratching, which was in danger of becoming a short-lived fad like human beat-boxing until the emergence of Code Money's DJ Brethren from Philadelphia in the mid-1980s.
The appearance of turntablists and the birth of turntablism was prompted by one major factor – the disappearance or downplaying of the role of the DJ in hip-hop groups, on records and in live shows at the turn of the 1990s.
The origin of the terms turntablist and turntablism are widely contested and argued about, but over the years some facts have been established by various documentaries (Battlesounds, Doug Pray's Scratch), books (DJ Culture), conferences (Skratchcon 2000) and interviews in online and printed magazines.
In an interview with the Spin Science online resource in 2005, "DJ Babu" added the following comments about the birth and spread of the term: It was around 95, I was heavily into the whole battling thing, working on the tables constantly, mastering new techniques and scratches...[I] made this mixtape called "Comprehension", and on there was a track called "Turntablism" which featured Melo-D and D-Styles.
White's study suggests the proficient hip-hop DJ must possess similar kinds of skills as those required by trained musicians, not limited to a sense of timing, hand–eye coordination, technical competence and musical creativity.
This evolution took many shapes and forms: some continued to concentrate on the foundations of the art form and its original links to hip hop culture, some became producers utilizing the skills they'd learnt as turntablists and incorporating those into their productions, some concentrated more on the DJing aspect of the art form by combining turntablist skills with the trademark skills of club DJs, while others explored alternative routes in utilizing the turntable as an instrument or production tool solely for the purpose of making music – either by using solely the turntable or by incorporating it into the production process alongside tools such as drum machines, samplers, computer software, and so on.
DJ Buddy and Moldover went on to create a song called "Controllerism" that pays homage to the sound of digitally emulated turntablism.
Mix Master Mike was a founding member of the influential turntablist group Invisibl Skratch Piklz (begun in 1989 as Shadow of the Prophet) and later DJ for the Beastie Boys.
Co-created by DJ Radar and Raul Yanez, a composer and professor at Arizona State University, this composition showcases a unique melding of electronic and orchestral music elements.
This arrangement necessitated the development of "scratch notation" by DJ Radar to transcribe his turntable manipulations into a format readable by classically trained musicians.
[20] The premiere at Carnegie Hall was met with enthusiastic responses, highlighting the potential of digital instruments within classical music settings and demonstrating the artistic validity of turntablism.
[21] Starting in the 1980s in the Southern United States and burgeoning in the 2000s, a meta-genre of hip hop called "chopped and screwed" became a significant and popular form of turntablism.
Arguably, this combination of distortion and audial effects against the original recording grants greater freedom of improvisation to the DJ than did the previous forms of turntablism.
Then, in a reverse fashion, the DJ opens the channel while moving the record backwards creating a more controlled sounding "baby scratch".
Visual elements may be linked to turntable movement, incorporating digital media including photographs, graphic stills, film, video, and computer-generated effects into live performance.
These organized competitions evolved from actual old school "battles" where DJs challenged each other at parties, and the "judge" was usually the audience, who would indicate their collective will by cheering louder for the DJ they thought performed better.
[26] In Western popular music, women musicians have achieved great success in singing and songwriting roles, with top examples being Madonna, Celine Dion and Rihanna.
In 2007, University of North Carolina music professor Mark Katz's article stated that it is rare for women to compete in turntable battles and that this gender disparity has become a topic of conversation among the hip-hop DJ community.
[31][page needed] She suggests that women's alienation from fields with strong technical aspects such as DJing, sound engineering and music producing should not only be attributed to a feminine dislike towards these instruments.
