The history and evolution of the DJ is a self-sustaining feedback loop between music, dancing, DJ technique, DJ innovation, and technology. Below are some key moments in history that have contributed to our current state.
1857
-Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville was a French printer, bookseller, and inventor who invented the earliest known sound recording device, the phonoautograph
1877
-Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman who invented the phonograph/gramophone
1887
-Emil Berliner (German born American Inventor) Invents Flat Disc Phonograph/Gramophone
1892
-Berliner Begins Commercial Production of Disc Records
1896
-The world's first radio receiver designed by Russian, Alexander Stepanovich Popov, seen at the All-Russia Exhibition.
He was the first to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves, (thankfully) he did not apply for a patent
-Radio is useful for maritime coordination & during WWI
1906
-American Engineer Reginal A Fessenden Plays First Record Via Radio Waves to Ships In The Atlantic From Brant Rock, Massachusetts
1909
-The world's first radio disc jockey was 16 year old Ray Newby. He began regularly playing records on a small transmitter while a student at Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless, located in San Jose, California with radio pioneer Charles “DOC” Herrold
1920
-Modern Radio Begins, First Commercial Radio Station KDKA, Pittsburgh
1935
-In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term “Disc Jockey” to
describe radio personality Martin Block’s show “Make Believe Ballroom” (a concept borrowed from west coast DJ Al Jarvis) on WNEW in NYC developed as a concept when music was played between news bulletin updates of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
-Disc = The medium
- Jockey = Operator
1940
-The term for the automated record machine pioneered in the 1890’s, the “jukebox”,
spreads throughout America.
Note: “juke” is a Gullah term meaning rowdy, wicked or disorderly. Gullah are descendants of slaves in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia
1943
-DJ Jimmy Savile launches a DJ dance party by playing jazz records in the upstairs function room
of the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds in Otley, England.
1947
-Jimmy Saville DJs With Two Turntables, First Pioneer Club DJ
-The world’s first discotheque opens in Paris, Whiskey A Go-Go
1948
-Invention Of Transistor (Makes Radio Receiver Affordable) Coincides with the “Teenager”
1953
-The Belgian Polish Jew Regine Zylberberg, aka “Regine, Queen of the Night”, laid a dance floor, installed colored lights, and replaced the jukebox with turntables which she manned to keep music continuous on twin turntables
1954
-Alan Freed Broadcasts First Show on WINS in NYC, He Coins The Term Rock N’ Roll (Black Rhythm & Blues)
1950s
-“Sock Hops/Platter Parties”
-American Bandstand spreads popular music (1952-1989)
-In Memphis, Tennessee, Dewey Phillips was the leading radio personality for nine years and was the first to simulcast his "Red, Hot & Blue" show on radio and television. During the 1950s he had 100,000 listeners to his 9pm-midnight slot and he received
3,000 letters a week. (In 1950 the population was 396K)
Note: He was a freeform (open format?) DJ, a dying breed
1960
-Hank Ballard records “The Twist” in Baltimore & “invents” a dance
-American Bandstand makes Chubby Checker’s version popular (Dick Clark de-blacked the Twist dance for white teenagers)
-The dance becomes a popular (no partner, no training, fun)
-Ground is broken in LA on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, (2,600 stars as of 2017) 47% have been awarded in the motion pictures category,
24% in television, 17% in audio recording, 10% in radio, and less than 2% in the live performance category.
-Frenchman Oliver Coquelin Opens NY’s First Discotheque (Based on Paris’ “Whiskey A Go Go”), “Le Club” @ 416 E 55th Street, His family owned many grand hotels (Local bandleader’s Butler DJ Peter Duchin, membership only)
-The Peppermint Lounge (gay hustler bar) @ 128 W 45th Street, made the twist dance popular, and celebrities made the venue chic,
house band was Joey Dee and the Starlighters with the Pepp. Twist
1965
-Alex Rosner’s First Sterophonic Disco System At NY World's Fair (Built for the Canada A Go Go & Carnival A Go Go stands)
Greek: “stereos” = firm/solid, & “phone” = sound/tone/voice
-Terry Noel (Ex Peppermint Lounge twist dancer) takes over at
Sybil Burton’s club “Arthur”, He is the first DJ to mix records
1968
-Francis Grasso Begins Spinning At Salvation, First Slip Cueing & Beatmatching In A Club, DJ set as a journey w/Motown, Funk,
Led Zeppelin, Santana, Latin beats & African rhythms Took over for Terry Noel at Salvation 2, acid drop)
1970s
- First Disco Music Is Produced & Embraced By NY Gay, Black & Latino Communities, Reaction Against Straight Rock N’ Roll
(Allmusic claims some have argued that Isaac Hayes and Barry White were playing what would be called disco music as early as 1971. According to the music guide there is disagreement as to what the first disco song was. Claims have been made for Giorgio Moroder's "Son Of My Father" (1972) Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa" (1972), Jerry Butler's "One Night Affair" (1972), the Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" (1974), George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" (1974).[6][20] and "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974) by Biddu and Carl Douglas.)
-David Mancuso Starts Throwing private Loft Parties, “Love Saves The Day” (Alex Rosner’s Sound System & No Liquor)
-Nicky Siano opens The Gallery & hires friends Larry Levan & Frankie Knuckles to help with the parties (setup, spiking punch etc.)
1971
-Alex Rosner Designs First DJ Mixer “Rosie” For Grasso At Haven
-First Commercially Available DJ Mixer, (Rudy) Bozak CMA-10-DL
-Tom Moulton visits Fire Island and makes a 45 minute reel-to-reel mix over 80 hours to keep a continuous flow of music to battle 7” singles that were too short, he is first rejected then embraced at The Sandpiper
(record labels invite him to make mixes on b-sides)
1970s
-Pete DJ Jones & DJ Kool Herc Start Spinning Breaks At Block Parties In The Bronx,
The Birthplace of Hip Hop
(Music = “Apache” By The Incredible Bongo Band)
-Two copies of the same record used to prolong the break or,
aka “the get down”
1974
-Grandmaster Flash Invents Quick Mix Theory or Clock Theory (Hand On Record)
-I dare you to walk into a DJ school and and say Grandmaster Flash is not a true DJ
-NYC WPIX-FM Premiers First Disco Radio Show
1975
-Grand Wizzard Theodore (Flash’s Protégé) Invents Scratching
-Kraftwerk tours America for their Autobahn Album
-Tom Moulton is responsible for the first continuous-mix album side, on Gloria Gaynor's disco album, Never Can Say Goodbye,
earning him the title the "father of the disco mix".
1976
-First 12” (10”) of “So Much For Love” By Moment of Truth (Tom Moulton Remix)
-Rodney Bingenheimer (mayor of the sunset strip) starts radio show on Pasadena FM
and AM radio station KROQ, “called Rodney on the ROQ”, it runs until 2017.
Considered the first radio DJ to have played: The Runaways, Blondie, the Ramones,
Social Distortion, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Oasis,The Donnas, No Doubt, Dramarama, The Offspring, The Go-Go's, the Germs, The B-52's, X, The Vandals, Buck Brothers, the Sex Pistols,
Teenage Fanclub,The Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Suicidal Tendencies…
One reporter wrote "if you make it onto KROQ in America, you've made it in America.
1977
-Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte Produce Donna Summer’s
“I Feel Love”, fully synthesized disco (From DM to EDM)
-The Electrifying Mojo (Charles Johnson) begins broadcasting in Detroit, 107.5 WGPR
(Feeds YMO, Kraftwerk, Prince, B-52’s etc. Inspires the Pioneers of Techno, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Derrick May & Jeff Mills)
-Larry Levan begins DJing at Paradise Garage with Richard Long’s first big sound system (RLA)
-Frankie Knuckles begins residency at Warehouse in Chicago
-Saturday Night Fever directed by John Badham (Marks the fall of Disco in America)
-Based on a New York Magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn called “Tribal Rites of the
New Saturday Night”, based on a working class mod
1978
-Technics Direct Drive SL-1200 was introduced
1979
-Disco Demolition Night, Comiskey Park Chicago Engineered By DJ Steve Dahl
(Fired When WDAI Shifted Formats, Rock to Disco)
-The Sugar Hill Gang releases “Rapper’s Delight”, first Hip Hop record To become a hit,
and sampling milestone, Le Chic “Good Times” bassline
-A coincidence??? Hip Hop soon takes over people’s ears
1980
-Sony Walkman TPS-L2 Goes On Sale in U.S.
(First portable “stereobelt” cassette player invented in 1972 by German-Brazillian Andreas Pavel)
-Roland TR-808 Drum Machine Introduced
-(Early 1980’s) MDMA Becomes Club Drug of Choice
1980-86
-Danceteria Opens and Brings New York’s Different Subcultures Together (Rock, House, Hip Hop, Pop)
1981
-The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel
-Kraftwerk: Computer World LP Inspires Electro
-Tony Prince starts the Disco Mix Club in Luxembourg
Around 1981, he began playing DJ mixes of dance records and started the successful and influential Disco Mix Club Show. On returning to Britain, he launched DMC as a record subscription club in 1983. He also launched the club culture magazine Mixmag, later sold to EMAP. Prince continued to run the company, now known as DMC International, until 2006.[1][4] In 2002, Prince established World DJ Day, set up to raise funds for
Nordoff-Robbins music therapy.
1982
-Floppy Disk Storage EMU Emulator Keyboard Sampler, E-mu Systems
-Afrika Bambaataa (Outlines the 4 Pillars of “Hip-Hop”: MCing, DJing, Breaking & Graffiti Writing), Releases Planet Rock (produced by Arthur Baker, and recreated Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express) & Goes on Intl. Hip Hop Tour, Zulu Nation Collective
-The CD is introduced commercially (optical disc storing digital data)
1983
-Tommy Boy Remix Contest of the single "Play That Beat, Mr. D.J." by G.L.O.B.E.
and Whiz Kid, Resulted in "Lesson One – The Payoff Mix" by Steven “Steinski” Stein & Doug “Double Dee” DiFranco
(Samples include: The Supremes, Little Richard & Humphrey Bogart Films)
(Onset of "Bastard Pop" & "Mashups")
1984
-Jesse Saunders Releases “On & On”, Arguably the First House Single On Vinyl
1985
-Tony Prince in collaboration with Mixmag starts the annual
DMC world championships (DMC = Disco Mix Club. Originally a remix service and radio show in the UK, Luxembourg).
The first winner was UK DJ Roger Johnson at the Hippodrome
1986
-American DJ Cheese scratched his way to DMC victory, this opened a new door
1989
-Frankie Bones Begins “Storm Raves” In NYC, Brings Rave Culture
-Rave Culture Sets Up The Beginning Of The Superstar DJ
(Precedence: 50’s Trad Jazz “raves” in the UK & Northern Soul music mods, heavy beat, fast tempo, speed & baggy clothes)
-Fall of the Berlin Wall. East met West and changed the face of Techno forever.
-The first Love Parade music festival took place in Berlin and co-mingled and entire country of previously autonomous scenes
- Belagian DJ Jean-Claude Maury pitched down “Flesh” by A Split Second from 45 to 33-plus-eight to suggest a new genre that came to popularity in Belgium called New Beat.
1990s
-NYC Transforms Chicago House Into Deep House With
(Jazz, Funk, Soul, Gospel, Latin Salsa, ie. Masters At Work Kenny Dope & Little Louie Vega + Francois K’s Body & Soul Party)
-Eccentric Canadian Peter Gatien runs Club USA, Palladium, The Limelight & The Tunnel
(Club Kid Culture)
1995
-Pioneer Releases first CDJ, pitch adjustable CD player
-MP3's as a new form of digital audio storage/encoding goes public
1999
-Napster Founded and Peer To Peer File Sharing of MP3s Begins
-The Music Genome Project was conceived by Will Glaser and Tim Westergren. The Music Genome Project is an effort to "capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level" using over 450 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them.
2000
-Pandora is streaming algorithm radio powered by the MGP
-Trek Technology and IBM began selling the first USB flash drives commercially in 2000.
They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because they have no moving parts. Additionally, they are immune to electromagnetic interference (unlike floppy disks), and are unharmed by surface scratches (unlike CDs).
- 1 CD = 99 songs vs. 1 flash drive = 3,000+ songs
2001
-Ableton Live First Released As Commercial Software
-The iPod is released by Apple; now everyone is a DJ!
2002
-Rob Principe partners with Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay to open Scratch DJ Academy
2003
-Myspace Is Launched. From 2005 to 2008, Myspace was the largest social networking site
in the world, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website
in the United States.
- The BOOTIE mashup party began at the Cherry Bar (now Codeword) in San Francisco
and moved to DNA Lounge in March 2006,where it continues every Saturday to this day!
DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D (aka A Plus D), along with former resident DJ Party Ben,
were instrumental in helping to popularize mashup culture on the West Coast.
-Rane & Serato Audio Research Produce Scratch Live
-Facebook Is Launched
2004
-Berghain (Reincarnation of Ostgut ’98-2003) opens in Berlin
-Dutch superstar DJ Tiesto plays the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Athens Greece
2005
-Bassement Jaxx wins a Grammy for their album Kish Kash, for Best Electronic/Dance Album
(This category changes in 2012 to Best Dance/Electronica Album)
2006
- In 2006 DJ AM (Adam Goldstein from Philly) accepts a $1 million contract to perform weekly
at Caesars Palace, and was also charging upwards of $10,000 for private events.
Note: He got his first paying job as a DJ at an illegal after-hours club in Los Angeles
at the age of 21, where he was paid $40 and a six-pack of beer for a night's work
2007
-Sparked by an email by Bull Moose employee Chris Brown that something could be done
along the lines of Free Comic Book Day, and with inspiration from a brainstorming session during a record store owners' meeting in Baltimore, Record Store Day was officially founded in 2007
and is now celebrated at stores across the world.
-The article by Ean Golden (DJ Tech Tools) "Music Maneuvers: Discover the Digital Turntablism Concept, Controllerism, Compliments of (Matt) Moldover” appeared in the October 2007 issue of Remix magazine.
Note: Matt started the Warper party in NYC in 2005 with DJ Shakey (Julie Covello) following meeting at Burning man, her idea to come up with a name and get it in print
2008
-Developed by Spotify AB in Stockholm, Sweden. It provides digital rights
management–protected content from record labels and media companies.
Spotify is a “freemium” service. (140 million users)
2009
-DJ Hero is released by Freestyle Games, Published by Activision,
It is based on turntablism, and is a follow up to Guitar Hero
-Venus X founded GHE20G0TH1K when the then–21-year-old New York DJ
(born Jazmin Venus Soto), held the event in small Brooklyn bars. Word spread in the last four years, and it’s grown into a cultish party held in large, downtown club spaces and warehouses in Brooklyn. She toured as MIA’s DJ, and her ghettogoth hashtag and style was appropriated by Rihanna & Beyonce (alternative rap music from gay people and a lot of different club and bass music that didn’t have a home in mainstream, house or disco)
2010
-Reality TV, Master of the Mix on BET sponsored by Schmirnoff. Reality television brings DJing
to the Living Room.
2011
-Timothy Pollux, Punktronica, creates the CTRLTAR “The definition of a CTRLTAR, in my mind,
is any DJing device that can be worn and played like a guitar.”
2000’s
-”EDM” Festivals surge worldwide (Sonar, Coachella, WMC, Tomorrowland,
Outlook Festival, Electric Zoo, Ultra...)
2013
-DJ & Composer Natalie Elizabeth Weiss opens Baby DJ School
2015
-Sales of vinyl records were up 32% to $416 million, their highest level since 1988,
according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).
(CD sales, while much higher in total income, were down 17%.)
2016
-Netflix airs the first season of The Get Down
2020
-Club closings and festival cancellations for gatherings around the world in order to ensure "social distancing" due to
fears of the Covid-19 influenza virus. Is this the death of dance music as we know it?
1857
-Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville was a French printer, bookseller, and inventor who invented the earliest known sound recording device, the phonoautograph
1877
-Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman who invented the phonograph/gramophone
1887
-Emil Berliner (German born American Inventor) Invents Flat Disc Phonograph/Gramophone
1892
-Berliner Begins Commercial Production of Disc Records
1896
-The world's first radio receiver designed by Russian, Alexander Stepanovich Popov, seen at the All-Russia Exhibition.
He was the first to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves, (thankfully) he did not apply for a patent
-Radio is useful for maritime coordination & during WWI
1906
-American Engineer Reginal A Fessenden Plays First Record Via Radio Waves to Ships In The Atlantic From Brant Rock, Massachusetts
1909
-The world's first radio disc jockey was 16 year old Ray Newby. He began regularly playing records on a small transmitter while a student at Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless, located in San Jose, California with radio pioneer Charles “DOC” Herrold
1920
-Modern Radio Begins, First Commercial Radio Station KDKA, Pittsburgh
1935
-In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term “Disc Jockey” to
describe radio personality Martin Block’s show “Make Believe Ballroom” (a concept borrowed from west coast DJ Al Jarvis) on WNEW in NYC developed as a concept when music was played between news bulletin updates of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
-Disc = The medium
- Jockey = Operator
1940
-The term for the automated record machine pioneered in the 1890’s, the “jukebox”,
spreads throughout America.
Note: “juke” is a Gullah term meaning rowdy, wicked or disorderly. Gullah are descendants of slaves in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia
1943
-DJ Jimmy Savile launches a DJ dance party by playing jazz records in the upstairs function room
of the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds in Otley, England.
1947
-Jimmy Saville DJs With Two Turntables, First Pioneer Club DJ
-The world’s first discotheque opens in Paris, Whiskey A Go-Go
1948
-Invention Of Transistor (Makes Radio Receiver Affordable) Coincides with the “Teenager”
1953
-The Belgian Polish Jew Regine Zylberberg, aka “Regine, Queen of the Night”, laid a dance floor, installed colored lights, and replaced the jukebox with turntables which she manned to keep music continuous on twin turntables
1954
-Alan Freed Broadcasts First Show on WINS in NYC, He Coins The Term Rock N’ Roll (Black Rhythm & Blues)
1950s
-“Sock Hops/Platter Parties”
-American Bandstand spreads popular music (1952-1989)
-In Memphis, Tennessee, Dewey Phillips was the leading radio personality for nine years and was the first to simulcast his "Red, Hot & Blue" show on radio and television. During the 1950s he had 100,000 listeners to his 9pm-midnight slot and he received
3,000 letters a week. (In 1950 the population was 396K)
Note: He was a freeform (open format?) DJ, a dying breed
1960
-Hank Ballard records “The Twist” in Baltimore & “invents” a dance
-American Bandstand makes Chubby Checker’s version popular (Dick Clark de-blacked the Twist dance for white teenagers)
-The dance becomes a popular (no partner, no training, fun)
-Ground is broken in LA on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, (2,600 stars as of 2017) 47% have been awarded in the motion pictures category,
24% in television, 17% in audio recording, 10% in radio, and less than 2% in the live performance category.
-Frenchman Oliver Coquelin Opens NY’s First Discotheque (Based on Paris’ “Whiskey A Go Go”), “Le Club” @ 416 E 55th Street, His family owned many grand hotels (Local bandleader’s Butler DJ Peter Duchin, membership only)
-The Peppermint Lounge (gay hustler bar) @ 128 W 45th Street, made the twist dance popular, and celebrities made the venue chic,
house band was Joey Dee and the Starlighters with the Pepp. Twist
1965
-Alex Rosner’s First Sterophonic Disco System At NY World's Fair (Built for the Canada A Go Go & Carnival A Go Go stands)
Greek: “stereos” = firm/solid, & “phone” = sound/tone/voice
-Terry Noel (Ex Peppermint Lounge twist dancer) takes over at
Sybil Burton’s club “Arthur”, He is the first DJ to mix records
1968
-Francis Grasso Begins Spinning At Salvation, First Slip Cueing & Beatmatching In A Club, DJ set as a journey w/Motown, Funk,
Led Zeppelin, Santana, Latin beats & African rhythms Took over for Terry Noel at Salvation 2, acid drop)
1970s
- First Disco Music Is Produced & Embraced By NY Gay, Black & Latino Communities, Reaction Against Straight Rock N’ Roll
(Allmusic claims some have argued that Isaac Hayes and Barry White were playing what would be called disco music as early as 1971. According to the music guide there is disagreement as to what the first disco song was. Claims have been made for Giorgio Moroder's "Son Of My Father" (1972) Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa" (1972), Jerry Butler's "One Night Affair" (1972), the Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" (1974), George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" (1974).[6][20] and "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974) by Biddu and Carl Douglas.)
-David Mancuso Starts Throwing private Loft Parties, “Love Saves The Day” (Alex Rosner’s Sound System & No Liquor)
-Nicky Siano opens The Gallery & hires friends Larry Levan & Frankie Knuckles to help with the parties (setup, spiking punch etc.)
1971
-Alex Rosner Designs First DJ Mixer “Rosie” For Grasso At Haven
-First Commercially Available DJ Mixer, (Rudy) Bozak CMA-10-DL
-Tom Moulton visits Fire Island and makes a 45 minute reel-to-reel mix over 80 hours to keep a continuous flow of music to battle 7” singles that were too short, he is first rejected then embraced at The Sandpiper
(record labels invite him to make mixes on b-sides)
1970s
-Pete DJ Jones & DJ Kool Herc Start Spinning Breaks At Block Parties In The Bronx,
The Birthplace of Hip Hop
(Music = “Apache” By The Incredible Bongo Band)
-Two copies of the same record used to prolong the break or,
aka “the get down”
1974
-Grandmaster Flash Invents Quick Mix Theory or Clock Theory (Hand On Record)
-I dare you to walk into a DJ school and and say Grandmaster Flash is not a true DJ
-NYC WPIX-FM Premiers First Disco Radio Show
1975
-Grand Wizzard Theodore (Flash’s Protégé) Invents Scratching
-Kraftwerk tours America for their Autobahn Album
-Tom Moulton is responsible for the first continuous-mix album side, on Gloria Gaynor's disco album, Never Can Say Goodbye,
earning him the title the "father of the disco mix".
1976
-First 12” (10”) of “So Much For Love” By Moment of Truth (Tom Moulton Remix)
-Rodney Bingenheimer (mayor of the sunset strip) starts radio show on Pasadena FM
and AM radio station KROQ, “called Rodney on the ROQ”, it runs until 2017.
Considered the first radio DJ to have played: The Runaways, Blondie, the Ramones,
Social Distortion, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Oasis,The Donnas, No Doubt, Dramarama, The Offspring, The Go-Go's, the Germs, The B-52's, X, The Vandals, Buck Brothers, the Sex Pistols,
Teenage Fanclub,The Smiths, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Suicidal Tendencies…
One reporter wrote "if you make it onto KROQ in America, you've made it in America.
1977
-Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte Produce Donna Summer’s
“I Feel Love”, fully synthesized disco (From DM to EDM)
-The Electrifying Mojo (Charles Johnson) begins broadcasting in Detroit, 107.5 WGPR
(Feeds YMO, Kraftwerk, Prince, B-52’s etc. Inspires the Pioneers of Techno, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Derrick May & Jeff Mills)
-Larry Levan begins DJing at Paradise Garage with Richard Long’s first big sound system (RLA)
-Frankie Knuckles begins residency at Warehouse in Chicago
-Saturday Night Fever directed by John Badham (Marks the fall of Disco in America)
-Based on a New York Magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn called “Tribal Rites of the
New Saturday Night”, based on a working class mod
1978
-Technics Direct Drive SL-1200 was introduced
1979
-Disco Demolition Night, Comiskey Park Chicago Engineered By DJ Steve Dahl
(Fired When WDAI Shifted Formats, Rock to Disco)
-The Sugar Hill Gang releases “Rapper’s Delight”, first Hip Hop record To become a hit,
and sampling milestone, Le Chic “Good Times” bassline
-A coincidence??? Hip Hop soon takes over people’s ears
1980
-Sony Walkman TPS-L2 Goes On Sale in U.S.
(First portable “stereobelt” cassette player invented in 1972 by German-Brazillian Andreas Pavel)
-Roland TR-808 Drum Machine Introduced
-(Early 1980’s) MDMA Becomes Club Drug of Choice
1980-86
-Danceteria Opens and Brings New York’s Different Subcultures Together (Rock, House, Hip Hop, Pop)
1981
-The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel
-Kraftwerk: Computer World LP Inspires Electro
-Tony Prince starts the Disco Mix Club in Luxembourg
Around 1981, he began playing DJ mixes of dance records and started the successful and influential Disco Mix Club Show. On returning to Britain, he launched DMC as a record subscription club in 1983. He also launched the club culture magazine Mixmag, later sold to EMAP. Prince continued to run the company, now known as DMC International, until 2006.[1][4] In 2002, Prince established World DJ Day, set up to raise funds for
Nordoff-Robbins music therapy.
1982
-Floppy Disk Storage EMU Emulator Keyboard Sampler, E-mu Systems
-Afrika Bambaataa (Outlines the 4 Pillars of “Hip-Hop”: MCing, DJing, Breaking & Graffiti Writing), Releases Planet Rock (produced by Arthur Baker, and recreated Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express) & Goes on Intl. Hip Hop Tour, Zulu Nation Collective
-The CD is introduced commercially (optical disc storing digital data)
1983
-Tommy Boy Remix Contest of the single "Play That Beat, Mr. D.J." by G.L.O.B.E.
and Whiz Kid, Resulted in "Lesson One – The Payoff Mix" by Steven “Steinski” Stein & Doug “Double Dee” DiFranco
(Samples include: The Supremes, Little Richard & Humphrey Bogart Films)
(Onset of "Bastard Pop" & "Mashups")
1984
-Jesse Saunders Releases “On & On”, Arguably the First House Single On Vinyl
1985
-Tony Prince in collaboration with Mixmag starts the annual
DMC world championships (DMC = Disco Mix Club. Originally a remix service and radio show in the UK, Luxembourg).
The first winner was UK DJ Roger Johnson at the Hippodrome
1986
-American DJ Cheese scratched his way to DMC victory, this opened a new door
1989
-Frankie Bones Begins “Storm Raves” In NYC, Brings Rave Culture
-Rave Culture Sets Up The Beginning Of The Superstar DJ
(Precedence: 50’s Trad Jazz “raves” in the UK & Northern Soul music mods, heavy beat, fast tempo, speed & baggy clothes)
-Fall of the Berlin Wall. East met West and changed the face of Techno forever.
-The first Love Parade music festival took place in Berlin and co-mingled and entire country of previously autonomous scenes
- Belagian DJ Jean-Claude Maury pitched down “Flesh” by A Split Second from 45 to 33-plus-eight to suggest a new genre that came to popularity in Belgium called New Beat.
1990s
-NYC Transforms Chicago House Into Deep House With
(Jazz, Funk, Soul, Gospel, Latin Salsa, ie. Masters At Work Kenny Dope & Little Louie Vega + Francois K’s Body & Soul Party)
-Eccentric Canadian Peter Gatien runs Club USA, Palladium, The Limelight & The Tunnel
(Club Kid Culture)
1995
-Pioneer Releases first CDJ, pitch adjustable CD player
-MP3's as a new form of digital audio storage/encoding goes public
1999
-Napster Founded and Peer To Peer File Sharing of MP3s Begins
-The Music Genome Project was conceived by Will Glaser and Tim Westergren. The Music Genome Project is an effort to "capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level" using over 450 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them.
2000
-Pandora is streaming algorithm radio powered by the MGP
-Trek Technology and IBM began selling the first USB flash drives commercially in 2000.
They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because they have no moving parts. Additionally, they are immune to electromagnetic interference (unlike floppy disks), and are unharmed by surface scratches (unlike CDs).
- 1 CD = 99 songs vs. 1 flash drive = 3,000+ songs
2001
-Ableton Live First Released As Commercial Software
-The iPod is released by Apple; now everyone is a DJ!
2002
-Rob Principe partners with Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay to open Scratch DJ Academy
2003
-Myspace Is Launched. From 2005 to 2008, Myspace was the largest social networking site
in the world, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website
in the United States.
- The BOOTIE mashup party began at the Cherry Bar (now Codeword) in San Francisco
and moved to DNA Lounge in March 2006,where it continues every Saturday to this day!
DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D (aka A Plus D), along with former resident DJ Party Ben,
were instrumental in helping to popularize mashup culture on the West Coast.
-Rane & Serato Audio Research Produce Scratch Live
-Facebook Is Launched
2004
-Berghain (Reincarnation of Ostgut ’98-2003) opens in Berlin
-Dutch superstar DJ Tiesto plays the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Athens Greece
2005
-Bassement Jaxx wins a Grammy for their album Kish Kash, for Best Electronic/Dance Album
(This category changes in 2012 to Best Dance/Electronica Album)
2006
- In 2006 DJ AM (Adam Goldstein from Philly) accepts a $1 million contract to perform weekly
at Caesars Palace, and was also charging upwards of $10,000 for private events.
Note: He got his first paying job as a DJ at an illegal after-hours club in Los Angeles
at the age of 21, where he was paid $40 and a six-pack of beer for a night's work
2007
-Sparked by an email by Bull Moose employee Chris Brown that something could be done
along the lines of Free Comic Book Day, and with inspiration from a brainstorming session during a record store owners' meeting in Baltimore, Record Store Day was officially founded in 2007
and is now celebrated at stores across the world.
-The article by Ean Golden (DJ Tech Tools) "Music Maneuvers: Discover the Digital Turntablism Concept, Controllerism, Compliments of (Matt) Moldover” appeared in the October 2007 issue of Remix magazine.
Note: Matt started the Warper party in NYC in 2005 with DJ Shakey (Julie Covello) following meeting at Burning man, her idea to come up with a name and get it in print
2008
-Developed by Spotify AB in Stockholm, Sweden. It provides digital rights
management–protected content from record labels and media companies.
Spotify is a “freemium” service. (140 million users)
2009
-DJ Hero is released by Freestyle Games, Published by Activision,
It is based on turntablism, and is a follow up to Guitar Hero
-Venus X founded GHE20G0TH1K when the then–21-year-old New York DJ
(born Jazmin Venus Soto), held the event in small Brooklyn bars. Word spread in the last four years, and it’s grown into a cultish party held in large, downtown club spaces and warehouses in Brooklyn. She toured as MIA’s DJ, and her ghettogoth hashtag and style was appropriated by Rihanna & Beyonce (alternative rap music from gay people and a lot of different club and bass music that didn’t have a home in mainstream, house or disco)
2010
-Reality TV, Master of the Mix on BET sponsored by Schmirnoff. Reality television brings DJing
to the Living Room.
2011
-Timothy Pollux, Punktronica, creates the CTRLTAR “The definition of a CTRLTAR, in my mind,
is any DJing device that can be worn and played like a guitar.”
2000’s
-”EDM” Festivals surge worldwide (Sonar, Coachella, WMC, Tomorrowland,
Outlook Festival, Electric Zoo, Ultra...)
2013
-DJ & Composer Natalie Elizabeth Weiss opens Baby DJ School
2015
-Sales of vinyl records were up 32% to $416 million, their highest level since 1988,
according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).
(CD sales, while much higher in total income, were down 17%.)
2016
-Netflix airs the first season of The Get Down
2020
-Club closings and festival cancellations for gatherings around the world in order to ensure "social distancing" due to
fears of the Covid-19 influenza virus. Is this the death of dance music as we know it?