A brief history of DJing, courtesy DJ Hero

by Kevin Kelly { Jun 3rd 2009 at 3:15PM }

Just like the Guitar and Band-based games that came before it, DJ Hero is blazing a trail into the world of scribble scratching mixmastering. In fact, there are four different DJ games in the works: DJ Hero, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, Armin Van Buuren: In the Mix, and DJ Star. That's not even counting the possibly, maybe canceled Harmonix DJ game, Hip Hop DJ or M2 Hip Hop.

But what does that mean for DJ Hero? How does it look? Do you want yet another plastic peripheral to love and care for? Will you become an overnight Paul Oakenfold? We took a look at the game with developer Freestyle recently, and read on for a truncated history lesson about the DJ which was firehosed onto us in a presentation. On your way over the break, scratch through the new images below.

Gallery: DJ Hero

1973: DJ Kool Herc developed a way to mix two records together to create the break.
1974: Technics released the first SL-1200 turntable, which remains the industry standard today.
1979: Sugarhill Gang releases "Rapper's Delight," which is the first hip hop single to feature samples as a bassline.
Late 1970s: Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five pioneered freestyle battles, and invented some of the staple phrases used in DJing / MCing.
Around the same time, Kraftwerk developed a new style of music, combining repetitive rhythms and catchy melodies with a minimilaistic and strictly electronic instrumental.
1986: Aerosmith and Run DMC collaborate on "Walk this Way," which becomes the first hip hop record to reach the top ten.
1986: The Beastie Boys rise to fame, combining punk and rap music with samples and a DJ, which brought a new genre of music front and center.
Late 80s and early 90s: the rave scene gave way to huge superstar DJs like Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, and Crystal Method.
Late 90s, early 2000s: the the popularity of the MP3 player and the laptop combined to create the digital DJ.
2006: Time Magazine names DJ Shadow's album Endtroducing....., which was the first album created only using samples, as one of the 100 greatest albums of all time.
2009: DJ Hero brings turntables and DJ culture to the masses, in an "all new, accessible and fun format."

There you go. Do you feel enlightened? Perhaps you need some tunes to help you. We'll be bringing you more soon.

Tags: Activision, DJ-Hero, e3-2009, Freestyle, rhythm

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:21PM

Heres my brief history of DJing, which I know you will all love:

Man invents music

Man invents complex instruments capable of subtle emotional movements

Man invents a way to record music

No talent frat boy gets laid by proving hes awesome changing the tempos of 2 songs so they fit together.

And thus the history of DJing...

Saria the Cat @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:35PM

You've obviously never been to a good party, club, or rave. I guess if you're not into dance music at all it will all sound like noise to you but it can be pretty fun. :)

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:38PM

I don't go to raves or clubs with DJs, I have a soul.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:44PM

You know, Shaggi, I agree with you to a point in that there are far too many DJs who fall under that category, but time and time again I see you act as though DJ is synonymous with 'no artistic talent', which only shows me that Sagittarius is synonimous with 'person who passes judgment on something he knows nada about'.

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:52PM

Hey you could sculpt with any medium and create art. If you chose Play-doh I'm going to question your choice of medium.

And as for "talented DJs" I suppose thats relative. I sucessfully plunge a toilet every once in a while but I don't go around calling myself a competent plumber.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:58PM

Here we go again. Fernando posted the exact same thing, verbatim. Here's the thing. If I sculpted with Play-doh and created something thought provoking and relevant, you could go ahead and question my medium but that wouldn't mean what I made wasn't art, wasn't good art.

A lot of DJs concentrate on the art of entertainment, and in doing so they don't create very good music. However, there are many DJs out there, like Edan and Frane, that make fantastic music. These are people who have just as much understanding of music theory and what works/what doesn't in the world of music as any other musician, and can create beautiful pieces as a result.

Oh, and, uh, there's more to DJing than crossfading. I've said this to you before too, but you like to ignore that. Again, I agree that DJs who call themselves musicians, who simply crossfade, are questionable. But that's not quite all there is out there, and blanket statements like yours? They're more questionable than ever.

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:03PM

I believe what your referring to is actually 'producing' not DJing. The moment you stop using samples of music you didn't produce your not really DJing your arranging and producing with someone elses music.

This is a talent but I personally don't consider the person who did an artist more than I consider the person who typesets a newspaper a writer.

I guess I'm just a traditional instrument fanboy.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:12PM

"The moment you stop using samples of music you didn't produce your not really DJing your arranging and producing with someone elses music."

DJing and producing are tightly knit these days. Many DJs are producers, and vice versa. Regardless of whether they are or not, though, I usually hear ignorant choruses of 'DJ! oh they must not have talent' whenever they come up in an article.

"This is a talent but I personally don't consider the person who did an artist more than I consider the person who typesets a newspaper a writer.
I guess I'm just a traditional instrument fanboy."

Seems like it. What you don't understand is that a lot of DJs out there make new music, music that sounds completely different from the source material, music that can evoke emotions and touch the listener, etc. It's not quite the same as typing an exact copy of the source material, and comparing it to such would only go to show that you don't really know much about the culture. Understandable. The DJ community is represented by a bunch of shitty musicians and club musicians. At the same time, though, you're using blanket statements and generalizations as though the whole of the DJ community aren't 'musicians' when that's not the case.

DJ Frane is a good example of someone who uses an absolute myriad of samples from completely different genres to create new tunes that not only sound completely independent of any source material involved, but have plenty of musical credibility and artistic value.

Slust @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:15PM

Man invents music

Man invents internet

Kids find internet

Kids ignorantly post shit they don't understand and make sure to throw enough of a angry biting twist on it that helps prove what they don't understand what they're ignorant about

And thus the history of your post.

DJing is not about playing records and making 2 tempos match and cross fading between songs. DJs play crowds. A good DJ will have an arsenal of vinyl to take the crowd on a rollercoaster of dance, slowing it down when the audience needs a rest and building the intensity up into a crescendo that has the audience exploding with energy.

I'm sorry you can't appreciate a talent that doesn't involve plucking a string or tapping a surface, but the world doesn't move to the beat of just one drum.

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:19PM

Sorry man, you run a good fight but real instruments don't have 'Play' buttons on them.

Look, There are songs of course I like that feature DJs, I just see them as amusing, as one might view a parody song. Anything you spend time to make with a turntable you could have actually composed a meaningful piece of music yourself that wasn't someone elses borrowed sentiment transformed. Its lazy music for a lazy generation. Its a parody of art that's imitating life.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:23PM

So, you think that music can't be meaningful if it was made by a DJ using any combination of samples and original music?

You clearly haven't heard much of it, then, and you won't, because you'd rather bask in your ignorance. 'It wasn't played on strings, so it can't be music!' No matter how much knowledge over music theory and music as a whole that a DJ or a producer could exhibit, folks like you'll simply act as though they're not worth your time without even listening to the music at hand. Lazy music? Hardly (I mean, much of it is, like I said, agreeable to a point. Do not generalize, though. That just makes you look stupid, which brings me to...). Lazy argument? Definitely.

piotr.biegaj @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:29PM

lolz

Slust @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:38PM

Power chords and Drop D are not exactly awe inspiring talent.

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:40PM

The flexibility of a turntable is seriously lacking. When playing a guitar for example, you can get an idea in your head on a whim and end up saying something completely different with your music than you intended to before you did it. With Djs Everything is a cut and dried routine, rehearsed to at least some degree in the fact that the exploring of rhythms and samples took place before hand or at the very least were created to say something else by someone else before hand.

There is nothing that is truly live or off the cuff in DJing, its an inherently inferior medium to make an emotional connection with your audience with. Thats also the reason why most DJs do dance music, theres really only one instrument in DJing and thats the rhythm section, even music and samples are used rhythmically instead of the rhythm just being a component of a larger statement. It's like painting a portrait on a small canvas with a paint roller.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:45PM

"With Djs Everything is a cut and dried routine, rehearsed to at least some degree in the fact that the exploring of rhythms and samples took place before hand or at the very least were created to say something else by someone else before hand."

That's where your understanding of turntablism is limited. Many DJs compose their music, too, and then find samples and write original music to compliment each other, change and adapt to new ideas that hit their minds as they're writing. It's a lot more like making music for traditional genres than you think it is.

"There is nothing that is truly live or off the cuff in DJing"

And there it is - a generalization you made not out of an understanding of the method in question, but a lack thereof. In a lot of club DJing this is true (and club DJing is by no means all the culture has going for it, it'd be cool if you'd stop acting like that was the case), but good DJs and anyone who knows anything about turntablism knows that there's a lot more to it than that.

Neuromancer @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:47PM

Shagittarius, you are a bitter, bitter man. Did a DJ steal your woman once?

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:48PM

"even music and samples are used rhythmically instead of the rhythm just being a component of a larger statement"

another statement that is incorrect (sadly, it is correct in quite a few cases, but again, you're trying to justify generalizations, which in any case is stupid and you know it). Man, you need to actually know about turntablism before you go around preaching how talentless or artistically inferior it is. I hate it when people do this with any genre or method of making music and art - not just turntablism.

Shagittarius @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:54PM

So I see; during a performance a DJ may come up with something totally unrehearsed from somewhere that isn't on a record that someone else recorded at some point and work it into their music live? I suppose they could bring a guitar in and play some riffs along with the music...

Which brings me to another point...the best music (my opinion) is a collabrative effort performed live. And I'm not talking about a bunch of people collaborated on a song at some point and you mixed it up from a record. I mean people letting the playing of another individual effect and guide their own interpretation of their own music. Its live and it melds seamlessly together, it doesn't require any planning or a milk crate full of anything.

In my opinion the only time you want to hire a DJ is when there's not enough room for a real band.

Fun DMC @ Jun 3rd 2009 5:02PM

I'm talking during writing and producing, not during performance.

"Which brings me to another point...the best music (my opinion) is a collabrative effort performed live. And I'm not talking about a bunch of people collaborated on a song at some point and you mixed it up from a record. I mean people letting the playing of another individual effect and guide their own interpretation of their own music. Its live and it melds seamlessly together, it doesn't require any planning or a milk crate full of anything."

I can understand your standpoint. I still don't agree with it, but since you laid that out, I can certainly understand better where you're coming from. With that said, that's not to say that turntablism should be discounted, when the end product can be just as emotionally evocative.

fyreblazer @ Jun 3rd 2009 6:53PM

@Fun DMC

I've seen you breathlessly and tireslessly defend hip-hop and it's elements successfully in two post now and I'm extremely impressed with your knowledge of the arts. The problem with a website like this is most of the hip-hop heads don't post on this site (because there are millions of us) and this is why we get ignorant generalizations of the genre we love.

Shag says there's no improvisation in DJing?! PLEASE! I was roommates with a DJ and I NEVER heard him do the same mix twice whether it was when he was practicing (yes good DJs actually DO PRACTICE) or when he was doing a live set. They have to feed off of the crowd and know what's working, when to slow things down and when to speed things up. I would actually submit that DJing has way more improv than your typical live music set because bands (whether rock, jazz, country, r&b, etc) use a set list. They hardly stray from it (even encores are planned) and the only improv comes within songs themselves.

Good DJs also have the ability to take to records and actually make it into a completely different sounding song (and I'm not talking just blends or mash-ups), I've witness a DJ make a completely new beat on the fly by cross fading, rewinding & transforming (type of scratch) two records almost simultaneously, it was amazing. He then recorded that to a device, and put an acapella over it all seemlessly. THAT is the mark of a great DJ.

Lastly, if you've EVER tried to DJ and be a good one, you'd know there's no room for laziness in DJing or you'll find yourself without gigs quick.

Learn the culture before you generalize. I'd be wrong to say rock was just a bunch of uninspired whiney no bassed voice boy bands wearing skinny jeans, right?

T @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:22PM

I see pictures of the HUD...but can somebody PLEASE tell me what the hell it all means? Why is that one line moving left to right...what are those little circles on the red track? Am I holding all three buttons at once?!

waynski1457 @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:43PM

Helped me understand things

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-dj-hero/50118

They have a more in-depth 2 part up over there too.

Eh @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:47PM

And that is the main problem of this game. Its so complicated that nobody can tell how to play it without tutorial videos.

Kevin Kelly @ Jun 3rd 2009 5:57PM

That'll be in our writeup, but the line direction tells you which way you need to flip the crossfader, and the buttons are samples when you just tap them, or they can be scratches when it's a back and forth arrow, and lots of other stuff. Stay tuned.

Orion @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:24PM

How will you tell you made a mistake? An irritating scratch or random voice sample is pretty much what DJing is.

Neuromancer @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:48PM

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

Apollo @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:36PM

When he's not out trying to kill Chris and Sheva, that leader with the megaphone of the rabid villagers from Resident evil 5 is DJ'ing!

Saria the Cat @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:37PM

Obligatory remix video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfLAv3JHRwY

Neuromancer @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:49PM

I'm going to have nightmares tonight, thanks to you

ugg.tryptophan @ Jun 3rd 2009 5:23PM

i love you man

yenrab @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:41PM

Yes, this is clearly the end of this fad. The bottom of the barrel is being scrapped here folks.

Dy-lon @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:07PM

Only this time they are destroying it all at once instead of RB and GH milking it for all it is worth over time we have a slew of titles flooding the market all at once. Shame. I was happier when I thought there were only two of them coming out.

Eh @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:44PM

It looks too damn hard. Pressing a button on time is one thing but trying to match that slider to the line while pressing buttons and scratching is one hell of a learning curve.

I just dont see this being popular with people who arent hardcore about learning this game, theres too many things you have to keep an eye on.

j.howlett @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:50PM

nice time line. wish there was stuff about dj scratch and jazzy jeff.

Dy-lon @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:04PM

With all of this DJ craziness, where is Konami with another Beatmania to throw into the mix? Why is there not another installment of the original DJ game? Just because Guitar Hero ousted Guitar Freaks doesnt mean BeatMania isnt up for a new mix.

pauze @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:26PM

Rapper's Delight actually uses an interpolation of the Good Times bassline, not a sample. It was replayed by Doug Wimbish of Sugarhill's house band.

And DJ Kool Herc didn't "create the break." The drum "break" was already a well-known thing in funk music. What he did was use two of the same record to extend it and make it a focus.

Sorry I had to get that off my chest.