08/31/2026
Great read!
ALL DJs ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
One of the biggest problems we see in modern discussions about DJing is that everybody carrying the title DJ gets thrown into the same category, even though they can be doing completely different jobs requiring completely different abilities. A wedding DJ, mobile DJ, underground rave DJ, club DJ, vinyl DJ, hip-hop DJ, scratch DJ, turntablist, DMC battle DJ, Mixologist DJ, radio DJ, open-format DJ and festival EDM DJ can all be called DJs, but that does not remotely mean they are doing the same thing. Some DJs primarily entertain, some select music, some host events, some specialize in continuous mixing, some manipulate records like instruments, some create live remixes by layering multiple records, some control dance floors for eight hours, some construct short competition routines, some work almost entirely from requests and others specifically avoid them. Some perform completely manually while others depend heavily on software, preparation and automation. This is why simply telling us somebody is a DJ tells us almost nothing about what that person can actually do.
WEDDING DJs
Wedding DJing is primarily an event service. A great wedding DJ needs to understand an incredibly broad audience while handling requests, announcements, microphones, introductions, first dances, speeches, schedules and coordination with clients and other vendors. Their musical knowledge can be enormous because they might move through five decades and several completely different genres during one event. Some wedding DJs are also incredible technical mixers and turntablists, while others barely continuously mix because continuous mixing is simply not the primary requirement of their job. A wedding DJ can be outstanding at weddings without being capable of playing a six-hour underground techno set, just as an incredible underground DJ could be terrible at running a wedding. We consider these different jobs requiring different abilities.
MOBILE AND PRIVATE EVENT DJs
Mobile DJs work weddings, birthdays, corporate events, school dances, reunions and private parties, and they often bring the entire production with them. Sound systems, microphones, lighting, cables, backup equipment, setup, teardown, schedules and dealing directly with clients can all be part of the job. Reliability and professionalism can matter considerably more in this environment than demonstrating some incredibly complicated transition. A mobile DJ can be excellent at controlling a mixed crowd and successfully running an event while possessing only moderate technical mixing ability. That does not automatically make them bad at their job. It means technical mixing is only one possible part of a completely different job.
OPEN-FORMAT DJs
Open-format DJing can be incredibly difficult when it is done properly because these DJs might move between hip-hop, funk, disco, rock, house, pop, Latin music, old-school records and current hits during the same performance. The differences in tempo, structure and rhythm create challenges that do not exist when somebody stays within one narrow electronic genre. Skilled open-format DJs learn how to escape tempos and genres using cuts, scratches, breakdowns, loops, wordplay and carefully selected transition records. Their versatility, timing and musical knowledge can be their greatest strengths, and we consider that a legitimate specialty within DJing.
COMMERCIAL CLUB DJs
Commercial nightclub DJs can operate under completely different expectations from underground club DJs. The audience may expect recognizable songs quickly, management may expect certain music, requests might matter and the DJ may have to maintain immediate energy while rapidly moving between popular records. A beautiful three-minute transition might accomplish absolutely nothing in that environment because the objective is different. This is another reason we reject the argument that a dancing crowd automatically tells us how technically skilled the person behind the equipment is. It tells us that the DJ successfully entertained that particular crowd, which is valuable, but it is not automatically evidence of every other DJ skill.
UNDERGROUND CLUB AND RAVE DJs
This is much closer to the world The-Lost-Art.com was built around. Traditional underground club and rave DJing places far greater emphasis on continuous mixing and constructing a musical journey. The audience might specifically want records they have never heard before, and the DJ may have several hours to develop an atmosphere. Selection, phrasing, timing, EQ control, transitions, layering and energy progression become central parts of the performance. The DJ is not simply delivering individual songs because the relationship between those records becomes part of the performance. A great underground DJ can take tracks created by completely different producers and make them feel like pieces of one continuous musical experience. The order matters, the timing matters, the transitions matter and knowing when not to play the biggest record matters. There may be no microphone and there may be no requests because the mix itself is the performance.
VINYL DJs
Traditional vinyl DJing requires direct physical interaction with the music. You manually cue the record, find the starting point, control the pitch, hear the records drift, determine which record is ahead or behind and physically correct it. Traditional vinyl provides no waveform showing exactly where everything happens, no beatgrid keeping everything aligned and no sync button correcting the fundamental timing relationship between the records. Vinyl also introduces physical realities such as worn records, different pressings, turntable feedback, needle problems, different recording levels and pitch limitations. The DJ has to constantly listen, interpret and correct, which is why we have always considered turntables one of the clearest demonstrations of traditional manual DJ ability. They expose what somebody can actually hear and control.
HIP-HOP DJs
The DJ is foundational to hip-hop culture, and hip-hop DJing developed techniques that transformed record playback into performance. Cutting, scratching, doubles, backspinning, break manipulation and eventually beat juggling became major elements of the craft. A skilled hip-hop DJ can simultaneously select records, mix, scratch and manipulate sections of recordings rhythmically. We make an important distinction between somebody who plays hip-hop music and somebody who actually possesses traditional hip-hop DJ abilities because playing a genre and mastering the DJ techniques associated with that culture are not automatically the same thing.
SCRATCH DJs
Scratch DJs specialize in manipulating sound through the relationship between record movement and fader movement. Scratching is considerably more complicated than simply moving a record backward and forward because there is an enormous vocabulary of techniques and combinations requiring timing, coordination, muscle memory and rhythmic understanding. At advanced levels, scratching becomes improvisational and a skilled scratch DJ can respond rhythmically to music almost like another musician joining the performance. We consider scratching a legitimate technical discipline that can take years to master, but possessing that skill still does not mean it needs to dominate every minute of a DJ set.
TURNTABLISTS
Turntablism pushes record manipulation even further by treating the turntables and mixer as instruments. Scratching, beat juggling, transformations, doubles, patterns, samples and other techniques can be combined into complete routines. The original recordings become raw material rather than simply songs being played. Instead of only asking what record comes next, the turntablist asks what can be created from the sounds contained on those records. We consider this one of the most technically demanding branches of DJ culture, but it is still its own discipline and should not automatically be used as the sole measurement for every other type of DJ.
BATTLE DJs AND DMC DJs
Battle DJs are strongly associated with DMC-style competition because the DMC World DJ Championships became one of the defining institutions of competitive turntablism. This is DJing under competitive pressure where technical ex*****on, originality, difficulty, timing and musicality matter. DMC DJs can spend months constructing and practicing routines lasting only a few minutes because every movement has to work. Scratching, beat juggling, cutting and complicated technical combinations become the performance itself. A world-class DMC DJ might completely destroy an ordinary nightclub DJ in a battle while that same nightclub DJ might be considerably better at controlling a dance floor for eight hours. We see absolutely no contradiction there because they are different disciplines requiring different abilities.
MIXOLOGIST DJs
There is another type of DJ that deserves its own category because this is where continuous mixing can become something much closer to live musical construction. We call them Mixologist DJs. A Mixologist DJ does much more than transition from one complete record into another. They deliberately place records on top of other records for extended periods and use individual elements of those recordings to create something that does not exist on either original track. The drums from one record might run underneath the bassline of another while vocals or percussion from another source enter the mix. Two records might remain together for several minutes, and with three or four decks the possibilities become considerably more complicated. EQ becomes part of the construction because the DJ decides which frequencies from each record remain, faders become part of the arrangement and timing and phrasing become critical because the records are no longer simply passing each other during a transition. They are temporarily becoming one piece of music.
This is where we believe DJing can become an instrument experience. The decks become individual musical sources that the DJ manipulates simultaneously and the mixer becomes part of the instrument. The DJ makes decisions in real time about which elements remain, which disappear, which recording dominates and how long those relationships continue. A great Mixologist DJ can make you hear records you already know in ways you have never heard them before. You might recognize the vocal from one record, the drums from another and a bassline underneath both, but that particular combination exists only during that performance. That is effectively a live remix being constructed through DJing rather than a finished remix simply being played.
This is fundamentally different from playing a mashup or remix somebody constructed beforehand. If the combination was produced before the performance and somebody simply presses play, the creative construction occurred during production. With live mixology, constructing that combination is part of the DJ performance itself. This style also demonstrates why manual control can matter tremendously because when records remain layered for extended periods, tiny timing differences become increasingly obvious. The DJ has to hear drift, make corrections, manage frequencies, understand phrasing and think ahead while several recordings are interacting. The longer those records remain together, the greater the possibility something can go wrong, and that risk is part of the live performance.
HOUSE, TECHNO AND TRANCE DJs
Traditional house DJing places enormous emphasis on groove, phrasing, programming and flow, and some of the best house transitions are not visually impressive because their effectiveness comes from how naturally two records become one. Techno can take layering even further, with tracks functioning almost like components rather than individual songs as DJs use multiple decks, loops, EQ and percussion to gradually transform the music. Trance creates another challenge through long musical progression, extended breakdowns, builds, tension and release. These styles require different approaches, but all can demonstrate why DJing cannot simply be measured by how many controls somebody touches or how dramatic the person looks behind the equipment.
BREAKBEAT DJs
Breakbeat DJing creates its own technical challenges because broken rhythms interact differently from straight four-on-the-floor beats. Two complicated percussion patterns can sound incredible when properly aligned or become a complete mess when they are not. Understanding percussion, phrasing and how different breaks interact becomes extremely important. Seeing identical BPM numbers does not tell us whether two breakbeat records actually work together because the DJ still has to hear what those rhythms are doing to each other.
DRUM AND BASS AND JUNGLE DJs
Drum and bass and jungle bring another level of rhythmic complexity. Fast tempos, doubles, aggressive transitions, chopped breakbeats and complicated percussion can require tremendous timing and knowledge of the records. Some DnB DJs perform extremely rapid mixes while others specialize in long blends and progression. Two tracks can be perfectly matched in tempo while their percussion still fights against each other, which again demonstrates why matching numbers on a screen is not the same thing as understanding what is happening musically.
DISCO, FUNK AND SOUL DJs
Disco DJs played an enormous role in establishing concepts that eventually became modern continuous dance-floor DJing. Extended records allowed DJs to maintain dancing through longer transitions, and programming became a major part of the craft. Funk and soul DJs can bring another type of expertise through extraordinary musical knowledge, obscure records, original pressings, breaks, samples and relationships between artists. Their technical performance might sometimes appear simpler than battle DJing, but the depth of musical knowledge can be enormous and represents another completely legitimate form of DJ expertise.
REGGAE, DANCEHALL AND LATIN DJs
Reggae and dancehall sound-system culture has its own traditions where selection, dubplates, exclusives, crowd interaction and musical knowledge carry enormous importance. Latin DJing is similarly too broad to reduce to one style because salsa, bachata, merengue, reggaeton and Latin electronic music can have completely different structures, audiences and traditions. We would never judge these DJs exclusively according to the standards of a techno DJ or DMC competitor because doing so would completely misunderstand their jobs and the cultures in which those forms of DJing developed.
RESIDENT, WARM-UP, HEADLINER AND AFTER-HOURS DJs
Great resident DJs are some of the most underrated people in nightlife because they learn the room in a way visiting performers often cannot. They understand the regular audience, know when people arrive and recognize how energy develops throughout the night. Warm-up DJs need restraint because destroying the room at 9 PM can demonstrate that somebody does not understand the assignment. Headliners generally have greater freedom to push the energy, but headliner status does not automatically mean technical superiority. After-hours and closing DJs face another challenge because the crowd has already experienced the peak and deeper programming and patience can become considerably more important. These are different responsibilities even though every person involved might simply be listed on the flyer as a DJ.
MARATHON DJs
Long-set DJing deserves its own category because playing eight, ten, fifteen or twenty hours creates challenges that simply do not exist during a short performance. You need an enormous amount of music, concentration, endurance, pacing and somewhere to actually go musically. A DJ who can create an incredible 45-minute performance is not automatically capable of constructing a ten-hour journey because the long-format DJ has to understand progression on an entirely different scale.
RADIO DJs
Radio DJ originally describes something substantially different from club DJing. A radio DJ might select records, introduce songs, interview guests, talk to listeners and develop an on-air personality, and beatmatching might have absolutely nothing to do with being excellent at that job. Radio mixshow DJs are different again because they actually perform mixes for broadcast while dealing with programming and timing restrictions. Even within radio, the word DJ can describe completely different jobs.
CONTROLLER DJs
We have never believed that simply using a controller makes somebody a fake DJ. Controllers can provide multiple decks, effects, loops, stems, samplers, performance pads and creative possibilities that traditional equipment could never provide as easily, and a highly skilled DJ can use those capabilities to create an incredibly complicated live performance. The problem is that the same equipment can also automate fundamental tasks through beatgrids, synchronization, visual waveforms, BPM displays and quantization. Two people can therefore stand behind the exact same controller while possessing completely different abilities. One might manually beatmatch by ear and use the additional technology creatively while another might be unable to maintain two tracks without visual information and synchronization. We do not judge the controller... We judge what the person standing behind it can actually do.
CDJ AND DIGITAL DJs
The same principle applies to CDJs and digital DJing. A DJ can manually control pitch, cue tracks, mix by ear and largely ignore visual assistance, while another person can depend heavily on analyzed BPM values, stacked waveforms, beatgrids and synchronization. Digital media itself is not the issue. Replacing crates of records with digital storage does not automatically replace DJ ability. Our question has always been whether technology expands what somebody already knows how to do or replaces fundamental skills they cannot perform themselves.
SYNC AND AUTOMATION-DEPENDENT DJs
We make a major distinction between using automation and depending on automation. A DJ who can manually beatmatch perfectly well but chooses synchronization while performing a complicated multi-deck technique still possesses the underlying ability. Somebody who cannot maintain two tracks without beatgrids, synchronization and visual waveforms does not possess that same underlying skill set. The finished audio might sometimes sound similar, but the abilities responsible for creating it are not similar. This is one of the reasons The-Lost-Art.com has always cared about seeing the actual performance rather than simply hearing a finished mix.
STEM, MASHUP AND LIVE-HYBRID DJs
Modern stem separation gives DJs the ability to manipulate vocals, drums, bass and other components independently, and when used creatively this can create genuinely new performance possibilities. Mashup DJs can similarly combine elements from several recordings, while live-hybrid performers can incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, samplers and live instruments. We have no problem with technology expanding DJing. We want to see somebody use new technology to do more. What matters is whether the performer is actually creating and controlling what we are hearing in real time because playing something constructed beforehand and pretending to construct it live is an entirely different thing.
FESTIVAL EDM DJs
Modern festival EDM DJing needs to be separated from traditional underground club and rave DJing because the giant mainstage production can become the primary show. Massive LED walls, lasers, pyrotechnics, CO2, fireworks, confetti, video sequences and lighting cues may all need to happen at specific musical moments, which creates an environment where performances can become heavily prepared and structured around predetermined production cues. Festival culture has also repeatedly faced controversies involving prerecorded or premixed performances, although we are obviously not claiming every festival DJ does this.
Another major distinction is that many modern electronic festival headliners became famous primarily as producers. They created successful music, built recognizable names and were subsequently booked to perform as DJs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a great producer, but producing and DJing are different skills. When a festival set is already mixed and somebody stands behind decks performing DJ-like gestures over that finished mix, we do not consider that live DJing. If the mixing was completed beforehand and the performer is pretending to perform that mixing in real time, the DJ portion of the performance is being acted out. The lasers can still be incredible, the visuals can still be incredible, the producer's music can still be incredible and fifty thousand people can still have an incredible experience, but that demonstrates successful entertainment, production and popularity rather than proving live DJ ability.
There are absolutely festival DJs who really mix live, improvise, manually control their equipment and possess serious technical ability, and those DJs deserve to be distinguished from somebody performing gestures over premixed material. A giant crowd demonstrates popularity, a giant stage demonstrates production value and successful records demonstrate production ability, but none of those things automatically demonstrate DJ ability.
STREAMING, SOCIAL MEDIA AND CELEBRITY DJs
Streaming and social media created another completely different performance environment where the DJ can be performing as much for a camera as for a dance floor. Thirty-second transitions, visual tricks, dramatic movements, constant control touching and perfectly prepared routines can be designed specifically to stop somebody from scrolling. Some social media DJs are incredibly talented while others are incredibly talented at making relatively simple things look complicated, and those are not the same ability. Celebrity DJing makes the distinction even clearer because somebody can be booked because their name attracts thousands of people. That demonstrates popularity and marketing value, but fame gets somebody onto the stage... It does not tell us what they can actually do once they are behind the equipment.
BEDROOM DJs
We have never considered bedroom DJ an automatic insult because it describes where somebody performs rather than what somebody can do. A turntablist practicing four hours every night at home could technically destroy somebody earning thousands of dollars on a festival stage. The festival performer might have considerably greater commercial value, but commercial value and technical ability are not the same measurement, and bookings do not automatically establish skill.
SELECTORS
Some people identify primarily as selectors because their greatest ability is finding and programming incredible music. They understand relationships between songs, possess enormous musical libraries and know exactly what a particular audience needs at a particular moment. We absolutely recognize selection as a skill, but we simply do not pretend selection and technical DJing are identical skills.
TECHNICAL SKILL DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN GOOD DJING
There is another distinction that gets lost in these conversations because possessing an advanced DJ skill does not automatically mean somebody knows when or how to use it musically. Scratching is a perfect example. Scratching is absolutely a legitimate technical skill and can take years to master, and we have enormous respect for somebody who can genuinely scratch, beat juggle and manipulate records at a high level. That does not mean scratching continuously for thirty minutes automatically makes a DJ set better. Knowing when not to use a technique is also part of mastering it.
Scratching should serve the performance, effects should serve the performance and loops should serve the performance. Four decks do not automatically make somebody better than a DJ using two, and touching more controls does not automatically demonstrate more talent. An open-format DJ might use a five-second scratch at exactly the right moment and accomplish more musically than somebody scratching continuously for twenty minutes. Technical difficulty and musical effectiveness are not automatically the same thing. Beatmatching is a skill, scratching is a skill, beat juggling is a skill, programming is a skill, phrasing is a skill, reading a dance floor is a skill, track knowledge is a skill, long-form mixing is a skill, layering is a skill, improvisation is a skill and recovering from mistakes is a skill. Knowing when to use a technique is a skill, and knowing when to leave the music alone is also a skill.
WHY THERE IS SO MUCH FIGHTING IN THE DJ INDUSTRY
Once we separate all these different types of DJs, the reason there is so much fighting inside DJ culture becomes much easier to understand. Everybody wants the same title... DJ. The problem is that this one title now represents an enormous collection of abilities that no single person automatically possesses simply because they call themselves a DJ. When somebody says DJ skill, everybody can be talking about something completely different. A wedding DJ may think about reading a mixed-age crowd and successfully running an event, a battle DJ may think about scratching and beat juggling, a Mixologist DJ may think about layering records and creating live remixes, an underground DJ may think about constructing a six-hour journey, a selector may think about finding incredible music, an open-format DJ may think about moving effortlessly between genres and a festival producer may think about delivering a massive entertainment experience. Then everybody starts arguing because everybody wants their definition to represent the entire word DJ.
Another major source of fighting is that people naturally want credit for skills associated with the DJ title even when they have never developed those particular skills. Somebody becomes successful as a producer and gets booked as a DJ, and suddenly criticism of their DJ ability gets treated like criticism of their production talent. Somebody becomes successful entertaining weddings and assumes that proves they possess the same mixing abilities as somebody who spent decades developing manual long-form mixing. Somebody learns scratching and assumes that automatically makes them superior at every other form of DJing. Somebody learns a modern software workflow and becomes defensive when manual beatmatching is discussed because they interpret recognition of somebody else's ability as an attack on their own legitimacy.
That is where much of the defensiveness comes from. People hear recognition of another DJ's ability as subtraction from their own, but it does not have to work that way. Saying a DMC champion possesses abilities another DJ does not possess does not make the other person worthless. Saying a wedding DJ possesses event-management abilities an underground rave DJ might not possess does not make the rave DJ worthless. Saying a Mixologist DJ can layer records in ways another DJ cannot does not invalidate the other DJ. It simply means all DJs are not created equal and different disciplines require different skills.
The problem becomes considerably worse when people begin performing the appearance of skills they are not actually using. This is where we see constant k**b touching, exaggerated movements, unnecessary button pressing, fake EQ adjustments, perfectly timed hand gestures and other visual performance designed to make simple or automated processes appear technically complicated. If somebody is manually controlling several records, we want to see it. If somebody can scratch, show it. If somebody can beat juggle, show it. If somebody can manually beatmatch, show it. If somebody can create live remixes, show it. If somebody can construct a six-hour journey, show it. If somebody claims four decks allow them to do more, show us what all four decks are actually contributing.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with specializing. The problem is pretending specialization does not exist because everybody wants equal credit for everything associated with the word DJ. We believe the industry would fight considerably less if people simply became comfortable saying what kind of DJ they actually are and respected abilities they personally do not possess. You do not need every DJ skill to be legitimate within your discipline, but carrying the title DJ does not automatically give you every skill associated with every other form of DJing.
ALL DJs ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
This is ultimately our entire argument. A wedding DJ should not automatically be judged like a DMC champion, a DMC champion should not automatically be judged like a six-hour underground resident, a radio DJ should not automatically be judged like a scratch DJ, a Mixologist DJ should not automatically be judged like a mobile DJ and a producer performing a massive festival production should not automatically be judged like a vinyl DJ. These people have different jobs, different objectives and different skill sets, and acknowledging those differences does not diminish any legitimate specialty.
We can still measure specific DJ abilities. We can ask whether somebody can manually beatmatch by ear, hear drift, determine which track is ahead or behind, correct it, control pitch, cue without depending on visual information, understand phrasing, recover from mistakes, layer records and construct transitions themselves. We can ask what happens when the beatgrids, synchronization and visual assistance disappear. Most importantly, we can ask somebody to actually demonstrate whatever abilities they claim to possess.
Followers, bookings, record sales and production credits cannot answer those questions. Costumes, lasers, pyrotechnics, giant LED walls, exaggerated movements and touching twenty controls cannot answer them either. Even a screaming festival crowd cannot answer them. Those things can demonstrate popularity, production, entertainment, branding and showmanship, but none automatically demonstrate DJ skill.
The-Lost-Art.com has never argued that every DJ needs to be a turntablist, scratch DJ, DMC competitor, Mixologist or underground marathon DJ. Our argument is much simpler. Know what you do, respect what other disciplines require and stop pretending every person carrying the title possesses every skill associated with it. Saying somebody is a DJ is only the beginning of the conversation because we want to know what kind of DJ they are, what their discipline actually requires, what abilities they actually possess and what they can actually demonstrate. Strip away the followers, branding, lasers, production, choreography, beatgrids and automation and eventually we arrive at the same question The-Lost-Art.com has been asking since 2009... Can you actually DJ?
