[quote]UnitedVision (09/06/2010)[hr]Bad Boy Bill owns beatport. I’ve met him. Hung out with him. Dropped him off@ airport.
He’s a great DJ. Not a great producer. Behind the Decks 2 is awesome.
But he didnt produce those songs.
If you check the TOP 100 DJ list. He’s not on there anymore.
I attribute this to the fact that he doesnt produce his own music.
He has plenty of cash through beatport, so he probably doesnt care.
To me being creative is not the same thing as being an artist.
I agree that people didnt have the same resources 10 years ago as they do today.
At the same time there are plenty of DJs that have engineers make their music (tiesto comes to mind)
qubert & craze… sure they have talent as DJs. I’ve seen them play 2.
But they will never reach the heights they could if they were producers.[/quote]
I know this. BBB got really far without ever having to produce. All those guys are great DJs though. Im just saying that there can be alot of creativity through DJing. I think the sourness comes because it has turned into a fad. I get that.
i think gatecrasher wet is a piece of art. its my all time favorite trance mix. all the songs flow together so well , still havent got sick of it after all these years
IMO. i have respect for both of them . In nowadays industry is harder to make ur name out there by only Djing . when i was in WMC in 2005 i heard one dude who was saying . i am the sickest Dj in san francisco but nowadays producers who cant Dj **** are taking my gigs.
of course the seminar expressed that . the Music industry changes and Dj now have to produce and Producers need to be Djs . now there is a balance that takes alot of work and time to be able to be pro at both of them . but when u succed u became well know and noticed around the world . like Mr Zimmerman his Producer skills were not enough and then he was forced to get a Artist manager and created a costume for his shows , he was involved in the Club scene and he promoted himself like a good DJ would do . and see where he stands now . as much as i try to hate Deadmau5 Music i have lots of respect that he got to Balance those 2 aspects of the Music Industry.
in conclusion . i think that is not like back in the day where people who produced never wanted to Dj ( because they got paid well for records releases ) or who Djed what . Times changed and Dj or Producer who wants to be in this ever changing industry have to evolve in their art .
PS : please do not say that Deadmau5 is not a Dj or i will curse u lol ( J/K)
i consider this guy one of the greatest artists to grace the turntables and i’ll challenge any “producer” to repeat what this “dj” has done
in my honest opinion you can choose to be either a great producer and ok dj or a great dj and ok producer, it takes a life time of dedication to become great at one or the other but only a very few have the talent and time to become both.
i would say that not even 1% of the DJ/Producers great at both
Nice post, the question is a cracker 
Haven’t read any replies yet but will when I finish lol, so I’ll answer from a personal point of view.
I’ve been a DJ for over 10 years, and have messed about with production since about 1998, never serious stuff, just a bit of messing about.
Took to the production properly last year, and have laid off on the DJing.
I had never thought about whether I was an artist or not, but seeing your question I now know I wasn’t. I personally don’t think of music as an art, as such, more of an expression of who you are, so yeah technically that’s like and artist lmao!!
See I can’t see myself up with the big nuts of the game, although that would be amazing, because I don’t believe in being too cocky. I enjoy doing what I’m doing, and don’t expect to gain anything out of it, any gain will be a massive bonus.
Also, without slabbering on too much longer lol, When I’m DJing, I’m always striving to try different methods of merging the tunes, for example using 3 decks, playing 2 the same track and live phasing them, or sometimes 3 of the one track… so technically I could classify that as being my artistic flair, but even if it was my own tunes I was playing… I still would not say I’m an artist.
So in saying all that, I would use that as my thoughts about the DJ vs Producer = Artist.
Apologies for the long answer, does it make any sense or have I just blabbered on and made an a**e out of meself? Lol. Take 'er easy mate.
[quote]alinenunez (10/06/2010)[hr]
PS : please do not say that Deadmau5 is not a Dj or i will curse u lol ( J/K)
[/quote]
He’s not, I’ve seen him play! Anyways even by his own admission he isn’t a DJ, maybe you missed this article a while back.
“red hot canadian producer deadmau5 hits irish shores this weekend but local dj’s better keep out of his way. the five times beatport award winner told clubmix in an explosive interview that he HATES dj’s and think they’re all ***** ****s. deadmau5 pronounced dead mouse said he will only perform live shows of his own music and think dj’s should be extinct. he says it puts me to ***** sleep to be quite honest, i dont really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to ***** tears and hopefully with all due respect to the dj type that will ***** go the way of the dinosaur id like them to disa*****pear. joel continued, its so middle man,they’re like ***** lawyers you need them,but they’re ***** ****s. god bless them they’re my number one customer right so im not gonna go diss every ***** dj.but to say you become this massive up on a podium performer by playing other peoples productions at the same speed as someone else s productions and fading between the two of them, i don’t get it.”
[quote]roben (10/06/2010)[hr][quote]alinenunez (10/06/2010)[hr]
PS : please do not say that Deadmau5 is not a Dj or i will curse u lol ( J/K)
[/quote]
He’s not, I’ve seen him play! Anyways even by his own admission he isn’t a DJ, maybe you missed this article a while back.
"red hot canadian producer deadmau5 hits irish shores this weekend but local dj’s better keep out of his way. the five times beatport award winner told clubmix in an explosive interview that he HATES dj’s and think they’re all ***** ****s. deadmau5 pronounced dead mouse said he will only perform live shows of his own music and think dj’s should be extinct. he says it puts me to ***** sleep to be quite honest, i dont really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to ***** tears and hopefully with all due respect to the dj type that will ***** go the way of the dinosaur id like them to disa*****pear. joel continued, its so middle man,they’re like ***** lawyers you need them,but they’re ***** ***s. god bless them they’re my number one customer right so im not gonna go diss every ***** dj.but to say you become this massive up on a podium performer by playing other peoples productions at the same speed as someone else s productions and fading between the two of them, i don’t get it."
Just epitomises how much of an arrogant/naive/etc cck he really is.
FYI you don’t have to produce to become big DJs (however it does help), just look at:
Qbert
2manyDJs
DJ Yoda
Eddie Halliwell
Carl Cox
James Zabiela
Kutski
Etc…
All made it through their DJing, I know a couple of them have produced a couple of tracks since, but they were already big before the tracks were made.
Man, i had to comment on Carl Cox
Saw the guy live couple times, he is a amazing DJ, just picks perfect track at right time, its more that then skill what makes this guy stand out and he is fantastic on vinyl and cdj too of course.
I’m glad I started a little controversy for discussion… 
… Mission Accomplished.
I hope I didnt offend anybody directly, but I really wanted to kind of hear what others thought.
As a promoter for the past 5 years, I have met tons of DJs & producers. Each person has their own personality and their own tastes that develop who they are. I think that a DJ can most definately be described as a performer, but not so much as an artist. Thats not to say that they can’t be creative, its just me saying they are not creating anything.
Now… To my comment about Producers Being DJs… Now-A-Days even if you don’t have CDs or Vinyls, you can still DJ with Ableton or Tracktor or whatever. I don’t think anybody could argue that if you can learn to produce, you couldn’t learn to lineup 2 tracks in one of these programs. As a person in the scene for a long time, I don’t really feel as though DJing is what it once was with programs like these on the market. Sonic Academy teaches courses on how to DJ with these programs. The days of vinyl are gone and eventually CDs will be too. I think learning CDs is essential to be a good DJ, but in 10 years or less I’m sure that people will look at it like they do vinyl today.
I think what makes a great DJ is track selection (personal taste) and knowing the crowd/room (energy). Once the basic skills are learned, the rest is how much you are willing to devote yourself to finding great tracks and how much energy you put into it.
I guess my feelings about all of this come from what howiegroove said. DJing has become a fad. Everybody wants to be one. They are a dime-a-dozen. And there are more sh*t DJs then there are great ones. This is not to say you couldnt become famous by being a great DJ (Bad Boy Bill, Eddie Halliwell, etc)… but the way the current trend is moving, this will be much more difficult in the future.
Overall I am just of the mindset that learn to produce first. DJ second.
Making music is more important to me than playing music.
[quote]
Overall I am just of the mindset that learn to produce first. DJ second.
Making music is more important to me than playing music.[/quote]
Nicely put mate, at least you’re honest.
To use your wee system… until 1 year ago, I was DJ first, producer second… but for now roles have reversed, I’m not the greatest DJ the planet has seen but I can pull a quality set… but as u say, dime a dozen, let the young ones have their chance, I’ll make the tunes now for a while, take the back seat so to speak
[quote]roben (10/06/2010)[hr][quote]roben (10/06/2010)[hr][quote]alinenunez (10/06/2010)[hr]
PS : please do not say that Deadmau5 is not a Dj or i will curse u lol ( J/K)
[/quote]
He’s not, I’ve seen him play! Anyways even by his own admission he isn’t a DJ, maybe you missed this article a while back.
"red hot canadian producer deadmau5 hits irish shores this weekend but local dj’s better keep out of his way. the five times beatport award winner told clubmix in an explosive interview that he HATES dj’s and think they’re all ***** ****s. deadmau5 pronounced dead mouse said he will only perform live shows of his own music and think dj’s should be extinct. he says it puts me to ***** sleep to be quite honest, i dont really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to ***** tears and hopefully with all due respect to the dj type that will ***** go the way of the dinosaur id like them to disa*****pear. joel continued, its so middle man,they’re like ***** lawyers you need them,but they’re ***** ***s. god bless them they’re my number one customer right so im not gonna go diss every ***** dj.but to say you become this massive up on a podium performer by playing other peoples productions at the same speed as someone else s productions and fading between the two of them, i don’t get it."
Just epitomises how much of an arrogant/naive/etc cck he really is.[/quote]
Bleh !! well i seen this post too before and he apologized later one after talking **** . he apologized to all the Djs that bought his Music and he pretty much made an *** of himself . IMO he is an arrogant SOB . but even do he denies he dont like to consider himself a Dj , for my eyes he is . he is not a one band man who Plays 5 instruments at the same time to be a band. he uses a PA wich pretty much he dont play any instruments . he only uses DAW and Midi controllers to drop beats and sequences or work in already p remade mix . he actually should be considered a Dj since he dont play any instrument live 
Hi UV - hot topic u started here bro.
@ Aline - Deadmau5 specifically can’t beat match with vinyl (see futuremusic in the studio interview) but to give him credit he’s a whizz with ableton and his X-Zone mixer. As long as the crowd’s enjoying the music who really gives a pooh.
Personally I’m a bit of an old skool vinylist tho i’m starting to download for monetary reasons - Vinyl will always sound fatter and we all respect traditional DJing skills (eg Q-Bert) but I guess with software like traktor u can explore effects and multiple mixes more creatively (a la Hawtin).
Whether DJ’s are performers or artists is a matter of opinion and semantics. What seems universally true today in Dance music is that if you want to make it as a DJ you need good productions behind you. That said - that grand master of hip hop- DJ Premier claims that if you can mix well you should be able to make a decent beat - Ultimately they’re both about selection and the juxtaposition of sounds (+ a good dollop of technical nouse)- If the end result sounds fresh and exciting who’s to pick bones over whether its artistic or not?
P.S. - Sorry UV I don’t listen to Trance period.