From Vinyl to Virtuoso: The Dynamic Art of Turntablism
Turntablism sounds like a fondness for the good old days before music was streamed on the internet or piped through tiny earbuds: when people bought expensive sound systems with excellent turntables and speakers that reproduced high-quality sound, almost like a live performance. But turntablism goes beyond a love of high-fidelity turntables.
Turntablism is the art of creating new music, sound effects, mixes, and other forms of sound by using several turntables and a mixer. If you’re thinking this sounds familiar, you’re right on track: the more common term for a turntablist is DJ (which originally stood for disc jockey: someone who spins records on the radio).
According to DJ historians, DJ Babu coined the term “turntablist” in 1995, when he wrote, “Babu the Turntablist” on hundreds of copies of his mixtape, “Comprehension.” Since I’ve long been interested in turntablism, I wasn’t surprised when I learned about Babu. His coinage makes perfect sense: if a piano player is called a pianist, and a guitar player is a guitarist, then someone who spins tunes on a turntable should be known as a turntablist.
A Short History of Sound Manipulation
People are naturally curious and musical experimentation is not new. ‘Way back in the 19th century, the compositionally inclined were using phonographs and graphophones to make their own recordings.
And 70 years before the rise of hip-hop, traveling showmen closed their performances by recording a cornettist (a cornet is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet), then performing an accelerated version of the music to amuse the crowd and go out on a high note.
In the 1930s, musicians altered record speeds between 78 and 33 rpms by lifting and lowering the needle, sometimes amplifying the sound as well. But despite these musical innovations, the role of the DJ remained steadfast: to play records.
In the Spin with Turntablism
The rise of turntablism marked a significant change in the way DJs performed their role. Modern turntables have been around since the Swing Era, when people danced up a storm to experimental jazz, followed on by early rock and roll.
Then hip-hop entered the music scene, and DJs became artists in their own right. Initially, they used a technique known as “scratching”, so called because it was discovered accidentally, when a hip-hop artist stopped a record with his hand so he could hear what his mother was saying from another room. Necessity was literally the “mother” of invention in this case! In the 1980s, scratching became a staple of the emerging turntablist art form.
The most important development in turntablism, however, is beat juggling, in which the DJ combines turntables and mixer to switch between two identical records at lightning speed, looping or recombining sounds to create an entirely new beat. With this latest innovation, turntablism effectively evolved into a new compositional form, rather than simply reworking existing tracks.
And hip-hop transformed the humble DJ from just a record spinner to a composer of an intriguing type of music in a new art form.
Turntablism Tracks That Stand the Test of Time
If you’re new to turntablism and looking for creative inspiration, here are seven pioneering recordings you’ll want in your collection:
· Grandmaster Flash: “Wheels of Steel”
· Run D.M.C.: “Jam-Master Jay”
· Herbie Hancock: “Rockit”
· Quasimodo: “Microphone Mathematics”
· The X-Ecutioners: “It’s Goin Down”
· Cut Chemist: “The Audience is Listening Theme Song”
· DJ Shadown: “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt”
