A history of the DJ

Pinpointing the origin of the DJ is no easy task. Within the modern music scene, it comes as no surprise to fans when a DJ holds a residency within a club, hosts their own rave, or even headlines a music festival. Ask the youth of today what a DJ does, and you’ll more than likely hear that their job is to play sets at raves—namely, creating seamless mixes of music for large audiences for hours on end.

This wasn’t always the case, however. It was only in the 1950s that the first ‘party DJs’ began to emerge. Using large and innovative sound systems, they possessed the ability to mix records for large audiences and, as a result, can be considered the first in the industry to have shared some level of resemblance to the modern DJ.

Often overlooked by modern consumers of music, though, is the predecessor and long-term affiliate of the party DJ: the radio host. It was over a century ago, in 1909, that a vinyl record was played over the airwaves for the first time ever.

Sixteen-year-old Ray Newby, under the supervision of Charles "Doc" Herrold, played a vinyl record over the airwaves for the first time ever. Operating out of his Californian station, Herrold is believed to have become the first person in history to broadcast radio entertainment on a regular basis.

A pioneer in his field, Herrold ultimately paved the way for the radio hosts of the future. He had successfully created a space through which music artists could have their works promoted to the public, a practice that continues to this very day.

We used popular records at the time, mainly Caruso records, because they were very good and very loud... We started on an experimental basis, and then, because this is novel, we stayed on schedule continually without leaving the air at any time except for a very short time during World War 1… Most of our programming was records, I’ll admit, but we gave out news as we could obtain it.

(Ray Newby, "I’ve Got a Secret") (1965)

Despite Newby having become the first radio DJ in 1909, he wouldn’t be historically recognised as such until nearly twenty years later. This is simply due to the fact that, until 1935, the term "disc jockey" hadn’t been conceived. That year, news commentator Walter Winchell described Martin Block as a disc jockey when observing his practice of creating a "make-believe ballroom" for listeners using vinyl records. According to records, this is the first account of the iconic term ever being used.

Six years later, the term would appear in print for the first time, introduced in a 1941 edition of Variety magazine. During this time, recognition for radio DJs was on the rise both within the industry and among the general public; however, it wasn’t until 1943 that records were first spun for a live audience.

It was the then-acclaimed and nowadays disgraced Jimmy Saville who felt inspired to push the boundaries of what a DJ could offer to the music industry and its consumers. He orchestrated the first ever DJ-oriented dance party, hiring a tiny function room in a venue in Otley, Leeds, for ten shillings. On the whole, he managed to sell twelve tickets at a price of one shilling each.

Savile recalled in an interview later in his life that the owner of the venue was so impressed by the event that he never actually collected the fee initially agreed upon to rent the function room. So successful was the initial dance party that the so-called "Grand Record Dance" became a recurring event that continued for many years. In the same interview, Savile described the incredible feeling permitted to him whilst playing jazz records to a crowd:

Even then, as I played the records, and I stood there I felt this amazing, er, power’s the wrong word. Control’s the wrong word. Effect could be nearer. There was this amazing effect: what I was doing was causing 12 people to do something. And I thought, I can make them dance quick, or slow, or stop, or start.

(Jimmy Savile, "The World’s First Superstar DJ") (2014)

Perhaps it was a desire to maximise the effect imposed by a DJ upon a crowd which led to Savile’s revolutionary breakthrough in 1947. At the time, technology presented the biggest limitations to what a DJ could achieve in front of a live audience.

While wind-up record players were indeed a thing of the past by the 1940s, electric vinyl players still operated on a single turntable system. A seamless mixture of music was unachievable due to the fact that a vinyl record had to be removed from the player and replaced before another could be played.

For a radio DJ broadcasting records over the airwaves, this was common practice. The momentary silence that occurred as a record was replaced could be filled with news, conversation, or anything else an audience may find interesting. For a party DJ trying to produce a continuous mix of music for a captivated audience, however, the momentary silence was deafening.

Savile’s ingenious idea was to weld together two of his vinyl players, something he paid a local metal worker to do. The result altered the future of the music industry forever. In 1947, a crowd heard, at a "Grand Record Dance," the first continuous mix of music ever performed by a DJ.

It should be duly noted that the mixing wasn’t seamless; Savile hadn’t invented the first iteration of the crossfader. What he had managed to do, however, was orchestrate a musical experience without the need for live musicians or bands. Savile had cemented his name and his future as the first superstar DJ.

A mere 7,500 km away, across the Atlantic, impressive street parties had begun to emerge in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, when promoters began utilising the ever-increasing popularity of DJs. These parties strategically placed the DJ at the centre of the congregation of partygoers, optimising the use of innovative and immense sound systems that allowed the crowd to feel completely immersed in the music.

This arrangement of the dancefloor, with the DJ placed in the centre of the crowd, is still incredibly popular today and is commonly referred to as a "boiler room." In the modern music scene, generally speaking, a boiler room will take place inside.

Colloquially, the DJs of these Jamaican street parties would be referred to as the "selector"—selector of records—a nickname that has maintained popularity throughout the years. For example, you may be familiar with the infamous Selecta Records label, located in London, or have heard the song "Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)," released by Artful Dodger and featuring Craig David.

This song became so popular after its release in 1999 that it reached No. 2 in the UK charts. The phrase "Bo selecta" translates to "good DJ" and, in the modern music scene, is often adopted by DJs and producers associated with the garage genre.

Due to limitations in technology, these parties would often opt to include a live drummer who would be tasked with maintaining the rhythm of the dancefloor while records were swapped over. The importance of momentum in social events such as these had been realised, however, inciting a desire among partygoers and DJs alike to solve the problems associated with mixing.

It wasn’t until 1968 that Francis Grasso became the first nightclub DJ to offer partygoers a seamless mix of music that wasn’t interrupted by the swapping out of records or abrupt changes in rhythm and tempo. Grasso recalls how his mixing was described as "an experience" by the regulars of Sanctuary, the popular nightclub in New York where he played in the late 1960s.

Nobody really just kept the beat going. They’d get them to dance, then change records. You had to catch the beat again. It never flowed. And they didn’t know how to bring the crowd to a height, and then level them back down, and bring them back up again … I was a dancer, so it was rhythmically not hard, and I play a few instruments.

(Francis Grasso, "NY Disco DJ Pioneer, Interview with Frank Broughton") (1999)

Evidently, the natural rhythm Grasso had refined throughout his years as a dancer and musician was allowing him to thrive as a DJ. Historically, Grasso is regarded as the first DJ to both establish a loyal following and leave behind a legacy due to his pioneering of a seamless mix of music for listeners. Using some technological flair, Grasso is commonly recognised as the first to beat match music for live audiences through slip-cueing.

Slip-cueing is the practice of holding a record still above the slipmat while the platter rotates beneath it. If the record is released at the right moment, the desired rotation speed will be achieved almost immediately, removing the need to wait for the heavy platter beneath the slipmat to start rotating. This allows for the beat of a previous record to be preserved as a new one is introduced, producing a seamless mix of music incredibly desirable to partygoers.

Slip-cueing is no easy practice, requiring an almost innate knowledge of musical rhythm. As the technique became more popular, however, it inspired the emergence of various other mixing techniques, ultimately introducing the philosophy that the turntable could be used as a musical instrument in its own right. The years that followed can be assessed as two diverging timelines of how DJs influenced music.

On the one hand, the dancehall and dub music associated with Jamaican street parties would later influence early hip-hop, as scratching and beat-juggling allowed the turntable to be used as a support instrument. Even today, modern hip-hop artists perform alongside a DJ who produces intuitive audio effects and mixes their songs. This practice allows the concert to transition from a stagnating performance of individual songs into an experience that blends each song into the next.

Alternatively, discotheques and nightclubs saw a resounding resurgence within the US and Europe in the wake of seamless mixing, utilising the turntable to create a musical journey that flowed effortlessly from one record to the next. In the wake of this, house music emerged out of Chicago, and techno music emerged out of Detroit.

In the 1970s, two infamous nightclubs on the party island of Ibiza would establish themselves as the centers of the new electronic sound. This would be Amnesia and Pacha, whose popularity inspired the development of many other nightclubs on the island of Ibiza, as well as the development of many other party islands and towns. All are notorious for their constant stream of partygoers and world-renowned DJs who grace their dancefloors daily.

In more recent years, organisers and promoters have possessed the ability to market weekend-long music festivals that feature only DJs on their lineups. This is due to the ever-growing popularity of the vocation and the ongoing development of musical subgenres associated with the turntable. Each is individual in its own right, yet, ultimately, it borrows and builds upon elements associated with genres that came before it.

As a popular example, the emergence of drum ‘n’ bass in the 1990s can be attributed to a tying together of musical elements associated with dub, reggae, and jungle with those associated with techno and electronic. Drum ‘n’ bass itself, as a genre, has then paved the way for subgenres such as jump-up, liquid, and hardstep in more recent years.

Music is not the only thing to have transitioned in recent years. After its rise to popularity in the 1980s, the rave scene effectively changed the way in which DJs were perceived forevermore. Many younger consumers of music today associate the role of a DJ with raves first and foremost. As the market for DJs saturates, many modern DJs look to promote themselves as brands as well as musicians in order to be recognisable and distinguish themselves from others.

Another major difference to note, which has affected modern DJs, is the birth of the internet. Francis Grasso stated in 1999 that what made a bad DJ was "the wrong records." Before the World Wide Web, a DJ was limited to mixing either the records they owned or, more commonly, those owned by the nightclub in which they worked. Today, Soulseek exists as a seemingly endless online library of records that can all be downloaded at the click of a button.

When one considers that nobody knew what a DJ was merely 90 years ago, it is mind-boggling to imagine that DJs are as popular as they are today. Thanks to technological advancements and a few dashes of individual genius over the years, the vocation transitioned from the selection of individual records played to a radio audience to the emphatic performance of a seamless mix of music appreciated by a live crowd of thousands.

Due to the mass production of digital turntables, DJing as a hobby has never been more accessible than it is today, whether for the musical enjoyment of the individual or for those looking to make social gatherings all the more intimate and exciting. For the most part, those DJing for fun still possess the same online library of records accessed by professionals. With enough practice and dedication, becoming a skilled DJ has never been a more attainable goal.