The term used to describe the use of turntables as an instrument to create music rather than for playback is turntablism. It is used to differentiate between DJs who use their DJ decks to mix one record after the other, and those who use them, combined with their mixer, to manipulate the vinyls and thus the sounds created.
Experimental composition using DJ decks stretches back as far as the 1930s and 1940s, when ground breaking musicians started to use turntables to sample music, creating loops and new music rather than reproducing recorded compositions. The name given to this new school of thought was 'musique concrte', and it contested established notions of what music is.
Turntablism techniques as we know them, however, came from another musical genre and have their roots firmly established in the hip hop movement of the 70s. The first technique, break-beat, revolutionised the role of the DJ and led to further experimentation with new skills.
The break-beat technique involved the DJ playing two of the same record. He would play only the break, which is usually only a few seconds long, and switch between the two records, so as to allow the break to play indefinitely. With the introduction of this technique, break-beat DJs moved towards using turntables to create new sequences, and away from the playlist DJs.
Scratching was the next technique, discovered by accident, but then included in sets and developed as a skill that would become synonymous with hip hop DJs. The sound is produced by the stylus moving across the surface of the vinyl, and the technique often involved rhythmic scratching on two DJ decks.
These new techniques established hip hop as the genre of experimentation, and the DJ as the new superstar, on a creative par with other more traditional musicians. Scratching was further developed with the introduction of the transformer scratch in the eighties, which expanded the tonal and rhythmic possibilities.
Experimental composition using DJ decks stretches back as far as the 1930s and 1940s, when ground breaking musicians started to use turntables to sample music, creating loops and new music rather than reproducing recorded compositions. The name given to this new school of thought was 'musique concrte', and it contested established notions of what music is.
Turntablism techniques as we know them, however, came from another musical genre and have their roots firmly established in the hip hop movement of the 70s. The first technique, break-beat, revolutionised the role of the DJ and led to further experimentation with new skills.
The break-beat technique involved the DJ playing two of the same record. He would play only the break, which is usually only a few seconds long, and switch between the two records, so as to allow the break to play indefinitely. With the introduction of this technique, break-beat DJs moved towards using turntables to create new sequences, and away from the playlist DJs.
Scratching was the next technique, discovered by accident, but then included in sets and developed as a skill that would become synonymous with hip hop DJs. The sound is produced by the stylus moving across the surface of the vinyl, and the technique often involved rhythmic scratching on two DJ decks.
These new techniques established hip hop as the genre of experimentation, and the DJ as the new superstar, on a creative par with other more traditional musicians. Scratching was further developed with the introduction of the transformer scratch in the eighties, which expanded the tonal and rhythmic possibilities.