I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#1

Post by kposehn » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 5:27 PM UTC

I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project
thump.vice.com

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#2

Post by egypturnash » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:24 PM UTC

This feels a hell of a lot like an updated version of the KLF's "How To Have A Number One The Easy Way", except written by someone who decides to get off the ride before it gets to the end. http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/

I sure did roll my eyes and make wanking gestures during the opening paragraphs. No, people aren't at a club to sit back and sip weak tea slowly whilst listening to the intricacies of a beautifully difficult piece of music. They are here to dance. And as the DJ, your job is to give them beats to dance to and keep the party going. Any number of these people may be listening to and loving that difficult, cerebral music at home, but you can't dance to that shit and they are in this place to move their asses.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#3

Post by xutopia » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:31 PM UTC

I don't think people realize the parallels between this and startup life.

Lots of people who have succeeded in the startup world attribute it to one thing or another they did but a lot of it is just damn pure luck.

This woman faked her way through... if she had wanted she could have continued down that road and be a bona fide DJ and none would be wiser.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#4

Post by fred_is_fred » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:33 PM UTC

This piece takes itself way too seriously. EDM is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be done with friends. It's not artesnal "my band has less commercial success than yours" bullshit.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#5

Post by rblatz » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:37 PM UTC

I read about this woman previously (may have been the same article) but I think this comment on reddit really summed up my feelings on it.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/ActLikeYouBelong/comments/4cb4yw/fooled_the_world_into_thinking_she_was_an_edm/d1h7aml/

The fools! For they could not begin to grasp the sheer magnitude of my plan! I toiled, sweat soaking my brow and streaming down my back as I mastered their craft. I studied long, perfecting their techniques, learning their tongue, adopting their ways until I could pass among them - pass as one of them! Those cruel hours! Those long, arduous days and weeks! Those agonizing months as I trained, developing my art unto new heights until I was finally prepared to reveal the Machiavellian intrigue behind my scheme!... ...For as I played to the multitudinous crowd, bending them to my every whim with each note, raising them to ecstatic delight with each crescendo - entertaining them! - little did any of them know that while they had been having fun I had been loathing this the entire time!!! Muahahahahaaa!

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#6

Post by Justin_K » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:39 PM UTC

This piece could be interchanged with any music genre. Rap / Hip Hop, Rock, Country... it would all read the same. There's plenty of examples across the board.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#7

Post by exolymph » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:39 PM UTC

So... basically become a DJ? This person didn't fool the world, since they were actually doing everything that goes into being a DJ. They just happened to have an insufferable attitude about it behind the scenes.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#8

Post by exolymph » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #3

I don't think people realize the parallels between this and startup life. Lots of people who have succeeded in the startup world attribute it to one thing or another they did but a lot of it is just damn pure luck. This woman faked her way through... if she had wanted she could have continued down that road and be a bona fide DJ and none would be wiser.

> This woman faked her way through...

She didn't, though. The only thing she faked was her attitude about what she was doing.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#9

Post by existencebox » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

rblatz wrote: post #5

I read about this woman previously (may have been the same article) but I think this comment on reddit really summed up my feelings on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/ActLikeYouBelong/comments/4cb4yw/fooled_the_world_into_thinking_she_was_an_edm/d1h7aml/ The fools! For they could not begin to grasp the sheer magnitude of my plan! I toiled, sweat soaking my brow and streaming down my back as I mastered their craft. I stu…

As someone who DJ'd on a whim for a few years to pay some bills in college, I think that takes away from the thrust of it.

In other fields we expect the luminaries of a craft to have achieved that level with some significant effort/insight/accomplishments, and I don't know about you, but 6 months is NOT enough time to truly master a craft. (I say as someone who has spent multiple decades spent in multiple instruments, physical crafts and otherwise, and still find myself a joke next to real experts, and would not attempt to pass myself off as such)

I would say the "luck factor" plays more a role in djing than it does in many other fields (most performance fields are similar in this way), which would be fine if it were acknowleged, but there does seem to be some deifying of the DJs, and many who I interacted with seemed to, as we put it in tech, drink the koolaid a bit too much. Like the author I got tons of praise for my sets when I would occasionally have thrown together whatever bullshit I had been listening to the day of in an hour before I went onstage, and I felt like a bit of a sham for that; I would certainly not try to pull similar shit in my professional career and I think that's quite telling.

I take the article as a request to "See through the smoke and mirrors" and as a shitty DJ I'd definitely echo that sentiment. There are some amazing producers out there who get little to no credit, because they haven't gotten critical mass necessary to start passing themselves off as DJ-famous despite putting a huge amount of effort into making some damn good music. I'd be the first to nod to a "Well life isn't fair" statement, but thus the article, and my emphasizing that it's for us to see each performer for what it is and not lessen the accomplishments of either group for the other; but to me that requires being able to distinguish what each performer is and is not.

Re: I Fooled the World into Thinking I Was a Successful EDM DJ–For an Art Project

#10

Post by etjossem » Mon, Oct 31, 2016, 6:50 PM UTC

"Everything I did was real. I managed every transition without a sync button and I lived each performance. But still I constantly felt I was cheating my audience and the scene by presenting a pure fiction."

This was the part that struck me; the imposter syndrome, even after achieving commercial success. If you become a sought-after EDM DJ (or software developer) it's not because you were able to fool the world. It's because you've taught yourself how to give your customer what they need. The people consuming what you make already know you're a professional - and you're the last one to realize it.

Congrats to the author and her mentors for figuring out what it takes to build a popular act.