Thinking about Dave Clarke vs Jive Bunny
Thinking about Dave Clarke vs Jive Bunny (see below) gets me thinking about DJing and ‘art’. Clarke implicitly puts what he does on a higher aesthetic level than 2ManyDJs (and Jive Bunny obviously) – he doesn’t say why; it may be those acts’ populism, it may be that they have worse source material or mix it less competently, or a blend of those things. I suppose the fundamental thing that interests me is populism. Can a live DJ set be considered ‘good’ if most of its potential audience don’t enjoy it? Applying the same question to a CD by Dave or Jive would be a non-starter – collective response is beaten out by individual response; if I get something out of “Red 3″ or “That’s What I Like” it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. A relationship with a released artefact is generally one-on-one and evaluations of the artefact work on that basis. But a live set that only one person goes mad for is surely an aesthetic failure. I have a feeling Dave Clarke would disagree – but I can’t see any way to judge DJing other than on performance.
Tom in FT /New York London Paris Munich • Pop • 625 views
Depends on who that person is, I would have thought (cf. only one person buys the first Velvets album at the time of release but that person happens to be Eno).
Anyway I think the other Dave Clark, sans the “e,” would be a more appropriate counterpoint for J Bunny given that with his “Good Old Rock ‘N’ Roll” medley in ’69 he started the whole Stars on 45/megamix thing…