History of Turntablism
The art of using a phonograph turntable to manipulate sounds and create music is known as turntablism. The person uses the turntable is called a DJ mixer. A turntablist differs from a DJ who plays records in that the DJ mixer performs with the device as an instrument, touching and moving the records to create a desired sound. Although the history of the art is short, a variety of different concepts mark the era of turntablism.
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Roots
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The basic roots of using the turntable as an instrument date back to the 1930s. John Cage used two turntables, a muted piano and a cymbal to create "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" in 1939.
1960s
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A variety of musicians and producers started to experiment with turntables in the 1960s. The most notable use of a turntable was by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968 on a track called "Walk on the Water." It featured a backspin effect.
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Hip Hop
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Turntablism became a modern art form in the 1970s with the rise of hip hop. Early DJs used scratching and break beats to provide musical accompaniment to rap and hip hop lyrics.
1980s and 1990s
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The use of turntablists in a live and a group setting became prominent during the 1980s. A variety of hip hop groups and rock bands began to implement a DJ as part of their sound. This began to disappear in the 1990s and created a sub-culture of musicians.
Turntablism
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In 1995, DJ Babu or DJ Disk coined the term "turntablism." With this definition of the art form, a variety of new musicians emerged that used only turntables to create music. This grew with the popularity of electronic music around the year 2000.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Tomasz Sienicki, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gramofon_1_ubt.jpeg
