A recent design brief for a DJ naturally led me to looking at what it was about the art of deejaying that masses of people found so alluring. Speaking to various DJ’s I found that before they’d come to realise the obvious perks, controlling a pair of decks and a mixer gave them a special feeling they couldn’t quite put their finger on.
To the newer generation of DJ’s a deck more than likely means a CD deck, but to the more senior DJ’s a deck almost certainly conjures up images of vinyl decks and more specifically the Technics 1210/1200.
Over the past decade distribution of music has become prominently digital and as a result you’re much more likely to see CD decks in clubs rather than vinyl decks, but speaking to DJ’s who’ve made the transition it’s clear that most don’t get the same enjoyment from playing on the former.
Although CD decks have been made with the intention of replicating the functionality of vinyl decks it’s clear from speaking to DJ’s that they just don’t ‘feel the same’.
As someone who previously collected vinyls that now collects most of my music digitally I’ve noticed that the intimacy you felt with each individual record simply isn’t there with mp3’s for obvious reasons.
Looking at certain records I’ve come to realise that the memories of where and when I bought them account for a lot of the satisfaction of owning them. My collection of mp3s is far bigger than my collection of vinyls but aside from one release ( J Cole – Friday Night Lights ) how I acquired them is insignificant, typing an artist’s name into a search bar on itunes is hardly memorable.
DJ’s I spoke to relayed similar sentiments, often mentioning the satisfaction of playing a record for the first time after spending weeks anticipating it’s arrival at their favourite record shops or longing for the days when a fellow DJ might look over your shoulder to see the name of a tune to be faced with nothing but a white label. The digitisation of music certainly has its pluses but one of the most obvious drawbacks is that to many people it has taken the fun out of collecting music.
With all this said I decided to produce a series of designs titled Vinyl Crackle inspired by the nostalgic sentiments many people attach to vinyl.
I’ve already produced a number of the designs which I’ll be rolling out here on my blog over the coming weeks and months, the first can be seen below screen printed on a t shirt.
I posted a picture of this tee and received a positive response so i’ll be making them available to buy in the near future. If you’re interested in keeping up to date follow me on twitter or join my facebook page .