DJ Culture in the Commercial Sydney Dance Music Scene

Authors

  • Ed Montano Macquarie University

Keywords:

Sydney, DJs, programming, mainstream, clubbers, Australia

Abstract

The development of contemporary, post-disco dance music and its associated culture, as representative of a (supposedly) underground, radical subculture, has been given extensive consideration within popular music studies. Significantly less attention has been given to the commercial, mainstream manifestations of this music. Therefore, this article examines the contemporary commercial dance music scene in Sydney, Australia, incorporating an analytical framework that revolves mainly around the work of DJs and the commercial scene they operate within. The ideas, opinions and interpretations of a selection of local DJs and other music industry practitioners who work in Sydney are central to the article’s analysis of DJ culture within the city and of, more specifically, DJ self-understandings with respect to choices of records and in relation to the twin imperatives of entertainment and education.

Downloads

Published

21-Sep-2009

Issue

Vol 1, No 1 (2009)

Section

Feature Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Such derivate works or subsequent publications must happen no less than one calendar year after the initial publication date in Dancecult.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).