Headphone–Headset–Jetset: DJ Culture, Mobility and Science Fictions of Listening
Keywords:
DJ, disc jockey, club culture, radio, headphones, cyborg, sound studies, technology, jetset
Abstract
This article explores the practice of DJ performance through the use of headphones as opposed to the preferred instruments of analysis: vinyl, turntables, and mixers. It focuses on the DJ as a listener who uses headphones on stage, which complicates the traditional construction of "headphone culture" as tending toward exclusively private use. The examination of the public and private tension of the DJ on stage leads to a larger examination of the history of the "disc jockey" and headphones as intersecting with cultures of command-and-control, aviation, broadcasting, and the figure of the cyborg.
Published
31-May-2011
Section
Feature Articles
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
