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DJ and music history
From radio disc jockeys and disco to hip hop, house, techno, drum and bass, amapiano and the vinyl revival.
DJ culture was built by people who treated records as raw material. These guides follow the story in order: radio, disco, the Bronx, Chicago, Detroit, London and Johannesburg, and the machines that made each new sound possible.
HistoryChicago house, from the Warehouse to the worldHow DJs and producers in 1980s Chicago turned disco, drum machines and cheap synths into house music, and how the sound crossed the Atlantic to change club culture for good.HistoryDetroit techno and the Belleville ThreeHow three friends from a Detroit suburb fused European synth-pop, funk and futurism into techno, and how the sound found its biggest audience in Europe.
HistoryDisco and the rise of the club DJHow New York club DJs invented continuous mixing, why the 12-inch single was created, and how disco's boom and backlash shaped dance music.HistoryGarage, from New York to the UKThe Paradise Garage, Larry Levan and New York garage, and how the name traveled to London to become UK garage and 2-step.HistoryJungle and drum and bassHow UK rave culture, sampled funk breakbeats, reggae sound systems and pirate radio produced jungle in the early 1990s, and how it evolved into drum and bass.
HistoryKool Herc and the birth of hip hopThe August 1973 Bronx party often called hip hop's birthday, the "merry-go-round" break technique, and the DJs who turned breaks into a culture.
HistoryRadio DJs and the birth of the "disc jockey"How radio presenters turned records into shows, where the term disc jockey came from, and how radio helped launch rock and roll, hip hop and house.
HistoryThe origins of DJingFrom the phonograph and gramophone to Jamaican sound systems and the first discotheques, how playing records became a craft of its own.
HistoryThe turntable as an instrumentHow scratch DJs turned a playback machine into an instrument, from the Technics 1200 and DJ battles to turntablism crews and digital vinyl.
HistoryThe vinyl revivalVinyl nearly vanished in the CD and MP3 era, then came back. Here is how DJs kept records alive, why sales grew again, and what the revival means for DJs today.