The Tyranny of Beatmatching in DJ Culture

First of all of you don't know what beatmatching is then you should stop reading and find out. Why in fact it's quite easy to grasp, thanks to < lifts shirt to reveal I HEART WIKIPEDIA tatoo > Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatmatching.

At it's most basic level beatmatching is simply rhythmic harmonization, unifying two nomrally diverging rhythms into a unified whole. With matched beats the DJ can audibly overlap the songs, for as long as she wants, granted the songs stay beatmatched (songs that change their basic meter or drift in their slightly in tempo are challenging to beatmatch and require more planning or continuos attention). With the beat matched the mix can happen, EQs, levels, effects are all possible. The mix is the moment of segue between two songs, it's what determines the continuity of the experience and is the moment where the DJ's creativity it's operating at it's peak. The mix can happen without matched beats (many DJs mix without matching) but non-matched mixes are often short-burst-overlaps, or non-rhythmic-overlaps. When the rhythmic elements between two songs don't have concrete negotiation the dreaded 'train-wreck' effect will take hold. Train-wrecking is widely regarded as the cardinal sin in DJ Culture. Even an audience who is not initiated to the concept of beatmatching will cringe at a sustained 'train wreck', especially if they are trying to dance, as train-wrecks confuse the groove the beats had in their singular form.

Beatmatching is the dominant approach to mixing 'dance' music in clubs, where rhythm and non-stop music is king, but is widely applied outside of clubs & dance venus. You can heard DJs beatmatch live on the radio (urban areas mostly, varying heavily depending where you are in the world), next-door if you're so un/lucky to live in the same building as an aspiring jock, or potentially
anywhere music is presented and enjoyed. Mixes, wether bootlegs of live shows or more refined studio productions, are easy to attain in many distributed media formats for personally consumption. You can find a plethora of DJ mixes via the internet (web-pages, podcasts, p2p sharing) for free, or purchased wherever contemporary music is sold. It's not even uncommon to find promotional mixes distributed freely alongside flyers and handbill in various (again, mostly urban) music related locales. The proliferation of the beatmatched DJ mix...



To a large extent the synchronization of two songs is creative act, not simply a techinical one...

This method of unifying music...


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