Where did the good music go?

This little rant may not be as light-hearted as anything preceding it, but it is most certainly relevant to the current state of affairs in our economy, and how it is affecting the lowly DJ.

I've been behind turntables for about 10 years now. I've had some highs and some lows, some incredibly busy seasons, and some really lame and discouraging times. Within in the last three to four years, however, I've always had at least one (sometimes two or three) place to play really great music at once a week. Not surprisingly, as the economy has taken a downward turn, these events have been drying up, one at a time, and with a greater momentum. So far, as one falls off, I've managed to find something to replace it. But as the options of venues become slimmer, the outlook becomes grimmer.

Another trend that I began to notice within the last year is an entirely new species of promoter and club goer that, until recently, has remained more in the mainstream clubs, and less within the environs of the four-on-the-floor aficionados. These characters seem to me to be entirely out of place in a scene that has always, for me, been baggy panted kids, complete music geeks, and those who were just too down to earth to get caught up in anything else; i.e., not the typical LA/Vegas imitators who have recently made their way into this genre of music.

The best DJ's that I have always known have been utterly geeky, completely eccentric, goofy as hell (me?), or just plain social misfits. Now the DJ's that I'm seeing invade my town are sporting fake tans, pluck their eyebrows, spike the ever living hell out of their hair, and where Prada shades while spinning. These alone aren't necessarily characteristics to judge a person on, but the impression that I have been overwhelmingly getting is that these DJ's are DJ's, not because of some geeky love for a wholly mathematically based music that they became obsessed with when sitting at home on Friday nights in high school because they were never invited to go out anywhere, but because the DJ is the new supposed "rockstar." There is a glamour to being a DJ in a super club in a city like Vegas, LA, or Miami that some of these clowns decided that they wanted a part of.

The result is a loss of quality of music and attention to detail.

All I want, all I've ever wanted as a DJ, is to have a place where I can play the music that when I hear it, it literally causes me to close my eyes in pure passion.  I want a place where I can go to play these tunes for people that really want to hear them, so that when they hear it, they close their eyes and dance.  I want a place of quality, with quality music, and quality people, who aren't there to snort coke, look cool, and dance to music they don't give two shits about, just so they can hopefully score that night.  These places in Portland are few, and dwindling quickly.