Pribek

Do we need this?

DJ Tiesto is among the headliners for the 2009 Ultra Music Festival, to be held March 27-29 at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami, and has also confirmed his participation in Activision’s long-in-the-works “DJ Hero” videogame.

“I am very excited about this! I think this is a great way to introduce people into DJing,” Tiesto said in a letter to fans about the game, details of which are still under wraps. “Maybe they realize it’s not as easy as they think. I am sure this brings new fans to the scene, dance music is not far from hip-hop for example. Hopefully the music I have composed appeals to all kinds of fans!”

Hunh!!??

It’s funny, the other night I was on my way to have dinner with some friends, listening to Dennis Miller, and there was this commercial from Guitar Center advertising the big Christmas sale and the guy says something like; “Studies have shown that kids who play Guitar Hero have the aptitude to become real guitar players” or something along those lines. And, I was thinking to myself, “Makes about as much sense as a football bat. What studies? There isn’t anybody doing a study about kids who play Guitar Hero and their musical aptitude. Real guitars are for old people, like that kid on South Park said. It’s a scam to get parents to by gear for their kids. Parents always think they have brilliant kids and that’s how you get them to buy musical instruments. Same old music store jive, just with a twist.” That’s what I was thinking.

Then, Dennis Miller came on and he was interviewing some guy who runs a Best Buy store and they were talking about the Rock Star game and the guy from Best Buy says something like; “Yeah, they really think they are rock stars while they are playing the game”. And, I’m thinking; “Yeah, that’s closer to the truth. That’s really what people want to do. They want to pretend to be rock stars or guitar slingers, they don’t really want to go to the effort of really doing it.” That’s what I was thinking.

So now we’re going to have DJ Hero and I guess that was inevitable.

Here’s the thing that I find funny about the above quote; “Hopefully the music I have composed appeals to all kinds of fans!” With all the discussion about music plagiarism over the last couple of days, I find it funny to see a DJ thinking of himself as a composer. We’re not talking about guys who borrow a riff or a chord progression, DJs “compose” by lifting actual performances by individuals. There is no more parasitic way to make music. Nothing against parasites, the world needs parasites; part of the natural order and all that. But, DJs pluck little bits of creativity off the hides of artists, mash it up with a digital mortar and pestle and call it their own, a lot of the time giving no credit or payment to the creative person and then, put real musicians out of live gigs. It’s like parasite two ways. So now, we are going to have kiddies pretending to be DJs and, that’s like parasitism times three.