Author | Lu Xiuxiu Edited | Fan Zhihui
Chinese DJs "Slaughter List" The World's Top 100 DJs, this is some people's evaluation of the 9 Chinese DJs (including Chinese) selected for the global top 100 list in 2021.
This year, the Chinese DJs on the list ushered in a spurt of growth, from 2 places last year to 9 places, in addition to the famous Aryue and Carta in 2020, this year also added BEAUZ, PANTA. Q, GIFTBACK, KAKA, LUMINN, ALEXSO and DEXTER KING 7 "domestic" musicians. Among them, PANTA.Q won 69th place in the first list, creating the best result of Chinese DJs in the list.
In the "domestic electronic music producers are not as good as foreign incense" view of the very common electric voice coil, a number of Chinese DJs on the list not only brought surprises, but also attracted a lot of questions at home and abroad. Whether China's electronic voice circle is "worthy" of the 9 top 100 DJs, electronic musicians and the entire electronic music industry are suffering from such torture.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Chinese DJs attack the "Top 100"</h1>
The List of the World's Top 100 DJs, known in English as "Top DJs", is a list published regularly every year by DJ Mag, the best-selling DJ magazine in the UK.
In 1993, in the 100th edition of DJ Mag, the magazine's editor curated a list of DJs, which was also the prototype of the list of the world's top 100 DJs. In the years that followed, DJ Mag officially launched the world-wide list in 1997 by accepting mail-in voting.
Thanks to the authority of DJ Mag, the list of the world's top 100 DJs has quickly been promoted in the industry. Since 1998, the annual chart has been voted by more than 1 million global electronic music fans, and has become the world's largest, most effective and influential DJ list, and it is also the most commercially valuable selection project in the industry.
In 2010 and before, the award ceremony of the world's top 100 DJs was held in the London Ministry of Sound nightclub, after the Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren won the world's first DJ for 4 consecutive years, in 2011, the Dutch domination in the field of electronic music has been difficult to shake, and the award ceremony of the world's top 100 DJs has also moved to the "mecca of electronic music" Amsterdam.
After 10 years of development, electronic music has further "blossomed" around the world, and the list has also shown a trend of diversification. As can be seen from the list in the past two years, the wave of EDM has tended to end, and more and more representatives of niche style electronic music (such as Bigroom house, Vocal trance anthems, Jackin' house, etc.) appear on the list. It is worth noting that the "revival" trend of traditional electronic music is obvious, and the number and ranking of DJs on the list of Trance and Techno styles have greatly improved.
Women's electronic music group NERVO
As DJ Mag has paid more attention to the diversity of voter identities, the faces on the list have become more diverse. In recent years, the number of female DJs in the world's top 100 has risen rapidly, with only 2 women on the list in 2016, and 13 women on the list this year, which is the same as the record set in 2020. In addition, more DJs of color and sexual minorities are also making this significant list.
Due to the late start of electronic music, Chinese DJs have been performing poorly on this list.
It is understood that the Chinese-American DJ/producer DJ Shogun is the first Chinese DJ (Chinese) to be listed on the world's top 100. That year, he finished 68th. Since then, in 2015, 2016 and 2017, he has been on the list for three consecutive years, ranking 47th, 48th and 88th respectively.
Chinese (including Chinese) on the list of the world's top 100 DJs over the years
In 2017, DJ Shogun in the official website of DJ Mag was followed by the new generation of POST-90s DJ Carta (Xin Ruoyan), who was born in Hong Kong, who won 92nd place that year and was the second Chinese on the list. In the same year, DJ L (Zhou Chenglong) also entered the chart, ranking 98th, becoming the first Chinese electronic musician to be selected as one of the world's top 100 DJs.
Since then, from 2018 to 2020, DJ Carta has been on the list for three consecutive years, while DJ L has "disappeared" after achieving the 84th place of personal best in 2018. It was not until 2020 that the chinese DJ Aryue was on the list once again filling the gap of Chinese DJs in the list.
This year, 9 Chinese have made a strong entry into the list, and this "7+2" (7 Chinese DJs, 2 Chinese) answer sheets are the best results made by Chinese DJs so far. Among them, "Treasure Brothers" BEAUZ won a good result of 55th place for the first time on the list, "Brother Qu" (PANTA.Q) set a new record for Chinese DJs with 69, and KAKA became the first Chinese female DJ to be on the list.
9 DJs on the list at the same time, compared with the previous years, can be described as a spurt of growth, to some extent, the rapid development of the domestic electronic music market is also confirmed in the international list. With the gradual increase of the "power" of Chinese in the electric voice circle, while further opening up a new situation in China's electronic sound, the related doubts have also come to the fore.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > Chinese equal to water injection? How much moisture does the Top 100 DJs list really have? </h1>
As a commercial list, there have always been doubts about the world's top 100 DJs.
In 2019, Dutch genius DJ Martin Garrix tweeted after missing out on the world number one for the first time since 2016, "If people knew what happened at DJ Mag, they would be disgusted" (if people know what happened at DJ Mag, they will feel disgusted). Such a statement aroused many associations at the time.
Similarly, as soon as this year's list was announced, it immediately attracted a lot of doubts. Not only did some big-name DJs such as EDM star group Hello Claw, melodic Bass Music representative artist illenium, HarderStyle popular "headhunter" Headhunterz fell out of the list, even the former "Top 100 No.1" Hardwell did not enter the list.
Dutch genius DJ Martin Garrix
Martin Jr. was even more blunt: "I really don't care, the so-called world ranking... Tiësto is very many places below me. That doesn’t make senses,does it? ... there are also people in that list from whom I have never heard of, so I have may doubts about the creation". Tiësto is much lower than me, which doesn't make sense... There are also some people on the list that I've never heard of, so I'm skeptical about this list).
I don't know if it is the organizers "deliberately", when announcing this year's top 100 DJs list, the name of Martin Jr. on the big screen actually had an extra "x" and became "Martin Garrixx". Another low-level mistake was also ironic, when congratulating Alan Walker through the network, the organizer actually @ the wrong person, a bartender with the same name as Alan Walker "replaced" him to accept the honor of 22nd place in the top 100 DJs.
The "buy list" question and the low-level mistakes in recent years are gradually dissolving the credibility of the organizer "DJ Mag".
The most controversial thing this year is the sudden increase in the number of Chinese faces on the list. Many domestic music fans questioned whether the increasing number of Chinese DJs on the list meant that the "rice circle culture" had invaded the electric voice circle. Some foreign netizens even tweeted: "You should do a Chinese Top 100 so we can have a real top 100 without all these fakes" (you should make a list of Chinese DJs so that we can see the real list of the world's top 100 DJs).
Whether the "rice circle culture" has eroded the electronic music market is impossible to verify, but it is undeniable that in this business list, the rise of the Chinese people is largely due to the improvement of the voice of China's electronic music market.
According to the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2021: 1.3 million people vote in the world's biggest music poll, votes from China continue to grow in 2021, and after a 480% increase in 2020, 15% of the total votes of 1.3 million votes this year came from Chinese voting platforms.
Regarding the "slaughter list" results of Chinese DJs, Music Pioneer also interviewed the views of several senior practitioners of the electric voice circle. Most of them believe that this is related to the current stage of development of China Electronic Music, "whether it is these producers in the industry or DJs, they have adopted a more reasonable approach in terms of commercialization." ”
Practitioner L believes that there are two main kinds of people who enter the list this year: the first is that their works have accumulated a certain amount at home and abroad; the second is the artists who quickly enter the list through some capital operations. For the first type of artist, with the strength of the opportunity to enter this list, that for the second type of artist, it is purely the product of capital operation.
He mentioned that due to the general development of the electronic music market in recent years, some artists want to enter the list of the top 100 DJs through some shortcuts to maximize their development speed; a Chinese DJ who was listed through capital operation last year, after the list of these economic benefits are recognized, may make many people feel that this is a good deal. These two reasons may cause everyone to rush the list collectively this year.
Another practitioner C also said, "Affected by the epidemic, the 'advertising fee' of the list has dropped, and the nightclub group feels that the investment ROI is acceptable after calculating the account." He added that nightclub groups now generally operate in the form of "left-handed brokerage companies to sign people, right-handed stores to sell liquor and sell cards", although last year's epidemic did not open for more than a quarter, but the turnover after the opening may exceed the figures of the same period in previous years. With a wide hand, it is natural to put more advertising.
But there are also people who express their views from another angle. Practitioner "New Century Electronic Music Warrior Bob" believes that commercial operation is beyond reproach, after all, "in this era, artists have rarely been able to obtain huge traffic only by music, of course, behind it is certainly not just music so simple." ”
For the superstition of the top 100 DJs, they also almost reached a consensus: most of the insiders know what is going on, and for outsiders, it may be an opportunity to understand the electronic sound. As for whether the organizer will come to pay the bill, the main consideration is the cost performance, if the cost performance is high, there will be more gimmicks and publicity points in the lineup of hundreds of DJ performances.
But to judge the meaning behind this year's Chinese DJ "slaughter list", practitioner L believes that "the standard may be whether it has promoted the progress of the entire Chinese electronic music industry." If these artists collectively enter the list and some subsequent fermentation can make electronic music enter more public vision, then I think it may be a good thing. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > how far away is China's electronic sound from the world? </h1>
Although the good results of Chinese DJs in the top 100 DJs this year are inseparable from commercial operations, we should also see that the development of the domestic electronic audio market has also greatly enhanced the discourse power of China's electronic audio market. This has benefited from the rapid expansion of offline consumption scenarios such as Club and electric syllable festivals in China in the past two years.
According to the "2019 China Electronic Music Market Insight Report", by 2021, the domestic electronic music user scale will reach 530 million people. Although this figure may be lower than expected under the impact of the epidemic, the good epidemic prevention measures in China have also ensured the performance rate of first-line consumption scenes such as bars, live houses, and nightclubs.
Nowadays, the activity of domestic Club scenes is leading the world, and the list of the world's top 100 Clubs published by DJ Mag also confirms this: in 2019 before the epidemic, only 7 Clubs in China were on the list, and in 2020, China's Club occupied 12 seats, and in 2021 it grew to 15.
To a certain extent, it is true that the Chinese electronic music market has helped China's DJs achieve overtaking in the corners, but it cannot erase the efforts of Chinese electronic music people. As the world's largest electronic music industry selection project, the world's top 100 DJs are voted by music fans, which is representative, at least to explain the activity and singing degree of DJs on the list in the past year.
For example, Aryue, who ranked 84th this year, has been on the list for the second consecutive year, and he has been in the field of electronic music for nearly 20 years, not only the director of the electronic music label "Dragon Records", but also the "Party", "Two Of Us" and "Guangzhou" many popular singles. Panda.Q, who has created the best results for Chinese artists, has also been active in major performances in China in recent years, and he is also one of the few musicians who shoot documentaries to introduce the profession of DJ to the world, and the documentary "We Are DJs" released in July this year has been widely acclaimed in the industry.
It can be seen that thanks to the reverse growth of the domestic electronic audio market, China's DJs continue to be active in the first-line electronic sound scene, and thus can get more votes in canvassing. It is not fair to simply use "buy the list" and "money ability" to erase the efforts of domestic DJs, behind the 9 Chinese electronic musicians on the list, their sweat and drastic changes in the market environment are also worthy of our attention.
In the post-epidemic era, the domestic electronic music market is also rapidly recovering. After the resumption of performances in June last year, domestic offline performance venues have been opened one after another, and electronic syllable festivals have also landed, which has maintained the growth trend of domestic electronic music listeners to a certain extent.
Despite its large and growing market size, if China Electronic Music wants to be accepted by the world, it still needs a mature audience and its own improvement in music production.
Unlike the top DJs, most DJs mainly serve the operation of the Club in order to make a living. In recent years, after a short period of following the foreign high-speed music style, there have been many shoddily made electronic music works in China, and electronic music without musicality has flooded the short video platform, which although it can still meet the needs of "857" in the Club, it has also seriously hurt the domestic creative environment.
Although there are already some excellent electronic music producers in China, "not worse than the top 20 and top 30 in many top 100 DJs", "the overall level is compared with overseas, in fact, it is really the gap between primary schools and universities." ”
Practitioner Bob believes that chinese DJs who have entered the top 100 DJs, which are very international, but rarely really gain word of mouth and huge fans in the world, are not rich in tens of thousands of performances, and secondly, there is no studio album with a wide range of singing.
For the domestic DJ is not highly accepted in the world, practitioner C said, "The publicity and promotion of domestic electronic musicians and electronic music labels at the international level is minimal, and they basically do not do it." Everyone thinks that the domestic market is already big enough, and there is not much need to eat foreign food without eating domestic food clean. ”
And to do overseas publicity, it means higher promotion costs, "each song has to be twenty or thirty thousand at the bottom, and a good electronic musician cannot be called a good musician without forty or fifty works." Let's say take half of it to do this kind of publicity, that is also a small 1 million, but this budget is invested in the creator of the vibrato hot single, the recycling speed and earning power are definitely stronger than the electronic musicians, and it is certainly not cost-effective from a business point of view. ”
The living environment of electronic music people can be described as "bad". At present, China's talent training system started late, it is not perfect at present, and the electronic music talent is seriously lost, and only 3 of the 9 electronic musicians who are listed in the world's top 100 DJs this year are from domestic brands. At the same time, practitioner L also said that compared with rap and other musical styles, the threshold of electronic music is higher, "may not be able to make a song in three or five years is an influential electronic music work, the learning cycle is also very long, including the entire hardware requirements are actually quite high." ”
Fortunately, the situation has gradually changed. In 2018, known as the "First Year of Electronic Music", Tencent Audio Entertainment and NetEase Cloud Music have also launched their own electronic music labels. In 2019, the Electronic Music Production Academy, jointly established by NetEase Cloud's Thorn Factory and the international electronic music education brand Point Blank, was established, and the data shows that thousands of talents have been sent to the industry so far.
But for those DJs who have grown up, life is not so good. Since the spurt growth of electric syllables in 2018, domestic domestic electric syllables have frequently appeared, not only that, due to the difficulty of providing high-quality local DJs for the introduction of electric syllable IP, domestic electric syllables are difficult to see Chinese DJs. In order to attract guests, many domestic Clubs currently adopt the selection strategy of foreign DJs first, "net red" DJs first, and female DJs first, which further compresses the living space of domestic electronic musicians.
Practitioner C said, "The organizers are sometimes forced to submit homework to the sponsors, card seat tycoons, mixed circle ww and other groups, and have to invite some well-known artists." "How does this popularity manifest itself? Now it is nothing more than the two data of the list ranking and the number of Douyin fans. This is one of the reasons why there have been many inexplicable wild lists in China in the past two years.
He said bluntly, "Doing performances, the sales of tickets, drinks, and booths are not good, and the company is still doing something?" Doing business, can not generate electricity for love, do "spread electronic music culture" of the living Lei Feng is going to starve to death. ”
In other words, everyone can see the huge potential behind electronic music, but when and how it will explode is not clear. If Chinese electronic musicians want to go global, in the final analysis, they still have to rely on solid electronic music works, supplemented by diversified performance scenes, and use the necessary publicity to promote local DJs and works overseas.
In the market scale of more than 500 million listeners, the domestic electric voice coil already has the premise of forming a circle and breaking out, but it is necessary to establish a more benign local ecology and a higher overseas identity, and cultivate more musicians who can "play".
Typography | Anlin
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