DJs regularly take to Twitter to express their feelings — to promote an upcoming release or show, vent or share thoughts or be a little silly with their followers. With Forbes (a business new and financial publication that’s become obsessed with DJ culture) recently publishing its list of highest-paid DJs (see below), we thought Twitter would be awash with commentary — both positive, negative and indifferent — from DJs.
Well, we scoured Twitter looking for opinions on the aforementioned topic and came up empty.
Aside from a congratulatory tweet from Dillon Francis and retweets of the article by Addison Groove and Funkmaster Flex, even the most opinionated jocks were silent on Forbes‘ list. Even more curious was that not one DJ had a word to say about DJ Pauly D of MTV’s Jersey Shore fame earning an estimated $11 million.
Perhaps the old proverb is true after all: when money speaks, the truth is silent.
Forbes’ List of Top-Paid DJs
1. Tiësto: $22 million
2. Skrillex: $15 million
3. Swedish House Mafia: $14 million
4. David Guetta: $13.5 million
5. Steve Aoki: $12 million
6. Deadmau5: $11.5 million
7. DJ Pauly D: $11 million
8. Kaskade: $10 million
9. Afrojack: $9 million
10. Avicii: $7 million
We recently took Deadmau5 to task for the negative comments he made in his recent Rolling Stone cover story. In the article, Joel “Deadmau5” Zimmerman called Madonna a “grandma” and mocked David Guetta and Skrillex’s mixing skills. Legendary DJ/producer A Guy Called Gerald, who is perhaps best known for his classic “Voodoo Ray,” decided he had enough of Zimmerman’s comments and put a firey post on his blog today. “I agree there are loads of people like you who do fake it,” Gerald wrote. “It is easy with the software you are using. Don’t worry we are going to find ways of stopping you. You greedy rat head fuck.”
Recently DJ Sneak called out Swedish House Mafia (RIP) and entered into a Twitter war with Steve Angello over his distaste for their allegedly playing mix CDs during their DJ sets. Could we be seeing more of dance music’s old guard going after younger, more commercially successful young guns? Read Gerald’s full blog post below.
I know who you are. You are some record company or failed journalist asshole left over from the last century who is jealous of the way electronic music is working in this brave fast new century. The only button you and people like you are interested in pushing is a nuke for the Palestinians. You come into our system that we have nurtured for the last 25 years, trick hardworking people into giving you their money, con honest promoters, take large sums of money out of the system and then spit back into our faces that YOU are tricking everyone.
I agree there are loads of people like you who do fake it. It is easy with the software you are using. Don’t worry we are going to find ways of stopping you. You greedy rat head fuck.
With a small coterie of electronic music artists breaking through into the mainstream in the past two years, it’s interesting to observe how the media is scrambling to wrap their heads around and capitalize on the gargantuan global fan base of a few select acts. Try as they might, often times their coverage isn’t on target. In March, for example, Forbes launched a DJ column about the best DJs in the world written by an expert in “workplace trends and culture shifts.” The problem is that some of the DJs interviewed weren’t exactly the best in the world, and the questions were, well, lame.
Now Rolling Stone bellies up to the trough with their Dance Madness! (their exclamation mark, not ours) issue, featuring Joel “deadmau5” Zimmerman on the cover and interviews with Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia. In a genre where big personalities and bold opinions are rare among its artists, putting Zimmerman, a live wire who is infamous for his online rants about pop collaborations and his distaste for Ultra Music Festival, on the cover was a no-brainer for RS‘s editors.
But at what cost did Zimmerman pay for this career milestone?
Today we’re reading about how Zimmerman attacked Madonna (again) in the cover story over the silly drug innuendos she made at Ultra Music Festival.
Zimmerman told RS: “You want to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and ‘funky grandma.’ Fine. It’s not my place to say you’re irrelevant. [But] if you’re gonna come into my world, at least do it with a little more dignity. I understand she has millions more fans, and is way more successful than I’ll ever be. But it’s like talking about slavery at a [bleeping] blues concert. It’s inappropriate.”
David Guetta‘s DJ sets were also in Zimmerman’s crosshairs in the article. “David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks,” Zimmerman said in the article. “Like, ‘Here’s one with Akon, check it out!’”
Zimmerman even scrutinized Skrillex’s mixing abilities: “Even Skrillex isn’t doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he’s just playing his [bleep].”
“There’s… button-pushers getting paid half a million [per show],” Zimmerman said. “And not to say I’m not a button-pusher. I’m just pushing a lot more buttons.”
For someone who uses his blog to present himself as a pragmatist on the side of what’s right, was it really necessary for Zimmerman to be negative, criticize his peers and an aging pop star whose influence will go on forever? Didn’t he see that he was put on the cover because of his penchant for spewing venom, which RS seems to gleefully relish. Ask yourself why Swedish House Mafia, an equally popular global phenomenon, weren’t on the magazine’s cover. Well, could you imagine Axwell taking another DJ to task in an interview? If you know anything about Axwell, you’ll know that’s a rhetorical question.
As someone who is intimate with dance culture, Joel Zimmerman must know the ’90s rave term PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect). He ought to practice it more often.
