Can you feel it? The information behaviour of creative DJs
| Date | 05 December 2022 |
| Pages | 830-846 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2022-0106 |
| Published date | 05 December 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Keith Munro,Ian Ruthven,Perla Innocenti |
Can you feel it? The information
behaviour of creative DJs
Keith Munro, Ian Ruthven and Perla Innocenti
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper investigates the information behaviour of creative DJs, a group previously not
considered from the perspective of information studies. The practice of DJing is a musically creative process,
where a performance can draw on a vast range of music to create a unique listening and dancing experience.
The authors study what are the information behaviour processes involved in creative DJing and what roles
embodied information play in DJing practice.
Design/methodology/approach –From a set of semi-structured interviews with 12 experienced DJs in
Scotland, UK, that were subjected to inductive thematic analysis, the authors present a model of how DJs
undergo the process of planning, performing and evaluating a DJ performance.
Findings –From this study, a model of creative DJs’information behaviour is presented. This three-stage
model describes the information behaviours and critical factors that influence DJs’planning, decision-making
and verification during the pre-performance, performance and post-performance stages, with particular
emphasis on DJs’performances as a rich site of embodied information interactions.
Originality/value –This research provides insight into a new activity in information behaviour, particularly
in the use of embodied information, and presents a model for the information behaviour of creative DJs. This
opens the way for future studies to consider minorities within the activity, the audience as opposed to the
performer, as well as other creative activities where physicality and performance are central.
Keywords Performance, Creativity, Information behaviour, Corporeal information, DJing,
Embodied information
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The term DJ, short for Disc Jockey, was first coined in the 1940s and broadly applies to
someone who selects music for other people to listen to (Brewster and Broughton, 2014). The
first recorded act of DJing was by Reginald Fessenden, a colleague of Thomas Edison: during
an experiment in 1906 to transmit radio waves between the United States and Scotland,
Fessenden played a musical recording of Handel’s“Xerses”(Brewster and Broughton, 2014).
The activity of playing music for others has since developed into a widely applied form of
creative practice.
ADJ’s creativity comes from the vast range of recorded music available to them as a
palette and their ability to blend a selection of music together to create a performance for
the enjoyment of others. This requires knowledge of the audience and space in which the
performance will take place, knowledge of the music available, and the ability to “read”the
audience and create a memorable lived experience.
This paper considers the musical creativity of DJing practice from the perspective of
Human Information Behaviour. Information Science research into music has so far not
considered DJs, however, the practice of DJing can be viewed as musically creative, with
remixing practices at its core (Navas and Gallagher, 2014), and as a rich vein of novel
JD
79,4
830
The authors are grateful to all the participants for sharing knowledge and providing insight on the
world of creative DJing. The authors wouldalso like to acknowledge Nicolle Glen, Sinead Hallinan, Kerry
Kurtz and Colin Paton for their contributions to the research undertaken during an MSc project on this
topic area, which informed elements of this study.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 12 May 2022
Revised 14 October 2022
Accepted 17 October 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 4, 2023
pp. 830-846
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-05-2022-0106
perspective for the field. Parallels have also been drawn between the practice of DJing and of
information professionals, such as librarians, in their synthesising of information for others
(Kumasi, 2018).
Remixing practices are widespread in our contemporaryand participatory culture (Navas and
Gallagher, 2014), including but not limited to DJing, visual arts, video games, genetic engineering,
food and more. DJs critically deconstruct, transform, contrast, reuse, reconstitute and combine
music to produce novel creative outputs that deliver new value. Discussing musical remix
practices, it has been argued that “in remix culture each player is both a sender and a receiver of
information; in both cases the ultimate goal is to synthesize new information”(Flusser, 2011, cited in
Campanelli, 2014). Remixing practices including DJing are characterised by particip atory rather
than contemplative interactions with the audience. This presents an opportunity to partially
answer Cox et al.’s (2017) call for attention to embodied information in music.
Our qualitative fieldwork investigates what are the information behaviour processes
involved in creative DJing and what roles does embodied information play in DJing practice.
Results are based on 12 semi-structured online interviews with practicing DJs in Scotland,
UK, which leads to a three-stage model for the information behaviour of DJs, of relevance to
the consideration of information behaviour in creative practice and the use of embodied
information in creative practices.
Literature review
We first present a brief background to DJing as a creative and cultural practice. We then
highlight some important contributions to music-related information behaviour and finally
discuss the relationship between music and embodiment.
DJing as a cultural practice
DJing has a creative side that goes beyond individual performance, reaching a primary role in the
creation of musical genres. Many early examples of creative DJing originate from Jamaica, where
the development of Reggae music took place (Bradley, 2001;Brewster and Broughton, 2014). The
earliest roots of Reggae are found in the establishment of sound systems by DJs, known
colloquially as selectors. Selectors would grow the reputation and popularity of their sound
systems by playing music exclusive to them, initially rare imported American records. Once this
resource was exhausted, DJs created their own music to meet the need for exclusivity. Sound
systemoperatorssuchasKingTubbybeganmakingtheirownuniqueversionsofpopular
songs, breaking down songs to their constituent elements and reassembling them in a way
designed to receive a positive reaction from a crowd. This is the earliest form of what became
known as remixing, a repurposing of an existing piece of music (Bradley, 2001;Brewster and
Broughton, 2014). Similar instances of breaking down musical works and creatively remixing
them lay behind the development of Hip Hop (Brewster and Broughton, 2014;Katz, 2012).
Further to this, new techniques for playing music were being developed by DJs such as
Francis Grosso,who would cue up the next record to be in time withthe music already being
played, allowingfor a seamless transition fromone song to the next and allowing the audience
to keep dancingwithout interruption. Thisbecame a staple technique in stylesof dance music
grounded in Disco suchas Garage, House and Techno (Brewster and Broughton, 2014;Collin,
2010;Reynolds,2013). By actingcreatively and being awareof others’techniques,a DJ can meld
together a wide variety of genres, moods and styles to create a uniqueperformance.
The rise in popularity of DJs results in part from their position in broader cultural
movements. For example, the Jamaican sound system culture was imported to the UK via
Afro-Caribbean immigration and helped in the birth of a vast array of DJ-driven musical
genres including Bluebeat, Ska, Lover’s Rock, Rave, Jungle, Drum and Bass, UK Garage,
Information
behaviour of
creative DJs
831
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