DJ Bone criticises DJ Mag Top 100 in China

DJ Bone criticises DJ Mag Top 100 in China

5 December, 2008 | 1.53PM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: dj bone, dj mag top 100

Criticizing DJ Magazine’s annual Top 100 DJs poll has almost become a sport, but Detroit’s DJ Bone might cause a few problems for DJ agents targeting China with his recent criticism of the annual list.

Ahead of a gig in Shanghai tomorrow night, DJ Bone told shanghaiist.com that the Top 100 was just “popularity contest and less about which DJs are good.”

Chinese club promoters, like in most countries in Asia, quite often use the Top 100 poll as a reference guide when choosing who to book and how much to pay international DJs.

Electronic music’s development in China, like in Asia’s tiger economies in the 1990s, has undergone rapid growth fueled by a burgeoning middle class.

But that growth has in part been helped by cigarette and alcohol sponsorship.

The large promotional budgets that this type of sponsorship affords party and festival organisers has led a climate of reliance on highly paid international DJs, at the cost of supporting local talent.

“The Top 100 DJs list reflects a very narrow view of what is supposedly good - those lists are only about marketing products and selling magazines,” said Bone. “I don’t place any stock in those lists because it should be about the DJ connecting to the people through music, not fashion, hype or gimmicks. Popular does not equal good.”

If the Top 100 loses its credibility in China, some promoters there are going to have to find a new reference point for determining the pay scale of DJs.

[source: shanghaiist.com]

• (14) Comments
• (3851) Views
• Check out DJ Bone on Beatport