DJ Mag Top 100 DJs announced

DJ Mag Top 100 DJs announced

21 October, 2011 | 1.52AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: dj mag, poll, top 100 djs

The only surprise is that there’s no — well, actually, no, even the lack of surprise isn’t that surprising.

The DJ Mag Top 100 DJs Poll was published today, and the top 10 looks almost exactly like you would have expected. The biggest shift in the upper tenth comes via Avicii, who jumped 33 places to #6. Otherwise, the upper legion only slightly shuffles last year. David Guetta jumps one place to #1, trading places with Armin van Buuren, who drops to #2. Tiësto sits tight at #3. (Always the bridesmaid, never the bride!) Likewise, not-actually-a-DJ Deadmau5 stays at #4, and Above & Beyond straddle last year’s #5 position.

After Avicii’s 33-point bound, Afrojack moves up a respectable 12 positions to #7. Dash Berlin hops up seven points to #8, Markus Schulz falls one to #9, and the Swedish House Mafia climb a lucky 13 steps to force their way into the final slot of the #10, fingers jabbing in the air.

Read on for more...

But what about Skrillex, you ask? Never fear: the electro-dubstep upstart makes his Top 100 debut at #19, a more than respectable jump. And whether or not you’re a fan, you kind of have to admire the fact that, aside from Headhunterz (up 17 to #17), he’s the only other performer playing anything other than trance or electro-house crossover to make it into the top 20.

And the old guard is on its way out, at least as far as DJ Mag poll voters are concerned. Papa Sven Väth drops 39 positions to #97, just barely hanging on. James Zabiela falls 45 spots to #94. Sasha is down 36 places to #63; Digweed slides 26 steps to #55.

Techno has fallen off in a big way, with Umek, dropping 10 places, one of the only techno jocks left in the top 100; tech house and deep house are nowhere to be seen, and former poll regulars from the so-called underground, like Ricardo Villalobos and Magda, have also been wiped off the map.

Oh, and Boy George drops 10 points—but he’s still in there, at #90.

It’s ironic that the big news in dance music yesterday was a silly little controversy generated by some comments Richie Hawtin made about vinyl DJs being stuck in the past. The Top 100 DJs Poll, in 2011, isn’t really about DJs at all; perhaps they should rename it the Top 100 EDM Entertainers Poll. After all, even Deadmau5 named his “awkward moment” of last year as “Ranking in the Top 100 of a DJ poll when I’ve never touched a CDJ in my life.”

When asked by DJ Mag about the future of DJing, he responded, “DJing has a future?” Given this year’s rankings, we might ask the same of the Top 100 DJs poll.

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