Jocking for Position
'DJ Magazine' ranks spinners in a popular annual poll. But is it really the tops?
So, did your vote count this year? Not if you were voting for the world's "top" DJ.
The royal court of superstar spinners is the U.K.-based DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 DJs "poll," which this week released its full list of honorees. Being in the top 10 can lead to sponsorships, sweeter record deals, and bigger paydays at the club. Says longtime L.A. booker George Bennitez: "If you have a DJ in the top 10, that's a big negotiating point with management."
For dance-industry insiders, the DJ Magazine poll is a holy grail. The No. 1 spot is a grand prize indeed, as big-room appearance fees for the top three jocks start at $10,000. That's quite a boost when some top 30 DJs are getting a grand or two for similar performances. It's serious business, the American Idol of the dance floor. "This poll is done to serve the labels, the DJs, and the managers," argues Bennitez, who runs Sorted Promotions.
And if you think the DJ Magazine ranking is reflective of the true crowd-drawing power one DJ has over another, you're sorely mistaken. The annual list is based on votes the magazine receives on its website, with 217,000 reportedly cast this year. In an interesting twist, the publication says a plurality of votes this time came from the United States, with Los Angeles-based figures Christopher Lawrence and DJ Dan ranking an eyebrow-raising fourth and fifth, respectively. Paul Van Dyk took the top spot for the second year in a row. Lawrence, who unleashed one compilation in the last two years, spins his high ranking via his website: "Christopher is now considered one of the top 5 DJs in the world."
But it's an opt-in, unscientific ranking of which spinners (and their managers and labels) are better at whipping up online support. "Top" implies popularity. But this popularity poll is not a scientific survey of random DJ fans throughout the world that's analyzed using statistical methods. It's Junk Science, to invoke the name of an album by top 10 DJ duo Deep Dish. Take as an example DJ Dan's first appearance in the top 10. For the last two years, Dan was No. 24, and even the magazine indicated last year that his star didn't seem to be rising. This year he released one compilation. He is indeed a critical favorite. URB magazine once called him "America's most beloved DJ," and even before that we proclaimed his skills and presence behind the decks sorely underrated. But his No. 5 showing seems out of place compared to, say, No. 14 Paul Oakenfold, who has sold manifold more records, recently opened for Madonna in Europe, and famously touted and remixed Paris Hilton. But there's one thing Oakenfold hasn't done: launched a massive online marketing campaign to get fans to vote in the poll.
The months leading up to each year's DJ Magazine poll are abuzz with mass e-mails from spinners begging fans to please, please, please vote for them. Besides being unscientific, the poll has no outside checks and balances to ensure it doesn't manipulate the rankings, and not much prevents someone with a little techspertise (and multiple e-mail addresses, computers, and IP addresses, for example) from voting more than once. Even DJ Magazine acknowledges that the poll, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year, is flawed.
"We've been discussing at the magazine ways to improve the Top 100 so that it accurately reflects the scene's best DJs, rather than just representing those jocks who have managed to mobilize their fans, or indeed those who have cheated," says news/online editor Terry Church in a gracious response to a CityBeat query.
Unfortunately, the dance industry is quite insular and provincial. It clearly cares more about this random horse race than it does about the relatively new Grammy Awards dance album category, which exposes the cutting-edge sounds of e-music to a much wider audience instead of preaching to the converted about who's maybe slightly more popular than whom. But if we really need a DJ hierarchy, somebody should stand up and conduct a scientific survey of DJ peers, industry insiders, and dance journalists and publish the results. It would be more reliable. Dan could trump Oakenfold without a doubt. And we could call it the Delectronic Eance Dusic poll, in honor of rock critic Robert Christgau.
Published: 11/09/2006
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