National DJ Month – June 2023

History of National DJ Month

In 1909, 16-year-old Ray Newby was the first person to play records over the airwaves. He was a student under Charles Herrold at the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless. This was years before the word ‘disc jockey’ even existed.

After the experiment, other radio broadcasters across America began replicating it. It was in 1935 that American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term ‘disc jockey.’ Little did he know that the word was going to be the next big thing in the music world.

During the 1950s, radio DJs began playing live at ‘platter parties’ and sock hops and turned themselves into human jukeboxes. It was in 1969 that American DJ Francis Grasso made beat-matching popular at the Sanctuary Club in New York. Beat-matching involved creating smooth transitions between two or more records with matching tempos or beats.

In the 1970s, turntablism, i.e. the art of using turntables to manipulate sound and create new music, began to develop. It was the ‘father of hip hop culture’ DJ Kool Herc who first made use of turntablism when he performed at parties in his neighborhood, the Bronx.

The ’80s was a turning point for DJing as equipment like sequencers, samplers, synthesizers, and drums became more accessible and cheaper. This led to the emergence of bedroom producers. New York, Chicago, and Detroit had DJs as well as music producers delving deeper into music production.

The late ’90s saw the release of the first MP3 digital audio player (in 1998), which led to the new Digital DJ revolution. And the introduction of audio and video mixers like the SVM-1000 and other high-tech mixers led to the formation of a whole new disco DJ culture. DJing today is an intrinsic part of the music culture as a whole.