[Galápagos] DJs Who Don't Practice Are Fools, but There's No Point Debating DJ Skill Now [Impossible Game]

The following tweets went viral, so I will quote them.

Don't book people who play Humble right from opening... I understand the feeling that criticism from senior DJs makes things harder for younger ones, but someone who plays like that from opening is not a club DJ. Once you're onstage, the audience doesn't care whether you're senior or junior. So you mustn't perform until you understand at least the basic atmosphere. That is absolute.

— dj shunsuke (@SHUNSUKE0428) June 30, 2019 (This link was unavailable when checked in October 2026.)

I don't want to compare with my younger days, but I always studied parties I thought were cool from the moment they opened. I went at 10 p.m. and learned what was happening. I thought parties with lame openings had lame main sets too. That hasn't changed.

— dj shunsuke (@SHUNSUKE0428) June 30, 2019 (This link was unavailable when checked in October 2026.)

Today's club scene is too indulgent. It's too lax, regardless of genre. Don't put people on who don't practice. Even if they draw customers, it sets the culture back. Keep things you can get through on enthusiasm alone to venue-rental events. Saying seniors shouldn't criticize someone who is genuinely terrible just because they draw a crowd gets things backward. We're DJs, not crowd recruiters.

— dj shunsuke (@SHUNSUKE0428) June 30, 2019 (This link was unavailable when checked in October 2026.)

It's tiresome to tiptoe around people, saying ‘that kid is working hard’. If they're bad, effort isn't enough. If there's no heart, effort isn't enough either. I seriously wonder why those of us who have worked hard have to be nice to people who can't produce results.

— dj shunsuke (@SHUNSUKE0428) June 30, 2019 (This link was unavailable when checked in October 2026.)

I've ranted a little, but I think this is very important. Don't misunderstand: I'm saying don't put your effort in the wrong direction. I love young people, apart from the tiny minority of idiots who can't follow basic manners. I'm especially fond of all my juniors. I'd willingly share all my experience with them, because I feel they're putting in that much effort.

— dj shunsuke (@SHUNSUKE0428) June 30, 2019 (This link was unavailable when checked in October 2026.)

This time, incorporating my views on these tweets, I would like to discuss DJ technique with plenty of personal opinions.

Being a Skilled DJ Has No Value Now

Things were different when DJing on turntables and vinyl was standard, but technology has now dramatically reduced the selling prices of equipment and new releases.

Automation has advanced, including track management and inserting guides, and equipment now handles the skills required in the analog era.

As a result, anyone can start DJing, the numbers of performing DJs and events have soared, and none of these are remotely unusual anymore.

Frankly, today being a DJ or being reasonably capable at it has no value.

So being skilled does not make you right, nor being unskilled wrong.

Furthermore,

There is every possibility that DJs themselves will become unnecessary in the near future.

As I also wrote in the article below, the DJs who survive will be popular ones, rather than technically skilled ones.

[Bad News] Simply Starting or Continuing to DJ Now Will Not Give You the Future You Want [A DJ Career Discussion Without Quibbling] April 28, 2019

That Doesn't Mean Refusing to Practice Is Okay

That said, I think it's absolutely right to say that even if you work hard and succeed at drawing customers, refusing to practice DJing or being content to stay unskilled is unacceptable.

If I were a customer, paying a substantial amount to visit and finding below-amateur technique and school-play quality would be utterly pointless.

Conversely, if you keep practicing until your technique is perfect, you will never perform publicly. In fact, technique improves dramatically through repeated live experience.

However, if you want to DJ, pursuing technique should be a natural attitude.

Actually, If You Want to DJ, What Motivates You?

At this point, a very, very big question arises for me.

When I started DJing, I was absorbed in spending hours with dance music, improving my mixing, and using technique and passion to move people's emotions.

That is why I spent tens of hours a day immersed in practice, sometimes forgetting food, clothing, and sleep. I never even thought of it as practice or effort.

This applies to everything, but if you really love something, you devote enormous time and take enormous action.

If the under-practiced, unskilled DJs the tweet's author describes are still unskilled now that the technical barrier is this low, it means they devote astonishingly little time to practice—in other words, either they don't like music much or they have very little talent.

I do not lament those unskilled DJs' lack of practice.

What really concerns me is this: ‘Why are you DJing if you don't like music or have no talent?’

The Frightening Fact That ‘DJ’ No Longer Means ‘Loves Music’...

Some may say, ‘I'm great at bringing in customers, but not good at DJing...’

Customer acquisition is indeed the absolute measure for local DJs.

But I have to wonder whether such people really need to spend precious time and money going out of their way to DJ.

Because if you're good at attracting customers, starting a business is far better than DJing, which consumes time and money and commonly pays nothing. Even if you work on events, another role would be better.

So, to repeat, being bad at DJing today can only mean, to me, either not liking music or having no talent.

The Problem with the Tweet Author's Argument

If the tweet's author is so concerned about other DJs' shortcomings, why not play an opening-to-closing set alone or hold events with only a small, select group they believe are the real thing? Inviting international acts could be combined with this too.

But if that is impossible, then I think they ultimately depend on DJs who can draw customers but are unskilled, or at least can't ignore them.

Then the choices are to quit the company, make effective use of the irritating colleague, become freelance, or start a business.

If you cannot do any of those, it is merely dissatisfaction: just grumbling not worth listening to.

Stop Expecting Things from Japan's Club Scene

It is nothing new that customer acquisition is the absolute measure for local DJs, and their skills can even be disregarded.

Japanese clubs and the scene itself have not built systems for attracting new customers independently of DJs, organizers, or international acts, then keeping those customers coming back. We cannot expect them to focus on that in the future either.

The environment the tweet's author wants, where DJs can concentrate on music, is nothing but a pipe dream.

Japan's declining birthrate and aging population have progressed in recent years, and some Japanese audiences announce their retirement from clubbing with vague motives like ‘I think it's time to settle down...’. Others retire after starting families.

Changing these trends and habits is an impossible game, and attracting customers will become increasingly difficult.

AI or switching the target audience to foreign visitors could break through the current situation, but this is not an industry with an innovative atmosphere, so I would not expect much.

Japanese people are not educated to develop a love of music in the first place. So perhaps it is inevitable that some start DJing with no interest in music and other motives instead.