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History
Turntablism is the use of turntables to make music: the art or activity of using multiple phonograph turntables to create music. The music is created by the turntablist - a performing artist who uses two or more turntables as music sources from which he/she creates original results by quickly cutting and mixing the sounds of each.
1969 - Kool Herc, considered to be the first hip-hop DJ develops "Cutting Breaks". Kool Herc adapted his style by chanting over the instrumental or percussion sections of the day's popular songs. Because these breaks were relatively short, he learned to extend them indefinetly by using an audio mixer and two identical records in which he continuously replaced the desired segment. His particular skill, later copied by many others, was to meld the percussion breaks from two identical records by playing the break over and over switching from one deck to the other. Hip hop derived from "hip-hopping" on the turntable.
Early 70's - Technics released the original SL-1200 as a hi-fi turntable.
Giorgio Moroder is considered to be the pioneer of pro-synthesizer electronic disco music.
1971 - Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider, @ Co. form Kraftwerk - the first electronic band.
1975 - Grand Wizard Theodore discovers the scratch.
12" disco records that included long percussion breaks (ideal for mixing) contribute to the emergence of House Music.
Grandmaster Flash is one of the first DJs to utilize the "breaks" of certain songs which when looped in a table to table fashion created the "breakbeat"
1981 - Grandmaster Flash's 1981 single "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" was Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's first record to demonstrate hip-hop deejaying skills.
1982 - Afrika Bambaata's "Planet Rock" samples Kraftwerk and creates electro.
1982 - Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's "The Message" becomes a hit. "The Message is seen by many as the first rap record.
1982 - Davy DMX's "One For The Treble" is released.
1983 - Grandmaster D.S.T.'s "Megamix" is released.
Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" featuring cuts and scratches by Grandmaster D.S.T. brings turntablism to a much wider audience.
Other Hip-Hop DJs in New York begin to use the spinback capabilities of the Technics 1200 turntable for "scratching", and to extend grooves and "breaks" by cutting back and forth between two copies of the same record as first exhibited by Grandmaster Flash.
1987 - The DMC (Disco Music Club) hold its first annual DJ competition.
early 90s - "Breakbeat" emerges and produces Drum 'n Bass and Trip Hop.
Steve D, strongly influenced by DJ Barry B "The Cut Professor" from the Get Fresh Crew, begins experimenting with "The Funk" which further develops and comes to be known as "beat juggling", or "remixing right before your eyes". He later founds the X-Men who begin utilizing the style and take beat juggling to a higher level.
1990 - Mix Master Mike, and DJ Apollo from the first all skratch band called "Shadow of the Prophet", were the DJs for a rap group called F.M.2.0. and performed at various radio shows and venues around the Bay Area.
1991 - Scratch DJ Innovator DJ Qbert gains worldwide attention in the Technics DMC DJ Championships.
1992 - DJ Flare introduces the "Flare" skratch.
Qbert, Mix Master Mike, and DJ Apollo are dubbed as the "Rocksteady Crew" by Crazy Legs-a world renown B-boy.
1992 also marks the year of the first skratch/battle record that was designed for ease of cutting and tricks because of the sample being on beat, one after the other with no pause of lag time. It was named "Battlebreaks".
1994 - DJ Shortkut, DJ Disk, and DJ Qbert form "Tern Tabel Dragunz" and perform at local Hip-Hop events throughout the Bay Area.
1995 - Possibly the winningest competition DJs ever, DJ Qbert and Mix Master Mike retire from the DMC to become judges and enter a new challenge....the creation of music with turntables.
Mix Master Mike and DJ Disk unknowingly create the name "Invisibl Skratch Piklz" for the crew by jokingly throwing out hundreds of goofy names for the band.
1995 also marked the birth of the first "all samples skratched song" by DJ Qbert entitled, "Invasion of the Octopus People" which starts another phase in turntablism.
1995 - With the help of DJ Shortkut's initial introduction of them, ISP became the first DJ band to be sponsored by, then a small manufacturer of DJ products, Vestax. With the help of ISP, DJ mixers like PMC 05 Pro, 06 Pro, 07 Pro, and the 05 Pro Ltd. were created. Vestax is now the world's leader in DJ mixer sales, as well as the leader in sales for DJ products in general.
1996 - The I.T.F. (International Turntablist Federation) holds its first world championship competition.
Showcasing the new era of turntablism, the historic battle at the Rocksteady Reunion between ISP and the X-Men (now called the X-Ecutioners) took place.
Qbert gets filmed as a starring role in the movie, "Hang the DJ", which gets picked up by Miramax and plays in theaters in Europe, Canada, and in the U.S.
ISP recorded the classic turntable orchestrated piece, "Invisibl Skratch Piklz Vs. Da Klamz uv Deth", on vinyl.
1997 - Turntable T.V. was born on March 23, 1997 (the day of the Lunar Eclipse) and has now turned into an international turntablist video magazine featuring the Piklz practicing and hanging out with DJs from all over the world showing off their talents, skills, tips, tricks, and other turntable entertainment.
ISP filmed the educational and hilarious "Turntable Mechanics Workshop" for Vestax. In this video, skratches were more publicly defined and given names so that turntablists may now share a mutual "skratch language".
Mix Master Mike joins the Beastie Boys in 1998 and brings skratching to the eyes of the mainstream.
Qbert receives a lifetime acheivement award from the DMC
Mid 90s - Individual DJs and crews such as the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, BulletProof Scratch Hamster/Space Travelers, Allies, Supernatural Turntable Artists, Fifth Platoon, Beat Junkies, 1200 Hobos, Scratch Perverts, X-men/X-Ecutioners, Cosmic Crew, and many others continue to expand on the frontiers of turntablism as an artform.
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