I increasingly have a difficult time participating in anything without giving some serious thought as to why. Why do I like to DJ? What do I have in common with other people with the same passion? Why electro? The EDM community isn’t known for being especially contemplative or deep which is a shame given that I think that it really attracts personality types with a relatively high spiritual and intellectual sensitivity (not talking about candy kids). Anyway I thought to share some of what I’d been thinking about to see if it rings true with others. Music, I’ve always felt, is the perfect reflection of duality in the human condition as music forges together the emotion and excitement of chaos with the comfort and authority of an orderly structure. Electro in particular stretches these elements to their limits. In other words, electro counters the presence of high levels excitement- arguably some sexual proxy- with an equal attention to the order and predictability of that chaos. For this reason, I would go so far as to say that electro overwhelmingly attracts people who like to be in control. DJing is a reflection of that same need for control. People who have not yet begun to cultivate a rich inner life and suffer an expansion of consciousness may see an activity like DJing rather superficially with regards to the underlying motivations and they may be right. Do these motivations even really exist until we are aware of them? However, my other thought is that DJing may have the potential to serve as a release from what might ordinarily be a person’s strong aversion to what is perceived as overwhelming stimuli. This might seem counter intuitive given that a party is full of stimuli. Similar to the duality present in the music itself, the DJ feels the need for that stimuli and excitement but all within some measure of his control. As this need for control likely arises from areas of life in which there is little potential for control, there is something especially telling about the choice to control electronic music specifically given its simultaneous relation to order and chaos. Consider this: according to one study there are a higher proportion of geniuses who are death metal fans than any other genre they studied. Finally, what is a good DJ if not someone obsessed with the telos of creation. While I wouldn’t call a DJ an artist I definitely believe there are similar motivations. People who are highly sensitive feel as though they are most truly living when they are creating. But where does this need for constant creation come from? I’ll spare you the Freudian bullshit. I believe that in a sense, when we create something we create a small world of our own design. This prelapsarian moment is perpetually fleeting and drives the need for more and more. The psychology in this need to create is undoubtedly rooted in a kind of suffering but I am increasingly of the opinion that suffering is not the source of our downfall but of our growth and formation.
DJing
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