Steve Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 There is still SkratchLounge, although that's no busier than here: - http://www.skratchlounge.com/ I dunno if Skratchworx is a good example anyway, because it was basically an enthusiast site that was turned into a business. But then, if it was still an enthusiast site based on gear aimed at scratch DJs, what would there be to talk about in 2013? Not a great deal I don't think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 OK so we have the data to show that battling is less popular. Just as a side note the DMC World Finals were at Wembley Arena at their peak, which seats 12,000, so that's 10x more than the IDAs this year, assuming it sold out.This doesn't change your point but I believe that that wasn't even the biggest venue DMC had... they had 15k people at their peak I believe. WRT your point, I already agreed battling is smaller, but there are some aspects of it still growing beyond what they've ever been. Now, if we take your point that the best scratchers will use turntables (see your first post), and if the general skill level is going up, why would the biggest manufacturer of turntables stop production? If it was a profitable, growing venture they would surely continue, right?I already said that even if turntables were selling well relative to a given scene/community (turntablism in this case), that doesn't mean it's big enough to justify for a huge company such as Panasonic. I'm not arguing that scratching isn't niche, I'm arguing that it's certainly not dead. As for the popularity of scratch music as a whole, when was consumption of scratch music greatest? I don't think it's right now. All those "classic" albums Steve posted the other day are from the late 90s-mid 00s. I suppose something released this year can't be called classic though can it but I'd like to see some evidence that recorded scratch music is not declining in popularity.Kind of a straw man here, "scratch music" getting smaller doesn't mean scratching is. The scratch albums you're talking about aren't spread out evenly from like 1990-2005 or something... most of them are from specifically the late 90s and early 2000s because there was a trend of making scratch music. "Scratch music" has never really correlated directly to how popular scratching is. Regardless, scratch music was never that big. Like now you can look back at certain classic scratch albums but that's a collection over years and years. It's not like there were 100s of scratch albums dropping at one point... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 What measures do you choose to measure the success of scratching then, if not battling or recorded music output? It's not popular on TV, radio or the internet. It's not featured in popular music...I can't see who it's popular with. If you give the IDA as an example then it would be accurate to say that it's now ten times less popular in Poland today as it was in the UK at its peak. That's hardly a ringing endorsement of a scene that's on the up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 The two Jimmys are proving my point... it's not the equipment that matters, but the man using it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfpR-APrIfI 2.8 million hits and counting on the internets and was/is on the telly worldwide using a mainstream song in a mainstream context (+1 douchebag points for me) Though I get your point dopp. Popular music is very much trend based and scratching hasn't been seen as relevant for the last few years. There was a period around 2006 or so where it came back into fashion with 'urban music' and there was a trend of scratch djs playing for rnb acts on TOTP and nu-metal as well before that, but in the David Guetta era where pop producers all want their records to sound the same it's not applicable. In my opinion, it only takes decent acts to write decent tunes that incorporate scratching to make it relevant again. Same with what we consider 'real' hip hop making a big comeback (even though there has been a continuous wave of this, even if it's much smaller than it once was). People are often too scared or too influenced by what's in trend to take risks. This was a popular record last year and has cuts by Shiftee all over it: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 What measures do you choose to measure the success of scratching then, if not battling or recorded music output?I don't know man, can you not use your brain and think of situations where people scratch outside of battling and albums? Scratching has always been bigger than that. Obviously there's not a census for scratching so it's not like I can show you statistics. Just stick to being clueless about scratching and not having an opinion, instead of being clueless about scratching and acting like you have your finger on the pulse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d00ban Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 It's a real shame you didn't get credited on that Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Though I get your point dopp. Popular music is very much trend based and scratching hasn't been seen as relevant for the last few years. There was a period around 2006 or so where it came back into fashion with 'urban music' and there was a trend of scratch djs playing for rnb acts on TOTP.Yea no doubt, I seem to remember a recent video with Asap Rocky being backed by 2 scratchers even. It's a real shame you didn't get credited on that Jon+1 why isn't your Twitter plastered all over the video? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 It's a real shame you didn't get credited on that Jon I asked not to be credited on it anywhere. I didn't want to be known as 'the durex guy'. The 'sound design', which excluding the mixdown, mastering and initial concept from the directors was all my work, has won a few awards in the advertising realm, so I'm happy having those on my CV, and the money, even though it wasn't very much, helped me sustain myself for last year while I tried to set myself up as self employed, so I'm still happy with the situation. It was also a really fun project to work on, the whole team was lovely and I learned a lot from the whole process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d00ban Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Who doesn't want to be known as the durex guy??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Yeah, Jonny, who wouldn't want to be known as the Durex guy? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 What measures do you choose to measure the success of scratching then, if not battling or recorded music output?I don't know man, can you not use your brain and think of situations where people scratch outside of battling and albums? Scratching has always been bigger than that. Obviously there's not a census for scratching so it's not like I can show you statistics. Just stick to being clueless about scratching and not having an opinion, instead of being clueless about scratching and acting like you have your finger on the pulse. Your main argument here seems to be that I know nothing about scratching but I keep providing you with actual signs that scratching is less popular than it was, which you acknowledge as valid, then I ask you to provide evidence to the contrary and you just say "I don't know man". What domains of scratching then, outside of battling and recorded scratch music, have shown a growth in popularity in the last ten years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 The problem is, which has been discussed on here before, that a lot of scratch DJs see battle titles as the end achievement and leave it there. I firmly believe there is the potential to have an impact on how some people view hip hop through a lot of creativity, doing your own thing and pursuing. I'm a very optimistic person though so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Trolling is now at 60% 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 What measures do you choose to measure the success of scratching then, if not battling or recorded music output?I don't know man, can you not use your brain and think of situations where people scratch outside of battling and albums? Scratching has always been bigger than that. Obviously there's not a census for scratching so it's not like I can show you statistics. Just stick to being clueless about scratching and not having an opinion, instead of being clueless about scratching and acting like you have your finger on the pulse. Your main argument here seems to be that I know nothing about scratching but I keep providing you with actual signs that scratching is less popular than it was, which you acknowledge as valid, then I ask you to provide evidence to the contrary and you just say "I don't know man". What domains of scratching then, outside of battling and recorded scratch music, have shown a growth in popularity in the last ten years? Kanye west has had atrak and craze dj for him. Atrak is now one of the biggest 'edm' (*THROWS UP*) DJs in the USA right now too. Niel Armstrong was Jay-Z's tour DJ for a period too. I'm getting out of the thread now, else I'll be here all day! BYE GUYS LUV YOU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 What domains of scratching then, outside of battling and recorded scratch music, have shown a growth in popularity in the last ten years?Put scratch, scratching, scratch dj, or similar things into youtube. Out of the stuff that's been posted recently, how much of it has anything to do with battling or scratch music? Does SSS have anything to do with battling or scratch music? I've met probably 2 dozen scratchers in Montreal this past year, maybe 2-3 battle, 1-2 make scratch music, and the rest just scratch. Do you get it yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 The problem is, which has been discussed on here before, that a lot of scratch DJs ... you can also follow this up with: only ever record practice files for YouTube and arent actually practising for anything other than wank points 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Scratching is the new Yo-Yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 So there's this healthy community of underground scratchers who don't attend battles as participants or spectators, don't buy scratch music, don't visit scratch websites and don't buy turntables is there? So the scratch community is thriving, it's just very, very quiet about it. Much more so than it ever was. Is that what you're saying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Oh and @Jon, I know you've left the thread but the fact that those massive rappers chose scratch DJs as their DJs can be more down to the fact that they want the best DJ, and the "best DJ" title has always been synonymous with the DMC champ. I doubt many people who went to see those shows went because they love scratching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vekked Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Now I'm positive you just have brain leprosy. BLOCC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d00ban Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 wtf are you two bone heads arguing about. The scratch community has simply moved on to youtube etc... It's always been made up of geeks any way so makes complete sense. It's still a community, it's just online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 It's just online! But not here or DJforums or any other scratch related website. But other than that it's in rude health. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Scratching is the new Yo-Yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Henry's Viper mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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