World DJ Day

What is celebrated on 9 March

World DJ Day, every 9 March, was not born as a simple commemoration: it began in 2002 as a global charity initiative, driven by the World DJ Fund, in which DJs donate what they raise on their night to children's organizations and to music therapy —in particular to Nordoff Robbins—. It is, above all, a celebration with a cause.

It should not be confused with the “National DJ Day” of the United States, observed on 20 January in honor of the announcer Alan Freed. They are two different dates and two different stories; the international one, the one that celebrates the trade all over the world, is the one on 9 March.

«The DJ does not only play music: he interprets the moment and transforms sounds into collective emotions.»

Where the words “disc jockey” come from

The figure is older than its name. The term “disc jockey” is attributed to the American journalist Walter Winchell, who around 1935 used it to describe a radio announcer who played records: Martin Block, whose show “Make Believe Ballroom” pretended to broadcast from a ballroom that did not actually exist. There is, however, no single “first DJ”: early radio is full of pioneers who spun records on air from the beginning of the twentieth century.

From the ballroom to the club

The dance DJ —the one who runs a party with records— separated from the radio announcer in the middle of the twentieth century. In postwar Britain the first “mobile discos” appeared: Ron Diggins went as far as building his own booth, the “Diggola”, with two turntables, a homemade mixer and lights, at the end of the forties. In 1953, in Paris, Régine set up two turntables to chain songs together without silences. The booth was beginning to be an instrument.

1970: the continuous mix

The decisive leap happened in New York at the start of the seventies. Francis Grasso —whom many call “the father of the modern DJ”— popularized beatmatching: matching the tempo of two records by listening on headphones in order to move from one to the other without cutting the dance. In 1970, David Mancuso opened The Loft, a party with an almost audiophile approach to sound; years later, Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage would take that idea to the extreme and define the club dance sound.

Hip-hop and machines (1973–1979)

Almost in parallel, another school was born in the Bronx. In 1973, DJ Kool Herc invented the “merry-go-round”: using two copies of the same record to stretch the break —the most danceable fragment— and repeat it endlessly. Out of that would come the hip-hop DJ. Shortly after, Grand Wizzard Theodore discovered the scratch (around 1975, with a public debut a couple of years later) and Grandmaster Flash perfected it with the backspin and the cut.

Technology went along with the change: the 12-inch single (an idea of the remixer Tom Moulton, 1976) gave the DJ extended versions to mix with, and the Technics SL-1200 turntable —the original from 1972, and above all its MK2 version from 1979— became the standard deck of the world's booths.

• ·~1935 — The term “disc jockey” is coined (Walter Winchell, about Martin Block).
• ·The forties — Britain's first mobile discos (Ron Diggins and his “Diggola”).
• ·1969–70 — Francis Grasso popularizes beatmatching; David Mancuso opens The Loft.
• ·1972 — The Technics SL-1200 is born (direct drive).
• ·1973 — DJ Kool Herc and the “merry-go-round”: the hip-hop DJ is born.
• ·~1975 — Grand Wizzard Theodore discovers the scratch.
• ·1976 — The 12-inch single (Tom Moulton) for extended versions.
• ·1979 — The Technics SL-1200 MK2 becomes the booth standard.

The trade today — and in Latin America

Over the decades the trade branched into a thousand styles —house, techno, trance— and went digital: controllers, software and streaming were added to the turntables and the vinyl. But the essential function did not change: read the floor, connect with the crowd and build the narrative of a night.

And that figure did not belong to New York or London alone. Across Latin America —in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and beyond— the DJ became the center of the experience in discotheques, on radio and, very especially, in the minitecas, where the discjockey (now DJ) was at once selector, technician and host. The MiniTK Archive of this site documents many of them.

Booth oddities

Every great story hides small details. These are some of the ones the DJ carries around in his trunk:

• ·The first disc jockey was a teenager. In 1909, at barely 16, Ray Newby was already playing records on air at the experimental station of Charles “Doc” Herrold —decades before the trade even had a name (attributed data).
• ·The name came from a showbiz journalist. It was Walter Winchell who, in 1935, christened the trade: disc for the records, jockey for the one who handled the machine.
• ·The first console was built on coffin wood. In 1947, the Briton Ron Diggins raised his “Diggola” —two turntables, microphones, lights, speakers and amplifier— on a base of coffin wood, as the legend tells it.
• ·The mixer that reigned at Studio 54 was made by a speaker manufacturer. The Bozak CMA-10-2DL (around 1971), from one of the greats of audio, dominated the booths of the seventies —including those of Studio 54 and Larry Levan's Paradise Garage.
• ·Techno was born in the city of cars. In the eighties, Detroit —the motor capital— gave birth to the sound that would define electronic music; in the nineties, the digital changed the way of mixing forever.
• ·Out of those booths came the ones who fill stadiums today: David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Tiësto, Bob Sinclar and Armin van Buuren.

Why it is celebrated

That is why, every 9 March, what is celebrated is not a machine or a style but a trade: that of the one who knows exactly which song should play next. Because behind every great night of music there is always a DJ reading the moment.