I know this will probably draw the ire of the young crew and I am probably missing something obvious .... but
I was reading the music liftout in the local paper and it was proclaiming the virtues of some DJ or other.
It occurred to me ... How does a DJ actually perform? ... Surely they are just playing someone elses music and at best adding some additional drum and bass into the background.
Is this really performing? or is it scamming hundreds of people into paying to see someone spin some disks created by people and bands far more talented than they are??
Depends what kind of a DJ you are talking about, take a look at this guy, the 45 king, cutting up 7" 45's on portable turntables....
Little talent, BIG egos.
There are some talented Producer/DJs out there, but even most of them are merely mashing other peeps creativity in the way you might create a collage of someone else's video/photos into something semi-new. DJs are not always producers and producers are not always DJs. Producers (usually) have talent and can create something new with notable exceptions (i.e. Duche o' the century - Kanje West 
)
Most DJs enormously overestimate their own abilities/talent. Mixing tracks is not hard, hell even I used to do it (kn easy money). Add a room full of sweaty, pinging desperados with no idea what real talent is and you are ready for idol worship as soon as you hit a decent bpm. Too easy. Waaayyy too easy. Boring after a while in fact. speshly if you are not pinging and every 2nd dweeb with possum eyes tells you how awesome you are - even though you feel like a talentless sham. 
If you need proof ask Dave Spruce for an opinion of his own worth (put aside an hour or two to get the full answer).
BTW is Kanje Arabic/Swahili/Ghetto for c**t?
Hey don't get me wrong BTW. I am not saying DJs aren't entertaining. Cover bands are fun and entertaining when your half-cut but nobody makes the mistake of thinking a muso covering someone else's song is talented right?
If you have to ask you'll never understand...
All but the best DJs are busy for pretty much the entire time they're playing - maybe a 30 seconds break here or there, but the rest of the time is concentrating.
Super quick rundown from bedroom dj-ing:
find next record (needs to flow from current)
find correct track on record
find first beat new record, and 16th or 32nd beat of playing record
beatmatch (adjust speed of new record by ear)
adjust eq (every single song is adjusted bass/middle/treble for best sound)
find point in the record that you know will mix to point of outgoing record
Bring in new record in sync at the right point
adjust to keep in sync, eq, maybe do some tricks here or there
drop old record out (slow or fast)
remove old record, put in cover, box
breathe for 5 secs
repeat
Most of the record control is done by touch, and one bad touch on a 'live' record will stuff the whole thing up.
I agree about the egos... and the crowd. Can't stand either, generally.
I have to disagree about talent or musicianship, when I was young I used to play bass and I can assure you that the bass player of AC/DC, for example, has to hit about 10 notes in most tunes. You could do it brain dead and it's so much less work than what I've described above.
There is some physical and mental skill in it, and really good dj's know an incredible amount of music - really really well. That's what makes the best dj's - the tunes they pick, over the whole set.Like it or not record decks are instruments too, because they're live and if you touch them wrong the whole show comes to a screeching halt - literally sometimes. 
How can you say no talent? Up themselves yes, but no talent ???
I have the similar respect for proper performing DJ's as I do for:
RC helicopter stunt pilots (watch some 3D stuff on youtube)
Poledancing champions (the proper sport)
Street luge (sicko's)
Motorcross
F1 / rally etc drivers
Ladder racing
etc etc
Anything that is hard, takes time to learn and is watchable ord creative. Even if you don't like the music you surely have to respect the difficulty when watching world champs do their stuff........
I was trying to find a proper video of Mix Master Mike, alas youtube has let me down.
He (and Q-ball??) were the standard for mixing DJ's for quite a while and MMM still does some unbeleivable spinning.
Yeh - as Mark says there are those at the pinacle that are impressive, but some folks can make even stacking dominoes an awesome thing to witness. I guess i was generalising and particularly talking about local DJs but also plenty of international DJs too.
If a 'name' DJ appears on a show it almost doesn't matter what goes down almost doesn't matter as most of the crowd have 'geared' themselves up (in many ways) to be goin orf anyway. They even get away with flogging cheese at times that would see a local DJ shamed.
The creative energy involved in producing an original song/bassline etc and performing it is (IMHO) far greater than using admitedly great knowledge of other people's creativity to mash some toons together. Even if the song is never heard by more than a handful of punters down the local pub. Each to their own tho.
I am not a muso BTW but I have worked with pretty much all ends of the spectrum from DJs - Classical/Rawk/Punk/Folk etc. Am yet to work with a throat singer so can't comment on that.
MMM was always entertaining to watch. Saw him a few times with n without the BBs. Fun and probably takes himself far less seriously than some.
Mix Master Mike, Q-Bert and Shortkut aka Invisibl Skratch Piklz
The BEST ever DJ was StabMaster Arson from CB4
Old hiphoppers will understand.
Young ones need to watch CB4 so they can understand how they've been ripped off
The SA clip is gold Stamp - haven't seen it in ages. "Dude!! Enough with the biscuits ok!"
Sorry but Hank is one of the few non-DJs to rival them for mis-guided self belief and opinionated toss. Hank = w@nk.
He does make some nice points tho. Hewwwyeeehhh.
yeah rollins does love shouting from the soapbox, but i think many yanks need to be screamed at to make them think a little more.
and you have to admit he was a great performer in black flag and the rollins band
