Tim: The other day, I found a Swedish House Mafia playlist and Axwell’s Heart Is King came on, and it got me thinking: do we do DJs a disservice by calling them ‘producers’?
Tim: Because, let’s face it, with tracks like that, and the 12 minute wonder that is Forever Today, surely ‘composer’ is a better description? A music producer is just someone who sits at a desk and pushes a few buttons; tracks of this calibre, though, are so much, much more that – they give a proper ‘wow’ sensation that’s almost better described as a work of art.
Tom: And that’d also avoid the complaint that “DJ” nowadays is often just someone who pushes buttons to fire off pre-recorded tracks before a crowd, however much skill there is in the pre-production.
Tim: Tiësto’s not alone, obviously: I’ve already mentioned Heart Is King; you’ve also got tracks off Daft Punk’s TRON soundtrack that would fit. All in all, lumping the people responsible for these in the same category as, say, the people at Almighty Records (talented as they are) just seems wrong, really. Am I right?
Tom: Words change over time, switching and altering their meanings. Maybe this is just one of those times that we have to accept it.