Thursday 25 August 2011

Top 100 DJs

It's competition time again folks. It's that time of year again when all the Superstar DJs are reaching out for for their fans to vote for them in the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll.

Apparently you can make 'Your Hero Become A Legend' by voting.

No doubt you probably can make your Hero's become Legends. But is it really a true measurement of the best DJs of the world? Or is it just a popularity contest to see who can notch up the most votes? Now I'm not saying that I wouldn't want to be included in this list, it would surely add a few 0's to an invoice after a DJ gig. You could even  justify adding a few more 0's if you landed in the Top 10...  But what I'm trying to say is does it really reflect the best of the best?

I'm not sure it does. I know the great people at DJ Mag work hard to prevent random DJs such as Lemon and Thyme entering the chart and corrupting the competition but I think it's safe to say we can all make a pretty good educated guess as to who will be in the Top 5. I'm going for; Paul Van Dyk, David Guetta, Tiesto, Deadmau5 and Armin Van Burren ( I also predict that The SWH will be lurking around that part of the chart too...) and to be fair they all are, probably, the most popular DJs in the world right now but I struggle to understand why DJs such as Erick Morillo, Pete Tong, Roger Sanchez to name but a few do not and have not featured higher in the chart in recent years. I mean it's not as if they are short of support, these guys play to the masses every week in different Cities around the world and they hold residencies in the best clubs in the world too.
Pete Tong broadcasts the biggest dance music radio show in the world, so how come the people who listen to his show don't?
Maybe they share the same fans or maybe it's just for the simple fact that their fans cannot be bothered to vote. ( I don't want to ruin the banter but I do think Trance fans and Hard House fans are more loyal (it's a good thing) hence the lack of House DJs who finished in the Top 10 in last years Poll...)
If the vote was a real reflection of the DJ World than Bobina, Infected Mushroom and Dash Berlin would have the right to earn/charge more £'s per gig/performance than Pete Tong and Erick Morillo because they are 'better' but I don't think that they do. I'm not a promoter nor am I a nightclub owner - far from it to be exact but I would confidently say that they don't earn or charge more than the latter.

Sure it's a reflection of the most popular DJs in the world but it's not a reflection of the most talented DJs in the world. If you were to compose a mini league of all these DJs and make them battle each other and make them test their skills against each other the DJ Mag Top 100 would certainly look different. I know that would never happen in a million years but what the chart doesn't measure is talent, skill or ability. All you need to win is a good fan base and fairly good marketing team-it almost forgets the music. What I need to clarify before I go any further is that I am not saying that anyone featured in the Top 100 does not have talent. They sure as hell have talent. Without doubt. They have talent I could only wish for.

But I suppose what I'm trying to say is the competition should measure more than votes. I'd like to see more producers in the Top 100. I don't mean to offend producers who only produce and I don't mean to offend DJs who only DJ but if you look at last years result Top 10 rated DJs produce hit after hit. DJing and Producing goes hand in hand now - for me it's only natural to play your music if you make it and it's only natural to want to make music if you play music. And this is the main reason why I think the concept of the competition should change. I'm all up for having a competition like this because somebody has to be the best and why not be able to prove it but there should be more to it than just votes.
The Worlds Strongest Man competition isn't based on who people think is the Strongest. The Worlds Strongest Men compete with each other to see who is the Strongest.

I think there should be another competition for the Top 100 Dance producers, based on sales figures (and votes...). From this competition you would be able to measure it against the Top 100 DJs and if a DJ/Producer feature in both they should be entered in some sort of league called something like 'The Best of the Best' but not so cheesey and the higher the DJ features in the DJ Top 100 and the higher they feature in the Producer Top 100, the higher they feature in 'The Best of The Best' and by taking their average score from both competitions it would give you a new score for the league (still following?).
This would filter both polls and this would produce more of a 'realistic' view at who is the best. You would still be able to see who the best DJs are and you would still be able to see who the best at the game really are.

I'm still deciding whether or not to vote in this years DJ Mag Top 100 and I'm not sure who I would vote for but I know I have 28 Days, 4 Hours and 27 Min left if I want to.

For me it's like Brown Sauce, I'm not for it but I'm not against it.

Fair play to everyone that does vote and congratulations to every name that appears in the list.

VOTE HERE http://www.djmag.com/top100

Tuesday 16 August 2011

What the Blog is really about...

From time to time you might get a glimpse at what's going on in my world, what my thoughts are about a particular related subject and I might share something with you that I think you might find interesting but hopefully this particular post will give you a taster about what this blog really is about.

It's about promoting Unsigned  Dance Music and Independent Artists. Yes I know the word 'Dance Music' is an umbrella for a lot of genres but I'm not prejudice. I welcome all types of music. See me as an eclectic but with a preference. To be honest and without sounding too cheesy I just want to share music with people and I just want to make people dance, and that's it. In whatever way I can, I will try to do that.

Joss Holmes, The mastermind behind Jagos Productions, is a good friend of this Blog and I idolise what he's doing right now.
Checkout his SoundCloud to get an understanding why I can't get enough of his music.
Latest tracks by Jagosproductions

Check out his latest REMIX It's available to buy now on Bandcamp for the masses
http://thebastardsunz.bandcamp.com/album/the-bastard-sunz-liver-and-onions-lament-j-one-jagos-remixes

Well worth supporting!

Remember to catch him on Passion Radio 1900 -2100 GMT every Tuesday.

Internet radio is something that I'm going to look into in the future...

With regards to the Producers out there here's something you might want to get your teeth stuck into...

This is a perfect opportunity to flex those remixing skills

Sholanda is looking for amateur and pro remixers alike to help with a dance track currently at http://www.ratethisrecord.com/
Take a listen. 
I'm sure there will be some weird and wonderful results from this.




As I will always be looking at ways of not only promoting my music but I will always be on the look out for ways to promote other peoples music. Here's a new website that can be used as another channel to promote your music, it's another platform and it's another way of getting your music out there to the masses.


Visit www.musicfast.com/

As a new artist, you can be sure your music will be hears. You will start out right away as being featured in the "New Artist Category" and will be placed in the front page rotation. This is a great opportunity to promote your music on a website that isn't cluttered with other groups, yet is poised for growth - what have you got to lose?

Today's post is short and sweet but hopefully you get the idea of what I'm trying to do and what this Blog is about.

Get in contact with me, I'm quite friendly!

I'm on SoundCloud - message me 

Latest tracks by JoeyMartinez

I'm on Twitter - tweet me

Add me on Facebook

Get me on YouTube

But if you can't be doing with the social networking thing simply just drop me an e-mail at:
promos@djjoeymartinez.com

But like everyone else with an e-mail address I am prone to the odd bit off Spam so please, please make sure if you're sending me links to your music, you have a sensible title to the email else it'll probably end up in the junk bin with Viagra ads and e-mails from people with unpronounceable names from Nigeria, who claim to know me.

I look forward to hearing and sharing all of your music!

Sunday 14 August 2011

FUNKAGENDA REMIX/DJ COMPETITION

The X Factor of 'Dance Music' has launched!

The twitter maniac, Funkagenda, has very kindly given away a free sample pack for bidding producers and DJs. However unlike TVs X Factor there are rules and guidelines. You must follow them carefully though... Looks like he's not looking for freaks to waste his time. Only the Serious need apply.

Here are the Terms and Conditions: http://funkagenda.posterous.com/funkagenda-remixdj-competition-29458

Here are the remix parts:
Shinjuku Remix/DJ Competition - Remix Parts by Funkagenda

Good Luck to all who enter. I can't wait to hear both winning mixes

Friday 5 August 2011

August House Mix!

After a turbulent past few days I made a mix to channel my energy.
I uploaded the end result to SoundCloud. Download it and take a listen!
August House Mix by JoeyMartinez

Anyway I'm off on my jollies where I shall be forgetting about life and indulging myself with Sun and Beer. I shall also be spending quality time with my i-pod.

All being well, normal service shall resume in the near future!

Rave Safe x

Thursday 4 August 2011

Current Mood: Sad

I remember reading this blog post that Dennis Ferrer wrote a few years back.
http://www.myspace.com/dennisferrer/blog/382650771

Today I know how he felt.
Somethings are just too personal to share on the Internet but today is one of the saddest days of my life. Today I lost my first love, a companion and most importantly my soul mate.
Death is part of life but for someone to go so suddenly makes you hurt like hell.

I'm glad it rained today because my tears were washed away. It was not rain. It was heaven crying. I was crying tears of sadness but I know the Angels were crying tears of joy because you are with them now.

I love you... Thanks for the memories.

Too many songs to dedicate to you but this ones for you.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Erick Morillo's 5 Minute Mini Mix

On the drive home from work, last Friday, I was reminded by Pete Tong to Listen Again to Erick Morillo's 5 Minute Mini Mix from Annie Macs radio show. Totally forgetting that he did a Mini mix for Annie Mac, I got a little excited and I could not wait to get back and listen. But maybe I got too excited.
After I 'listened again' I was disappointed. But I'm not trying to take anything away our Erick. I just feel that the mix lacked that pizazz that a mini mix should have, I feel it didn't have the energy to make me want to go raving - which was a shame because I love Erick Morillo. He never ceases to amaze me and I think he is one of the greatest DJs ever!
I know he's a busy man and he's far too important and probably worth too much money to revel in the honour of producing a mini mix for Annie Mac and her radio show and to be honest I doubt it was even him who produced the mix. And if it was, he probably produced it in the air flying around in his private jet.
I wanted to hear the energy that Erick Morillo puts in his sets. I wanted to be teased into going raving. I wanted the mix to make me cry because I wasn't in Ibiza. I wanted to the mix to make me want search the Internet for cheap flights to Ibiza but it didn't. It  just seemed like there was 8 bar clips of Ibiza 'classics' chop up and pasted together without anybody actually listening to the end product . Like I say it lacked the energy.
Erick Morillo - BBC Radio 1 Ibiza Classics Mini Mix by Subliminal Records

Ah well never mind.... I still love you Erick!