Quote Originally Posted by Orange
I'll say technique. I've always thought a good dj can make a crap record sound good. Consider the ever so technical hip hop djz. Give em a box of polka b-sides and they'll keep a crowd captivated for hours.
I agree in principle that great turntablism can be captivating. I love to watch turntablists in action, in fact I've got a few DMC and Scratch Pervert vids that I view with envy repeatedly, and yes they can do great things with any old tunage. But there's a subtle but important difference here in the aims of a turntablist and a tecnho DJ surely ?. Hip hop/turntablists are all about the spectacle. 'Captivating' isn't the same as getting people shaking their asses on the floor.

Let me elaborate on my original question : As well as some of the recent posts I'd read, another event prompted me to ask the question in the first place. At a party a young DJ was mashing up some techno with fantastic technical ability. Now here's the thing, instead of dancing a lot of people were watching him. Some were making comments like "check out that wicked terminating" (which to me was boring after the first 30 seconds), "Great scratching", "wicked beat juggling" etc. You get the picture. But it was bland and boring, despite, or maybe because of, all the trickery.
A bit later, a more experienced DJ who's been around a while got on the decks playing some nice floor killers and really started to get the party moving. He's a bit rusty these days and this was a bit of a rare outing for him so his technique was a bit slack. The same crowd who had been bigging up the earlier DJ for his tricks were very quick to start shouting "Oi, sort it out" etc. at any fluff or lazy beat. But he was still making the party dance, and surely that's the idea isn't it ? Unlike the earlier trickster he was watching the floor and playing tunes that, in his judgement, would do the damage. And they did, but he still got abuse for ropey technique.