Scratch Video a mutant hybrid of scratch DJ music and guerrilla TV

scratchvideo/evolution/hiphop_and_electronicmusic/scratching

Before DJ Grand Wizard Theodore started experimenting with the sound, hearing a scratch while listening to music meant the DJ had made a technical mistake -- the audience was only supposed to hear records seamlessly blending into one another.

"Scratching in its early form arose out of the normal technique of cueing a record: you move the record manually with the needle in the groove and listen for the right starting point on a headphone. One turntable is used for cueing while the other is playing a record through the main loudspeaker. DJs like Grandmaster Flash began experimenting by switching the mixer from the headphones to the speaker for isolated brass-section chords and drum slaps Ð augmenting the record that was already playing on the other turntable Ð and then learned how to use a record percussively by quickly moving it back and forth over the same chord or beat." (Toop 26)

Breakbeat established the rhythmic base of hip hop and scratching became a new method of adding a melody to music. Both were created by using the turntable in a new way. The novelty of introducing the sound of a scratch into music evolved into a distinct musical genre named "turntablism". Scratch DJs use the turntable as an instrument, to not only play music but to make music with. Skilled turntablists can range anywhere from the sound of a Miles Davis cool jazz trumpet solo (DJ Q-Bert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz using silence), to the virtuosity of a heavy metal guitar solo (DJ Swamp). Innovators like Kid Koala are expanding with the boundaries of the medium.

Copyright 2000© Hart Snider