The voting has begun on the biggest music poll on the planet
Interview : Dan Prince
2013’s edition saw a new winner in the form of Dutch powerhouse, Hardwell; the Dutch DJ/producer replaced five-times No.1 Armin Van Buuren to become the youngest ever winner. Will he regain his crown in 2014? Will Martin Garrix snatch his title? Why are Daft Punk always in the 100? Does anyone actually give a fuck? Dan Prince gets the lowdown from the man in charge…
Hey Ben welcome to DMCWORLD. Last week saw the voting open for this year’s Top 100 DJs Poll 2014…last year saw over 750,000 people from more than 200 countries vote for their favourite spinners reinforcing itself as the biggest music poll on the planet. Just how big an operation is this every year for you and your staff?
“It’s the biggest operation of the year for us! It requires a lot of work and preparation. Obviously there’s counting and verifying the votes, checking spellings and that kind of thing. Once all the votes are confirmed and in order, then the process of getting interviews with all the DJs involved begins, commissioning them out to a large team of freelance writers as well as in-house journalists. To get them all back — in addition to all the other duties of the magazine — is a mammoth task but I’m used to it now!”
Where are some of the countries that voted that you never expected to see stepping up?
“Well, we’ve had votes from Vatican City, which is quite surprising! Votes rolled in from literally all over the world, from Christmas Island to Lesotho to Samoa.”
2013 saw the youngest ever DJ win the award, 25 year old Hardwell who has had a fabulous 12 months wearing his DJ crown. He is one of the two DJs from last year’s top 5 to have started his publicity drive in earnest already…by jumping out of a plane and bringing us a skydiving promo video. What are some other DJ promotional ploys that have made you laugh over the years?
“One of the best was a short comedy film that Above & Beyond put out, featuring fictional DJ Clive Rudloe (actually comic actor Alex MacQueen, who’s featured in the Inbetweeners) and Matt Lucas. It was really genuinely funny and a clever way of drumming up votes for the trance trio. Also Paul Oakenfold’s video from last year, with Alanis Morrissette, was an amusing piss-take.”
Other companies have tried, some started their own versions of your Poll. What is DJ Mag’s secret that still ensures it’s global success every year?
“It’s the most established poll. The public vote has been running since 1995, and it’s globally the most visible and renowned barometer of a DJ’s popularity. The Top 100 DJs poll is reflective of dance music tastes over the years, and it’s grown ever bigger in tandem with the huge upsurge of dance music’s popularity, specifically EDM.”
When an artist is 97% based in the studio producing tracks and only being a DJ for 3% should they still count in the poll?
“The line between DJ and producer is more blurred than ever nowadays. Most DJs need to produce to get their names out there, as a kind of showreel of what fans can expect at their gigs. Not many are able to wear just one of those hats and there aren’t many examples of artists who only produce within the poll. Ultimately it’s a matter of who people vote for. Sometimes dance fans don’t understand the distinction and the term DJ is a more useful catch-all term — we need to recognise that.”
The Poll in recent years has seen the emergence of ‘companies’ offering their ‘services’ to DJs to ‘buy votes’. Last year Gareth Emery claimed he was telephoned and informed one of his competitors was spending $15,000 on Twitter advertising alone. What is your stance on this whole tricky subject?
“It does exist and it’s something we’re tackling here. For the record it’s completely against the rules of the poll to pay for votes. If we are able to find evidence of any DJs participating in this practice then we will instantly disqualify them from the poll. We are also looking into ways of preventing these companies from operating.”
With so many winning DJs coming from Holland is this why you choose Amsterdam in ADE week to announce the results?
“It is indeed. ADE has become arguably the world’s leading dance music conference and meeting place. Also, with so many leading DJs coming from the country it makes perfect sense.”
Was it awkward when a certain Frenchman won it?!?!
“It certainly divided opinion! We attracted a lot of negativity from people who disliked the result. But David Guetta came top, and after Armin van Buuren was top of the poll for four years, it was only a matter of time before someone new challenged his crown. David was indicative of the shift in the dance scene towards the popularity of what has come to be known as EDM.”
We see more trance and (edm) styled artists filling the top 100 each year while the more underground and cooler DJs get pushed out or to the bottom of the chart. Do you think the results represent the content covered in your magazine?
“No they don’t especially. The magazine does tend to cover more house, techno, drum & bass and their offshoots. But we feature EDM and trance artists too along the way. The editorial content of DJ Mag has always sought to represent the full spectrum of dance music. The results of the poll portray the most popular artists of the time and we cannot and would not impose our own editorial policies upon it. It is its own entity and we are the guardians of it, but it comes around once a year and is only one important aspect of what we believe to be an excellent magazine.”
When you see artists such as deadmau5 tweet lines such as “great. the dj mag poll again. i cant believe people still care for this” – what is your reaction? From a publicity point of view it’s great for the poll, but does it also grate you to see major artists knocking it every year?
“Ultimately those artists may profess to dislike the poll but in the process of complaining about it via social media — to vast numbers of followers — they’re effectively campaigning in a roundabout way. It still gets them votes after all…”
A question I am sure you have been asked before – why do you allow Daft Punk to feature in the chart?
“Because people voted for them. As mentioned earlier, some dance fans don’t know the distinction between DJ, producer, or in the case of Daft Punk’s current incarnation, band. They aren’t DJs anymore, true, but for many they represent the best of dance or electronic music.”
Has the criticism on the Poll from music purists out there ever got a little out of hand?
“It’s a poll to ascertain the global popularity of DJs. It stands to reason that someone packing out arenas and stadiums is going to be more popular than someone playing in a large club. It’s a different musical sphere and as far away from musical purism as you can get. People can hopefully see the Top 100 DJs as a reflection of that and understand that DJ Mag covers all of dance music, including some of the most underground artists that no one else, from the webzines to print magazines, would.”
This year sees you host the London leg of the event at Brixton’s iconic 02 Academy. What is the latest on the line up?
“So far in Room 1 we have Dash Berlin, Showtek and the No.1 DJ (to be announced obviously!), and in Room 2 on the more house music tip there’s Riva Starr, Flashmob and Copy Paste Soul.”
And finally, who is your tip for top honours this year? Many are seeing it as a two way battle between Hardwell and Garrix…where is your fiver on?
“Martin Garrix is bound to make big gains in the poll after the huge success of ‘Animals’. Hardwell too is likely to do well again, as he is immensely popular. What will be interesting is to see whether the infiltration of accessible “deep house” (Breach, Disclosure, SecondCity, Clean Bandit, Route 94) in the UK pop charts and even in the US, will have any impact on the poll.”
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The Top 100 DJs Poll Awards will be held during the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) on Saturday 18 October and will take place at the Amsterdam Music Festival. The presentation partner for the awards is KLM – ‘carrier of the world’s best DJs’. The level and scale of the Top 100 DJs Poll in 2014 is neatly conveyed by the choice of venue for this year’s event – The Amsterdam ArenA. The stadium for Ajax football club will welcome thousands of fans to ADE’s biggest dance event.
The venue for the London Top 100 DJs Poll event, also held on Saturday 18th October, will be London’s iconic O2 Academy Brixton. DJ Mag will be teaming up with Lock N Load Events for what will be the biggest ever Top 100 DJs Poll party in the UK. Fans can register for priority access to tickets and information at www.top100djslondon.com
Further information :
www.djmag.com <http://www.djmag.com>
www.facebook.com/djmagazine <http://www.facebook.com/djmagazine>
www.twitter.com/djmag
