"the music has to be in relation to the audience as well". I agree with this - with one crucial difference: I don't think a DJ has an "audience". A milonga isn't a show though on occasion I have seen DJs act or talk that way, or try to whip up a crowd with stamping, clapping, head-banging, air-punching, all sorts of odd things. That hubris can be fatal, I think. A DJ plays for, is at the service of, dancers - always. "Audience" implies something else.
Unless Antti's idea of the DJ's role is profoundly different to mine, this mention of a DJ's audience I guess is a slip of the pen. I have never heard Antti DJ, to my knowledge we've never met and we've never corresponded. I've read his blog for somewhere between 6 months and a year which is enough to at least get a feel for how things are there. To date, he strikes me as one of the good guys.
Tanda of the Week is evidently not merely a personal showcase, not just a DJ setting out his stall for bookings, not least because the site is a mix of tandas put together by Antti and submitted to him by guest DJs. So I think it's a resource, a tool, something useful, something you can learn from. This is the main reason I also think it is great when DJs are open and share their sets publicly or privately. TOTW is also about discussing music and DJing and that is what is great about it, what makes it really alive. We don't always agree on music but that's kind of the point. Where is the real interest in discussing things with people who already share your ideas? The pleasure of discussion is in learning something new, in contrast, in persuasion, in seeing another's point of view, in understanding how they think and what they value, the finding out where you agree and disagree and why.
Tanda of the Week is well known. In the secret lives of many DJs I suspect it is a well-used resource yet compared to the amount I imagine it is read it is commented upon comparatively little. Antti posts his own tandas regularly, knowing that they differ in style, one from another, knowing that they could well be and in fact regularly are commented upon and have metaphorical tomatoes thrown at them, knowing his taste will be questioned and the good tandas often ignored - yet he keeps doing it, cheerfully, with good humour. The tandas, the cortinas and the comments are resources that can be used by new and existing DJs. I think this blog enriches the musical life of the contemporary tango scene.
I like that Antti uses this own name. It is a good precedent. It's less rare, for obvious reasons for a DJ to use a pseudonym online. But of the few bloggers - and people who comment - who challenge or question, to different degrees, the status quo most seem afraid to speak out under their own name: TangoCommuter, TangoAirO (defunct and removed), RandomTangoBloke (sadly defunct), and most obviously TangoVoice whose clam-like silence on their identity is proportionate to the degree to which s/he is, is, I think an advocate of the traditional, Buenos Aires way of doing things. There are excellent reasons for this, not least the risk of ostracism and fear of a backlash in their local communities. This is not on the same scale as the risks faced by some apostates or critics of religion and yet a social death in their local tango scene is enough to put off many from speaking freely - or at least publicly - especially if they already have roles as DJs, organisers or even teachers. But what actually does it say about these tango "communities" where there is evidently a sense that there can be no diversity in opinion, let alone practice, without repercussion? Diversity is healthy. Monopolies are not and breed a herd-like mentality and fear. How many milongas are there round your way locally? How many compared to the number of teachers? What kind of music is played? How many different DJs are there locally? Does one group run all your milongas or is there healthy diversity? How diverse are things, generally, near you? I have found diversity by dancing in five or six different towns and cities within an hour of me but more local diversity is better.
One of the best things for me about Tanda of the Week, is that it is open, uncensored. That alone says much. As far as I know, and as far as I have heard to date unlike many Antti does not censor comments where he does not agree with the view. That freedom to speak your mind implies a degree of trust that, in a society which values freedom of speech, I have found to be surprisingly (to my mind) rare among bloggers. It was Martha Graham¹ (pictured) who said "Censorship is the height of vanity" and I agree. And of fear. People who censor are essentially fearful, trying to cling on to something - usually their sense of a form of power, status or money. When challenged on this, moderators or administrators almost universally adopt a libertarian line, saying this forum is a sort of private club where our own rules apply and if you don't like it, you can go elsewhere or we can kick you out. But censorship by definition happens (usually) before people get to see it, before that group gets to decide collectively on whether something is OK or not. It prevents discussion about whether it's ok. I think that's what I object to. Some people are happy to abnegate that responsibility, but I care more about the people who aren't. Open societies just like open forums discuss together what is acceptable and what is not. That's how we live together. It's also how we develop diversity and toleration. The rapper Jay-Z in his book, Decoded said we change people through conversation, not through censorship.
Sometimes censorship is more insidious - an edited history is provided. So things happen, things are said, and then quietly deleted, history is rewritten. It reminds me of China's history books - it happened, but only like this, only as we tell you, or only as far as you remember and we know how how unreliable memory is. Except memory can be surprisingly persistent and objectionable when things are suppressed.
TangoAirO sometimes looked at things from a questioning angle. S/he took his site offline earlier this year - not left for posterity to learn from, and yet if ever a blogger was didactic this one was - but removed so the author could move onto the more important things in life. I can't help but wonder if that was teaching. For me discussion about ideas is at the very heart of life.
Sometimes censorship is more insidious - an edited history is provided. So things happen, things are said, and then quietly deleted, history is rewritten. It reminds me of China's history books - it happened, but only like this, only as we tell you, or only as far as you remember and we know how how unreliable memory is. Except memory can be surprisingly persistent and objectionable when things are suppressed.
TangoAirO sometimes looked at things from a questioning angle. S/he took his site offline earlier this year - not left for posterity to learn from, and yet if ever a blogger was didactic this one was - but removed so the author could move onto the more important things in life. I can't help but wonder if that was teaching. For me discussion about ideas is at the very heart of life.
So while discussion remains not ad hominem but about ideas and opinion then I think no censorship is very valuable. Actually, even personal attacks, unless severely disruptive, or revealing of privacy, personal or confidential information are worth leaving in place - as indicative of the person that made them. I understand when comments are moderated maybe to avoid spam or perhaps with the idea that someone should be spared another's vitriol but I do not comment upon blogs like Melina's Two Cents (dormant), and TangoCommuter's that allow comments yet filter them in god-like fashion depending on the degree to which they disagree with the blog owner. If only part of a comment is published it is for me a form of dishonesty and the kind of manipulation of which the media is often accused. Mostly this filtering smacks of fear which sits uneasily with someone writing publicly. It feels like grandstanding yet having hoods at the back to chuck out the dissenters. Besides, I find the public back-slapping - rife on social media - between people who share uncontroversial ideas uninteresting at best, slightly sinister at worst.
Someone said to me recently, "We can't rely on what our friends say about us...they love us unconditionally. What our foes say is the more accurate benchmark." I don't know about accurate, because enemies are also prone to propaganda. But still, I asked,
"So what do your enemies say?"
"I have no enemies, When you expect the best out of people, nine times out of ten that's what you get."
"So what do your enemies say?"
"I have no enemies, When you expect the best out of people, nine times out of ten that's what you get."
That, I think is what is happening in Tanda of the Week. Antti expects it to work, for the most part expects healthy debate and ideas (since his "never criticize" comment, this under review) and gets it, I think.
Antti argues, believe me. But he will sometimes be persuaded by or make a concession to a point. I have found that in life to be a rare trait between individuals, let alone in public. It suggests honesty, open-mindedness and a willingness to change one's mind. There is more often strength than weakness in that.
The point about a DJ's "audience" was the first I wanted to respond to. The other will be next time.
¹Martha Graham "the Picasso of dance" was an influential twentieth century modern dancer and choreographer whose work, rooted in America, crossed artistic boundaries. She said, "A dance reveals the spirit of the country in which it takes root. No sooner does it fail to do this than it loses its integrity and significance".
Photograph by Cris Alexander, courtesy of Martha Graham Dance Company.
Photograph by Cris Alexander, courtesy of Martha Graham Dance Company.
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