It's that time of the year again. DJmag has launched its annual poll to see who is the most popular, sought after, and well best known DJ. Voting is open from now until September 2010. Last year the top djs were selected by over 350,000 votes and who knows how many viral campaigns by the DJs themselves and any record labels they are associated with. Love it or hate it, you know that this poll is the biggest out there and it does effect the industry for the next year.
During the summer of my junior year in high school I attended a week long art camp at Denver Art Institute. It was supposed to be one of those once in a lifetime, career charting experiences, but I remember practically nothing about it. The only thing I recollect is the last day; the closing ceremonies party. About twenty-five of us were gathered in a parking lot behind one of the buildings enjoying the outdoors, the Denver skyline, the complimentary snacks and a live DJ spinning top-40 under a tent in back. I was watching the DJ. He was thoroughly enjoying his craft even though no one in our little crowd was paying much attention to him. He was mainly mixing for himself. At one point he picked up a record, smiled at no one in particular and placed it on his turntable. Then, as if everyone suddenly noticed there was music playing, people started dancing. It was an up-beat song: a four-on-the-floor kick, a euro-dance synth, and a bouncy female vocal singing something in Spanish. The groove was catchy and our group loved it. One of the students leaned over to me and answered my unspoken question, “It's called the Macarena.”
Last year, Tastyfresh.com gave out its first awards. The music industry has the Grammys. The television industry has the Emmies. Tastyfresh has the Freshies. They Freshies are our way of recognizing the achievements that Christians have made over the past year. In 2008, the senior staff picked the winners. This time around, so do you. We’re going to have the staff picks and the community picks. This month, you will be able to nominate people for the various awards and next month, you will get to vote for the winner of each category. The staff will weigh in with their own collective picks and all will be revealed in March.
Electronic rhythms pulsate from speakers inside a fellowship hall. Dj’s wield their skills behind a set of turntables. A group hovers around a Bible and prayers go up. A laptop sends a music stream to listeners across the globe. The So Cal Groove Fellowship is a wide assortment of dj’s, music producers and music enthusiasts who meet together once a month for support, food, a live internet broadcast and networking.
The first article in this series seemed to have raised some hot bottom issues. I knew that some of what I said would not go over very well, but it did what I had hoped it would and sparked a very productive discussion on the forums. The main concern that evolved in the discussion over last months article circled around one issue… a fear of inflexible central control. Let me assure all of you that such a thing was very far away from anything I was considering when I wrote the article. It has been a fear that I have been aware of for years now and it is one that I believe has kept us from growing and developing as a scene. In fact, you could make a very strong and convincing argument that there really isn’t a Christian EDM scene… there is seemingly only Tastyfresh when it comes to a global movement.
Read more: Effectively Bringing Unity to Our Scene: Part III – The Powers of Tastyfresh
In September 2000 The Christian Herald published an article that began with this statement: "This past summer, Toronto's mayor, city counselors and law enforcement officers debated how to clean up the city¹s rave scene. A group of Christians are one step ahead of them, throwing dance parties with no drugs, no weapons, no drinking, no smoking, no sexually provocative clothing and no one being wheeled out on a stretcher." We didn't just not invite drug dealers and gangs in - we actively kept them out.
The following is an archive of the discussion regarding part one of the Unity series. As I strongly believe that these discussions on this series are just as vital as the articles, I’ll be archiving each one with the rest of the series. I hope you find this helpful. Some edits were made to assist in readability and grammar. Thanks to everyone who took part in this.
Read more: Effectively Bringing Unity to Our Scene: Part I – Follow-up Discussion
The population here at Tastyfresh is very diverse in two specific areas: political views and spiritual views. No matter which side of these debates a person is on, their views of politics and God are mashed together in ways that seem diametrically opposed to someone else on the site. This isn’t the root cause of our disorganization or disunity, but it is a conduit to quickly explain some of our issues.
Read more: Effectively Bringing Unity to Our Scene: Part II – A Look at the Unity of Our Scene
This article is the first in what will be a serious of discussions regarding unity in our scene. There is no doubt that we have been less united in the past, but are we really as united as we think we are and could we become even more closely united? This is exactly what I hope to examine over the course of the next several issues. Enough of the intro, let’s dive into the meat.
It’s been about seven months now since I first made a post on the forums calling for the start of what I then called Groove Fellowships. Through out a series of discussions on the site about the same time, it became clear that if we were going to grow this scene or if we were even going to help encourage each other in our faith, simply posting on a message board would not cut it.
This is it; we talk about building a scene and seeing more parties on a national scale. Let’s make it happen. The first thing that needs to happen is the development of small groups or fellowships in towns. These small groups would eventually, but not initially throw parties in their hometowns. The initial focus is simply to get the people of Tastyfresh.com out of the virtual world and into the real one.