Just to bring back the friendly discussion...
IMHO there are different kinds of dj's. There are turntablists (dj shadow, a-trak, madlib, etc etc etc) and there are people like richie hawtin who've gone the software route completely (as in no vinyl/CD control whatsoever, so no timecoded solutions for these guys). I don't think anyone would deny that he's dj'ing when he plays out at love parade or wherever dance festival. Did Max Graham, Sasha, Digweed, or Deadmau5 stop being dj's when they began using traktor or ableton entirely? Purists might say yes, but what would you call what they do then? God forbid that you'd call them "sound operators". (refer to that nosebleed-inducing thread in the electronica section, or then again, don't). Even the mighty turntable maestro DJ Krush (one of my fave artists, just to let all know that I love turntablism and would love to get into it) has started using software to do dj sets/"dj-style sets" (again depending on your take on the matter).
If a turntablist and I played the same gig, would he scoff at my laptop-based set up? (I use ableton and contollers, and feed individual channels to a tascam dj mixer, and use an efx-500 and kp-2 as outboard effectors). I hope not, because I, on the flipside, respect his chosen technique immensely. Good music is for all.
Would others feel threatened by the thought that any regular juan or juana could pick up traktor, get a cheap controller, and get into "dj-ing" just like that *? Let me put it out there though- just like any other music performance method, digital dj'ing has a learning curve too, if you are interested at all in doing something creative with it. If anyone is to feel threatened, it's the digital dj's who are fighting against the grain and trying to find acceptance. I certainly feel insecure when playing out and I know that there's a turntablist in the house. Whether there's basis for this insecurity or not, I don't know. But clearly the curve is skewed in favor of the dj establishment. It's like being the new guy in school or something like that.
Still, for all the talk and hate-talk that the "digital revolution" has spawned, I feel that neither route will become irrelevant or obsolete anytime soon. As long as there are people who (1.) use their tools creatively,whether it be a pair of TTs ,or simply a laptop and a controller; (2.) who recontextualize and reshape pre-recorded music (hopefully, 320kbps/lossless audio files naman sana if not actual CDs or vinyl
); and (3.) make people move, then the craft in all its wonderful permutations will endure.
I think these are the elements of dj'ing- it's not defined by the tools. The craft has evolved. If anything, the burst in popularity of non-TT/cd deck tools that allow users to in the very least approximate THE PRODUCT (not the process of course- no controller will ever be able to convincingly replicate the crab scratch, for example) has made this strain of music performance that we all love more democratic and open. This means more garbage, but also more opportunities for innovation and creativity. That's good news as far as I'm concerned.
Just my humble two cents. Sorry for the long post.