We were inundated by a flood of votes rather than nominations for the Taipei Times Top DJ list last week. Obviously some deck technicians -- who will remain nameless -- have already started politicking and rounding up party members to get them to vote.
This is, of course, within the rules of the competition because it is a popularity contest after all. However, if any DJ is found to have bussed in voters or offered them free meals they face disqualification from the poll, and likely recruitment by the DPP.
The new list -- on taipeitimes.com/poll/dj -- is larger this year with a total of over 80 names, as opposed to 71 for 2004. This is despite the fact that nine DJ names have been taken off. Chozie, for instance, was de-listed since he now lives and plays in China and he's Australian. @llen, on the other hand stays on the list because he's Taiwanese, though he's also currently working in Beijing.
The point is there are more DJs than ever working in Taiwan and this poll is the only substantive measure of their success. It's not perfect and only 50 percent of our readers are Taiwanese, but it is transpa-rent and fair.
Last year's winner, Nina, argued that the title doesn't carry a lot of weight for many people living in Taiwan.
"Most people don't really care about or know about the DJ poll, or take it that seriously, only foreigners. Only they came up and said anything. Locals didn't, though I did get some e-mails."
Nina said she had become popular because she had played so many gigs around the country in 2003, after having returned from LA and built a DJ career.
"If you get enough exposure and play good stuff then you are going to get the vote. But I've stopped playing out so much and the clubs and promoters moved on. The other thing is I don't like staying up so late. Now I go hiking on weekends. I'm getting older and moving into the production side more, taking classes on music production. So far I've only produced mix CDs but I want to produce an album next year."
And now that her reign is over, how does Nina see the scene?
"Hip hop is taking over, it's all over the place and dance music is becoming secondary. You can see that at the big clubs. I think it's just the world trend, it's the same as the rest of the world. Dance music is just better underground. Taipei has had a lot of international DJs and I've enjoyed the music, but as far as a local scene, the clubs need to make money so music has to be more commercial."
Nina's voting for @llen, Saucey and SL this year. The queen is dead, long live the king?
Last week Paul van Dyk ruled the roost at the Taipei World Trade Center 2 (see Taipei Times review on the Web, Monday, Dec. 12), where an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people were left out in the cold because they didn't have tickets or enough guanxi to get in. This week is the return of Deep Dish, at Luxy tonight. Also, Taichung's biggest gay outing is at Bobos, with Paul Energy, Boyan and Simon.
Tomorrow, party people will be descending on Eden for Cut 'n' Blow, with dirty electro, techno 'n' breaks from Coffey, Declan, Hooker and Taro. Purple has been renamed Dancehall Under and has parties tonight and tomorrow with Teddy, Stone and Tiger. Disco Revenge with Andrew Ford is at Bobos. Chifunk is at Club CU, with guest star Marcus. Finally, Nina is at Room 18 for Lovers.
The Vinyl Word: Vote on taipeitimes.com/poll/dj. Voting ends Tuesday, Dec. 27.
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