Clubs in Cancun: The historical side of DJing

Clubs in Cancun: The historical side of DJing

Ever wondered how this whole industry of techno, trance, dance, house and electro fusions and so forth came around? We all love them of course, but they must have had their origin sometime, right? And we mustn’t forget that nowadays, this is the kind of music played at the hottest clubs in Cancun; it is the kind of music where a variety of top celebrities collaborate with DJs in order to make the tracks even better. Everyday, Cancun’s nightlife booms with the greatest music fusions, featuring the greatest DJs and artists of all times. However, let’s learn a little bit of history behind this great musical genre…

History of Djing

The art of DJ-mixing has created a lot of polemic among various groups; while some think it's a subliminal art that carries a message of nonstop dancing, others don’t really see a lot of sense into it. Whichever side you are on, it is a fact that nowadays, DJing has become a wonderful art, portrayed across the best night clubs in Cancun, London, Monaco and top cities in the world. However, we must take into account that in this particular musical scene, it is not so much who is the greatest DJ around (or even the one who started it all), as it is the development of new technology and how it played into the evolution of electronic dance music. 

Before the compact discs (CDs) were introduced in the early eighties, everybody listened to music on turntables and cassette decks. By 1977 the cassette had become half as popular as vinyl records. By the end of the eighties, the cassette had surpassed CDs and vinyl in sales, although CDs would take the lead in the early nineties. 

The main drawback about cassettes was hiss and stretched tape, but many consumers still saw the cassette as better than vinyl; there were many downsides to vinyl records: it would wear out (little by little) everytime it was played on the turntable, they got very easily scratches, and were much bigger than cassettes, and had less storage room than a cassette.

The cassette revolution had been brewing since the early sixties but really took off in the seventies. Then, came the whole blast off to the DJing industry. What caused a small culture of club DJs to hang on to the turntable and vinyl records was a company called Technics. While the consumer turntable manufacturers were giving up on making the vinyl record experience as enjoyable as possible, Technics catered to the professional user. In 1972 the Technics SL-1200 turntable became the model turntable for the DJ world of radio stations and mobile DJs. This was when the very first DJs appeared, hitting those turntables and getting unique tracks and fusions of music mixes.

Now, after over 30 years of history, we hear the greatest DJs turning those tables and making extraordinary mixes which get everyone dancing and getting their party mood on!