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S.C.R.A.T.C.H. nasn.org | Child scratches at night - Naturopathic Medicine Network pandamedicine.com | Cat Scratching hartroadanimalhospital.co... | Dry Eye, Dry Scratch Red Irritated Eyes, Treatments, Drops, Tears, Plugs... eyeplastic.com |
Scratching is a DJ or turntablist technique used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer. While scratching is most commonly associated with hip hop music, since the 1990s, it has been used in some styles of pop and nu metal. Within hip hop culture, scratching is one of the measures of a DJ's skills, and there are many scratching competitions. In recorded hip-hop songs, scratched hooks often use portions of different rap songs.
[edit] HistoryScratching was developed by early hip hop DJs from New York such as Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Grandmaster Flash, who describes scratching as, "nothing but the back-cueing that you hear in your ear before you push it [the recorded sound] out to the crowd." (Toop, 1991). Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc also influenced the early development of scratching. Kool Herc developed break-beat DJing, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties (AMG [1]). Although previous artists such as William S. Burroughs had experimented with the idea of manipulating a record manually for the sounds produced (such as with his early 1930's recording "Sound Piece"), scratching as an element of hip hop pioneered the idea of making the sound an integral and rhythmic part of music instead of uncontrolled noise. Grandmaster Flash was the first person to release a song with scratching on it in 1981 on the album The Message on the song 'The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." Scratching (and sampling) later gained mainstream popularity in the UK and Europe from the 1987 hit "Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S. Christian Marclay was one of the earliest musicians to scratch outside of hip hop. In the mid-1970s, Marclay used gramophone records and turntables as musical instruments to create sound collages. He developed his turntable sounds independently of hip hop DJs. Although he is little-known to mainstream audiences, Marclay has been described as "the most influential [turntable] figure outside hip hop." [1] and the "unwitting inventor of turntablism."[2] [edit] Basic techniques[edit] Vinyl recordingsMost scratches are produced by moving a vinyl record back and forth with the hand while it is playing on a turntable. This creates a distinctive sound that has come to be one of the most recognizable features of hip hop music. Over time with excessive scratching the needle will cause what is referred to as record burn. The basic equipment setup for scratching includes two turntables, and a DJ mixer, which is a mixer that has a crossfader and "cue" buttons to allow the DJ to "cue up" new music without the audience hearing. When scratching, this crossfader is utilized in conjunction with the "scratching hand" to cut in and out of the scratched record. [edit] Non-vinyl scratching
[edit] SoundsSounds that are frequently scratched include but are not limited to drum beats, horn stabs, spoken word samples, and lines from other songs. Any sound recorded to vinyl can be used, and CD players providing a turntable-like interface allow DJs to scratch not only material that was never released on vinyl, but also field recordings and samples from television and movies that have been burned to CD-R. Some DJs and anonymous collectors release 12-inch singles called battle records that include trademark, novel or hard-to-find scratch fodder. There are lots of scratching techniques, which differ in how the movements of the record is combined with opening and closing the crossfader (or another fader or switch, where "open" means that the signal is audible, and "closed" means that the signal is inaudible). The terminology is not unique, we shall employ terminology consistent with the terminology used by DJ Q-Bert on his Do It Yourself Scratching DVD. [edit] Sophisticated techniques
[edit] Scratching cultureWhile scratching is becoming more and more popular within pop music, sophisticated scratching is still predominantly an underground style. The Invisibl Skratch Piklz from San Francisco focuses on scratching. In 1994, the group was formed by DJs Q-Bert, Disk & Shortkut and later Mix Master Mike. In July 2000, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts held Skratchcon2000, the first DJ Skratch forum that provided “the education and development of skratch music literacy”. In 2001, Thud Rumble became an independent company that works with DJ artists to produce and distribute scratch records. In 2004, Scratch Magazine, one of the first publications about hip-hop DJs and producers, released its debut issue, following in the footsteps of the lesser-known Tablist magazine. Pedestrian is a UK arts organisation that runs Urban Music Mentors workshops for youth in which DJs tell youth how to create beats, use turntables, MC, and perform. [edit] Use outside of hip hopScratching has been incorporated into a number of other musical genres, including pop, rock, jazz, heavy metal and classical music performances. For recording use, samplers are often used instead of physically scratching a vinyl record. Rage Against the Machine (and former Audioslave) guitarist Tom Morello performs scratching-inspired guitar solos. In the song "Bulls on Parade", he creates scratch-like rhythmic sounds by rubbing the strings over the pick-ups while using the pick-up selector switch as a cross-fader. Since the 1990s, scratching has begun being used in a variety of popular music genres, such as nu metal acts (like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit) and in some types of pop music (eg. Nelly Furtado), and in some types of alternative rock or funk metal (eg. Incubus). Some underground and club DJs have derided the use of scratching in these popular genres as mere 'stage-props', to create an appearance or atmosphere on stage[citation needed]. Scratching is also popular in various electronic music styles, most particularly in hard-groove techno. [edit] Other meanings
[edit] See also[edit] Sources
[edit] References[edit] External links
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