The Chronicle News Presents: A Glossary for the Culture🎚️ Sidebar Feature: 10 DJ Terms Every Music Lover Should Know

Photo Credit: AI-Generated Artwork by Chronicle News via OpenAI DALL·E. A quick glossary of essential DJ terms every music lover should know—from scratch to blend, cue point to crossfader.🎧 NATIONAL DJ TERMS

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1. Turntablism: The skilled art of manipulating turntables to create new sounds. Scratching, beat juggling, and battle routines are all part of this technique.

2. Crate Digging: Searching through vinyl—sometimes for hours—to find rare grooves,

samples, and breaks. A rite of passage for any real DJ.

3. Beatmatching: Lining up the tempo of two songs so they transition seamlessly. Without it, the party doesn’t flow.

4. Crossfader: The horizontal slider on a DJ mixer that lets you move between two audio channels. A DJ’s magic wand.

5. Scratch: Moving the vinyl back and forth on the turntable to make percussive or rhythmic sounds. A signature move in hip-hop DJing.

6. Breakbeat: The instrumental drum section of a song. Early hip-hop DJs like Kool Herc isolated and looped these to keep dancers hyped.

7. Cue: The exact moment where a DJ drops a track. It’s precision meets instinct.

8. Blend: When a DJ overlays two tracks—vocals from one, beats from another—to make a whole new vibe. Good blends are like good gumbo.

9. MC (Master of Ceremonies-): The voice on the mic, hyping the crowd and supporting the DJ. But in hip-hop’s early days, the DJ was the headliner.

10. Digital Crates: Modern music libraries organized by genre, vibe, or energy. It’s iTunes on steroids, and every DJ’s lifeline today.