ADV J DJ timeline

  • 1935

    1935
    In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term "disc jockey". This was to describe the radio announcer Martin Block, the first radio announcer to gain widespread fame for playing popular recorded music over the air.
  • 1943 - 1953

    1943 - 1953
    In 1943, radio DJ Jimmy Savile launched the world's first DJ dance party by playing jazz records in Otley, England.
    In 1947, he claims to have become the first DJ to use twin turntables for continuous play.
    In 1958 became a radio DJ at Radio Luxembourg.
    In 1947, the world's first commercial discothèque, or disco (deriving its name from the French word meaning a nightclub where it's recorded music rather than an on-stage band).
    In 1953 Discos began appearing across Europe and the United States.
  • 1950s

    1950s
    In the 1950s, American radio DJs appeared live at sock hops (informal dance parties) and assumed the role of a human jukebox.
  • 1955

    1955
    In 1955, Bob Casey, a well-known "sock hop" (informal dance parties) DJ, brought the two-turntable system to the U.S.
  • 1960s

    1960s
    In the mid-1960s, nightclubs and discothèques continued to grow in Europe and the United States. Specialized DJ equipment, such as Rudy Bozak's classic CMA-10-2DL mixer, began to appear on the market.
  • 1969

    1969
    In 1969, DJ Francis Grasso popularized beatmatching. Grasso developed slip-cuing, where holding a record still while the turntable is revolving underneath and releasing it at the desired moment created a sudden transition from the previous record.
    At the same time David Mancuso's idea was that the music be as close to the source as possible.
    He made “Mixing”or “Beatmatching” is the technique of creating seamless transitions between records with matching beats, or tempos.
  • 1973

    1973
    In 1973, Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc, widely regarded as the "father of hip-hop culture," performed at block parties in his Bronx neighborhood and developed a technique of mixing back and forth between two identical records to extend the rhythmic instrumental segment, or break. Turntablism, the art of using turntables not only to play music but to manipulate sound and create original music, began to develop.
  • 1974

    1974
    In 1974, German electronic music band Kraftwerk released the 22-minute song "Autobahn." Years later, Kraftwerk became a significant influence on hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa and house music pioneer Frankie Knuckles. During the mid-1970s, Hip-hop music and culture began to emerge, originating among urban African Americans and Latinos in New York City. The four main elements of Hip Hop culture are graffiti, DJing, b-boying, and MCing (rapping).
  • 2010s

    2010s
    In 1974, Technics released the first SL-1200 turntable, which evolved into the SL-1200 MK2 in 1979—which, as of the early-2010s