24 thoughts on “The Top 100 DJs Of 2013”

1. Isn’t this Synthtopia, not Overpaiddjopia…

   1. Sometimes its Overpaiddjopia, sometimes its IOStopia, some other times EverythingAppletopia and sometimes simply Synthtopia.

2. ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

3. i just YouTubed
   #1 Hardwell and #100 Ran D

   !!they play the same songs!!

   this list is pointless #12 Deadmau5 did not even take it seriously

4. How the hell is Daft Punk even on there? They haven’t played live in like 4 years minimum.

   1. Daft Punk is playing at my house.

5. BT???

6. This guy:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oBj1SwbBPM

7. No one takes this seriously anymore its basically the top 100 Trance/house commercial awards, there should be top 100 underground dj

8. The once great art of electronic music has been subverted to (of all things) DISCO.

   I bet my formulaic, cookie-cutter, 120 BPM, syncopated backbeat drum machine disco “beats” are just as boring, shallow, soulless, pointless and childishly self-indulgent as any others.

   Seriously man. The once great art of electronic music has been subverted to (of all things) …DISCO. This stuff is music for robots. How can anyone be “good” at it, let alone “better” than anyone else? Just call up the preset, hit the “go” button and pretend to be a real musician. So what.

   The really sad thing is, many people today cannot even tell the difference.

   I think I am gonna puke.

   1. I agree with BH. It really IS disco, sometimes blatantly so. There’s nothing WRONG with it; there just isn’t enough RIGHT about it to get this much attention. I do like some of it, but when so many embrace that and leave everything else flapping behind it, its no wonder that synthesizers are often seen as plastic and disposable. Sometimes that seems to include the manufacturers. TONALLY speaking, its the broadest instrument on the planet, but that doesn’t come across much in a world of beep-boop nostaligia or trouser-shredding sub-bass. I want to hear some real emotion and compositional meat. “Let’s dance” is fine for the purpose, but its not an emotion. Its a triumph of marketing over everything else. If that were not the case, people would have broader tastes and this too-simple style would not be King. “Everyone” always wanted to be a “rock star” and now, thanks to electronics, “Anyone” can be. The mix has gone muddy in the Me-Too melee. (Sorry) A few like Banco de Gaia add some real class to the field, but the rest feels like a chicken pot pie that’s burned on the edges and still raw & cold in the middle. Ooo, yuck. Okay, throw rocks here.

9. BH, go ahead and puke then. Thers is nothing wrong with some dark and funky Disco, so leave it alone. Sounds like you forgot how to have fun, or maybe you never figured it out. Face it, people will always love to dance, and Disco is one way of getting there. People don’t go to a club or party to stand there and listen to some slow “experimental” knoodling. Nor do they want to scramble all night to some sped up breaks, 113- 124bpm is the sweet spot. I don’t make the rules, but human nature obeys them.

   1. >> “I don’t make the rules, but human nature obeys them.”

      “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we were put here to rise above.”
      ~ Katherine Hepburn, “The African Queen”

      “If its gonna be that kind of party,
      I’m gonna to stick my dick in the mashed potatoes.”
      ~ The Beastie Boys

10. Im proud to say ive only heard 6 people on this list

11. A list better to be left out of

12. I have an idea. How about all the artists (that make the music that these DJs play) stop sending them their music. We keep it to ourselves for a while and make music for the love and fun of it. What will these DJs play that is new and cutting edge etc? How will the DJs make a living if there is no new music to play? 🙂

    I wonder too about a shake up of the royalty system where the fees the DJ gets for playing the records of other artists on the night is shared equally between the DJ and the artists whose tracks are played. Crazy I know. But I had to type it here in this box to see what fellow synthtopias think! 🙂

    1. Yes! It really bothers me that the people who actually make the music usually end up getting paid far less than the people who press play on their CD players and DAWs in a club.

       Modern dance DJ culture is a blight upon the art of music.

13. Dude, project46 is the name of an amazing brazillian metal band, not some phony cd-player bastard.

14. look @the kids today, they don’t want to play guitar, they don’t want to play synths – they just want to play other ppls music, great &_&

15. Daft Punk doesn’t deserve a place on this list. Or if they do, they should be at the top. I’m not familiar with many of these DJs, but Daft Punk is a band. Or at least composers. They actually record instruments which they then manipulate using DJ techniques.

    Not sure how they ranked this, but come on.

16. Interesting how these articles get the Synthtopia community so riled up! I don’t think many here understand how DJing (at least club-syle) works – it’s not about minute-to-minute flair or technique, like playing an instrument (or scratch-DJing for that matter), it’s about crafting a 1-2 hour experience through track selection, building excitement, releasing, building again… Good DJs know how to do this extremely well. What you also don’t take into account is that most of these DJs are producers in their own right – many of the songs in their sets were likely produced or remixed by them. So although you may not see the “musicianship” in somebody standing up there and mixing pre-produced tracks, that’s still as valid a way as any for them to showcase their music and for us to enjoy it. Do you not enjoy a Picasso simply because it was painted beforehand?

    See, I’m both an instrumentalist and a DJ/producer. I can really appreciate a virtuoso guitar player just as much as I can appreciate dancing my ass off for 2 hours to a good DJ! I think it’s shallow to draw boxes around different forms of music and make judgements, especially about aspects which may be foreign or unfamiliar to you. I won’t lie, I’m not really into most of the DJs on the list (except for Knife Party and a couple of other names), but I get why they’re there – it’s the pop-crust of electronic/DJ music (you’re not seeing names like Andy C, Qbert, Kid Koala on there).

    So you can rant and rail against DJs all you want, or you can accept the fact that there is a reason they exist, why people enjoy seeing them, and why some of them make so much money. Even if it may not be your cup of tea!

17. Don’t throw baby out with the bathwater, dance music is primal,
    Shamanic even, and eminently valid.

18. Hey, I’ve heard one of these bands!

    Dada Life albums are actually quite ok.
    I use’m for background when working, or playing DotA 2.

19. Music is life and this list make my life.HARDWELL ARE NO.1