This is a list of notable club DJs, professionals who perform at nightclub venues or other dance events, or who have been pioneers in the development of the role of the club DJ. DJs play a mix of recorded music for an audience at a bar, nightclub, dance club, or rave who dance to the music. The music is played through a sound reinforcement system.
DJs who use their real names are listed alphabetically by last name; DJs who use stage names are listed alphabetically by their first name.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's Black gay underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe.
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.
Deep Dish are an American electronic music duo, consisting of Iranian-American artists Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi.
Alexander Paul Coe, known professionally as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and electronic music as a solo artist, as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as Sasha & John Digweed. He was voted as World No. 1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by DJ Magazine. He is a four-time International Dance Music Awards winner, four-time DJ Awards winner and Grammy Award nominee.
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of North American and European house music of the late 1980s.
Florida breaks, which may also be referred to as The Orlando Sound, Orlando breaks, or The Breaks, is a genre of breakbeat dance music that originated in the central region of Florida, United States. Florida Breaks draws on hip-hop, Miami bass and electro. It often includes samples of early jazz or funk beats from rare groove or popular film. It often features vocal elements. Compared to the hip-hop on which it is based, the style is faster, more syncopated, and has a heavier and unrelenting bassline. The beat frequently slows and breaks down complex beat patterns and then rebuilds. The genre has been described as being easy to dance to while creating an uplifting, happy, or positive mood in the listener.
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks, called a DJ mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA. Since its inception EDM has expanded to include a wide range of subgenres.
Thomas Brückner, known by his stage name Tomcraft, was a German DJ and producer. He specialized in progressive house and progressive trance music and is better known for having created the tracks "Loneliness", "Prosac", "The Circle", "The Mission", "25:17" "Silence" and "Overdose" working alongside Eniac.
The Perth Dance Music Awards highlights the year's major accomplishments in Electronic music by Western Australians. It is an annual event, with the first awards held in 1998. The Perth Dance Music Awards aim to provide recognition and reward to those who are the best in their chosen fields with in the Perth electronic music scene. The recipients of the awards are voted for by the public.
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient history, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.
André Tegeler, known by his stage name Moguai, is a German music producer and DJ. In the early 1990s, he took the alias Moguai and began organising his own club nights and parties in Ruhrgebiet and Münsterland. He became one of the first techno DJs in Germany, sharing a platform with the likes of Paul van Dyk, Westbam and Sven Väth.
DJ Awards is a celebration of electronic music, and aims to recognise and honour DJs and individuals who have influenced electronic dance music worldwide.
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (BPM). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.
Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many DJ Mag Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki, and Deadmau5.
Jowie Schulner is a Dutch electronic composer, artist, producer and remixer. Jowie Schulner is known as one of pioneers of the 1980s inspired synth scene.
Charlotte de Witte is a Belgian DJ and record producer, best known for her "dark and stripped-back" brand of acid techno and minimal techno. She has previously performed under the alias Raving George. She is the founder of the labels KNTXT and Époque.
Jens Kindervater is a German electronic dance music DJ and producer. He is particularly known for the "Michael Mind Project", which he founded together with Francois Sanders in 2007 as "Michael Mind" and renamed in 2010.