In the 70s, everyone was a winner (babe, yeah it’s true). In the 80s, everybody wanted to rule the world. Fast forward to the 20-teens and everybody is a DJ. At the end of history (as Fukuyama would have it), even Z-list celebrities with smartphones are being billed as DJs, tapping the pots on mixing decks in a kind of mime show. Pre-recorded shows are becoming standard, allowing anyone with a backwards baseball hat to call themselves a DJ if they stand in the appropriate place.
So, when Jeddie 3 say, “Everybody Is (a DJ),” they aren’t kidding. Or maybe they are: the talent behind the tag is Eddie Bengtsson, Sweden’s answer to Vince Clarke, and he has a sense of humour a Nordic mile wide. Bengtsson will have noticed the move by Vince Clarke and Martin Gore into the world of Beatport, and Jeddie 3’s release might be seen as an exercise in one-upmanship. Beating VCMG (or just MG) in the quality stakes would be like shooting fish in a barrel for a composer of Bengtsson’s experience, however, so there is likely more going on.
Taken at face value, “Everybody Is (a DJ)” is a thumping piece of dance music, designed for the dancefloor. It will find its way into a Boiler Room mix soon, prompting Millennials to twitch around the DJ table, dreaming of the moment when they can play with their own Traktor 2 set-ups. If they were smart, they would learn some chords and how to extract the coolest filter sweeps from a Moog, so that they could be just like Eddie.