Scratching is a DJ or turntablist technique used to produce sounds for some types of music. It was originated by Grand Wizard Theodore, an early hip hop DJ from New York (AMG). Theodore developed scratching from DJ Grandmaster Flash, who describes scratching as, "nothing but the back-cueing that you hear in your ear before you push it [the recorded sound] out to the crowd." (Toop, 1991) Kool Hercwas also an important early figure. The technique is designed toaccentuate the work of the DJ by creating an assortment of soundsthrough the rhythmic manipulation of a vinyl record, and has spreadfrom hip hop music to a number of other musical forms. Within hip hopculture, scratching is still of great importance in determining theskill of a DJ, and a number of competitions are held across the globein which DJs battle one another in displays of great virtuosity. Inrecorded hip-hop songs it is common to have a scratched hook wherelines from different rap songs are scratched in succession.
Since the 1990s, the use of scratching in popular music has seen a substantial increase. Some examples of this would be within Nu-Metal acts (especially Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit) and in some pop music (Nelly Furtado).DJs are also often included as 'stage-props' (especially in the urbangenre) where they stand behind turntables pretending to emulatescratching and mixing. The majority of these DJs are there simply toadd effect to the stage and create more of an atmosphere.
Because of this, many people perceive scratching as an easy andsimple skill to acquire where all one needs to do is move your handback and forth to create the associated "wikki-wikki" sound. Thereality is, scratching is a skill that requires considerable practice.
While scratching is becoming more and more popular within pop music,the art-form itself is still predominantly underground. One of the mostinfluential groups to the world of scratching would be the Invisibl Skratch Piklz hailing from the San Francisco area. Forming in 1994 as DJs Q-Bert, Disk & Shortkut and later Mix Master Mikethe group took scratching to a whole new level. With their focusprimarily on scratching, the group displayed exactly what the turntableis capable of.
"The turntable is the most versatile instrument. You can be adrummer, you can be a guitarist, you can be a lead vocalist —anything." DJ Shortkut
With the departure of DJ Disk, enter two new members, Yogafrog followed by D-Styles. DJ A-Trak from Canada was also a guest member of the group after winning the Technics' DMC World Finals in 1997. After releasing their Shiggar Fraggar CD series and touring various countries around the world the group disbanded in 2001.
Each of its members however have continued to prove they are at the forefront of the scene by pursuing their own projects. In 1998, DJ Qbert made scratch history by composing the first ever album made entirely by scratching [citation needed] - from the beats to the sound effects. The album was entitled 'Wave Twisters' and was later released in 2001 as a feature length movie. DJ D-Styles (now a member of the Beat Junkies crew from Los Angeles),who contributed the 'Razorblade Alcohol Slide' chapter to Wave Twisterswas at the same time working in his own 'scratch music' album entitled'Phantazmagorea' - released in 2001. Both these albums displayed anarray of new scratches & techniques, further proof that these guyswere still out there pushing the boundaries. In 1996, while both stilla part of the ISP group, DJs Qbert & Yogafrog set up their owncompany — Thud Rumble— dedicated to the art of scratching. Their main goal was to spread theart of scratching on a global scale. They released their own videoscalled Turntable TV where DJs from around the world would hang out andscratch.
In July of 2000, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Artsheld Skratchcon2000, the first DJ Skratch forum that provided “theeducation and development of skratch music literacy”. By bringing theglobe’s important DJs together in one arena, professional and amateurDJs were given the chance to learn and utilize various skills,techniques, and styles. In the past, Thud Rumble was involved in thefacilitation of important historical DJ events like ITF (InternationalTurntablist Federation) and the Vestax World DJ Championships. Afterbeing praised by Source Magazine as the “Greatest DJ event of all time”, Thud Rumble had successfully added Skratchcon2000 to the list.
In 2001, Thud Rumbleopened their office doors to become an independent company that managedand maintained the production and distribution of their own products.By working with various DJ artists to produce and distributed scratchrecords, Thud Rumble was able to provide a wider range of practiceand/or performances tools for DJs. Thud Rumble have close ties withmany of the leading electrical DJ equipment companies and have oftenbeen approached to help design new products for the DJ community. Mostnotable of all these is the Vestax QFO released in 2004.The QFO is a turntable/mixer in one, allowing DJs a portable deviceable to set up literally anywhere. Designed mainly for this reason ithas met mixed reviews however since its release many of Qberts showshave seen him using only the QFO.
In 2004, Scratch Magazine, the first publication about hip-hop DJs and producers, released its debut issue.
[edit] Outside hip hop
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Scratching has been incorporated into a number of other musical genres, including Pop, Rock, Jazz, and Classical music performances. Two of the earliest such examples were released in 1983: scratches by Grand Mixer DXT on Herbie Hancock's hit song "Rockit", and, more obscurely, on a few songs the first Golden Palominos record, where Bill Laswell or M.E. Miller scratched. Scratching (and sampling) also gained mainstream popularity in the UK and Europe from the 1987 hit "Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S.
For recording use, samplers are often used instead of physically scratching a vinyl record.
The beatmania music video game series simulates scratching with a "turntable" on the side.
In the video game Katamari Damacy, the King of All Cosmos speaks in record scratches.
Scratch is a documentary film about the origin of scratching and its modern practitioners.
Christian Marclay was one of the earliest and one of the most notable musicians to scratch outside hip hop.
In the anime Samurai Champloo, a record scratch is used instead of the common bleep to cover expletives, keeping with the Hip-hop soundtrack.
Audioslave (and former Rage Against the Machine) guitarist Tom Morello is known for his scratching-inspired guitar solos,which he creates by rubbing his fingers on the strings over the pickups with and using the pickup selector switch on the guitar, typicallyrun through a wah or auto-wah, and one or more envelope filters.
In Meteos, the planet Luna=Luna has a hip-hop soundtrack, with dull piano music and record scratching for Meteos launches.
A scratch is also typically used in comedy as an abrupt stopping gesture, as if someone had said or done something unexpected suddenly.