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Crossfade: a documentary on DJs of color in Los Angeles

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Crossfade: a documentary on DJs of color in Los Angeles

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Crossfade: A Documentary on DJs of Color in Los Angeles

Bruno Correa

Master of Arts (SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM: THE ARTS)
University of Southern California
May 2019
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Table of Contents
Title Page.........................................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
Main Text.........................................................................................................................................3
Script................................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................17

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Crossfade: A Documentary on Disc Jockeys of Color in Los Angeles is an exploration of
the musical art form known as Disc Jockeying, or DJing, through the lens of minority artists in
one of America’s largest and most diverse cities: Los Angeles. I chose this subject because of my
desire to provide an in-depth study on what DJing entails on a technical level, expose some of
the history of DJing through specific people’s stories, and highlight some of the challenges
artists of color have faced when pursuing this revolutionary style of expression. My initial
subject began not about DJs, but rather on the Los Angeles nightclub scene. This quickly
evolved, which led me to focus on the typical stars of the clubs, the DJs. As I looked more
closely, I sharpened my focus on DJs of color.
Therefore, questions I sought to answer were: are there DJs of color who are surviving or
even succeeding at this craft in Los Angeles? If so, what are their experiences and how does it
connect to the history of DJing? And finally: What do DJs actually do? While I faced challenges
in my pursuit of these questions (which I will go into a little later) I found my subject to be
visually rich territory for documentary storytelling. I explored this topic through the medium of
documentary because, despite the fact that this art form is a sonic endeavor (experienced by
audiences through sound) there is so much that goes on which isn’t seen on the dancefloor. Had I
pursued this as a radio project or an alternative storytelling mechanism, the twitching of the DJ’s
foot, the carefully calculated slide of the volume fader at just the right moment, the entrancing
spectacle of lights and dancers reacting to one person’s musical transitions would be lost. I felt
that the accomplishment of successfully moving a crowd with two turn tables with all its highly
visual aspects deserved to be seen and could be shown in an interesting way.
My original concept envisioned a documentary where the audience would be taken
through historic night clubs in Los Angeles and travel across the city, engaging in the history of
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the Sunset Strip along with testimony from the artists that perform there. The more research and
contact I had with DJs and nightclub promoters throughout my time working on the
documentary, led me to change that approach. I changed my focus to feature the DJs themselves
because L.A. nightclubs are not historically fertile grounds to explore. As explained by Dr.
Robert fink, a Professor at the UCLA Musicology Department, Los Angeles was and still is to
some extent a Rock and Roll town. DJ music and that kind of culture has existed largely in
underground environments and not reliant on a specific nightclub or place. By focusing on the
stories of artists I was able to not only show connections between artists’ experiences, but also
jump between coexisting musical cultures and trends.
While my approach was useful in bridging experiences and stories of different artists
together, I did succumb to some of the challenges that come with working with busy artists.
Many of my contacts were unable to reliably come through for interviews, and multiple last
minute no-shows complicated the story I wanted to tell. I also believe that to better tell this story
I should have perhaps focused on one artist as an anchor to the larger narrative. This was my
initial plan once I turned my focus to DJs, and my subject Marques Wyatt was the intended focal
point, however his busy schedule complicated that possibility. I still believe my documentary
successfully uses video as a medium for storytelling, in that it is visually and sonically
stimulating, and guides the viewer through a day in the life of multiple artists honing their craft
across Los Angeles. My approach to filming was largely dependent on when and where my
subjects were performing. I had to become very proficient at filming in low-light environments
very quickly, and because of that I took creative approaches to make sure the shots I got would
be compelling. I would find couches or chairs to stand on above the DJ decks, getting shots from
above the crowd. I would arrive at events hours ahead of time and film the empty venue, and
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then use the darkness to transition naturally from emptiness to peak party hours. I was fortunate
that the DJs I documented all performed in environments with very contrasting lights, colors, and
areas across the city. In the end I was able to cover various areas of Los Angeles night life thanks
in part to the different genres of music these artists play. These areas include scenes such as
Hollywood, South Central LA, Downtown, Silverlake, Chinatown, and the West Side. I was also
able to highlight essentially every type of popular dance music in a 20-minute documentary.
From EDM to Latin to Hip-Hop to Reggae, the sounds of Los Angeles parties and the different
communities that participate in those events here all came to life.
Crossfade was a big project as my first foray into video production. As such there are still
things I wish I could have researched, added or fleshed out more. This project could lend itself to
a much longer runtime, given more characters and history. One of my desires in this project was
to interview more historians and people who experienced the dance scenes in Los Angeles from
the 1980s onwards. However as with projects that depend on getting people to work with you, I
didn’t have much success in finding the right subjects. I was fortunate to talk to Professor Fink
who really gave my story some deep historical context and I am very grateful to his insight;
however, I feel that I still could have explored more. Perhaps I could have interviewed native
Angelinos who regularly go out and experience the night life of this city. I feel that one or two
brief glimpses into their experience would give the project more texture.
I accomplished much of what I was hoping to achieve through this project and the JOUR
522 course. With the help of Dan Birman, Megan Chao and my colleagues, Crossfade went from
being a confusing idea in the Fall semester to a visually beautiful and compelling visual story on
a form of art that is often underappreciated. The setbacks I faced prevented the project from
becoming a full fledged success, but the core of what I set out to do made it onto the screen. My
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story is one of individuals and less tied to one monumental moment or a groundbreaking story. I
focus on these people’s histories and explore their personal narratives on pursuing their passion,
and overcoming adversity and discrimination in their chosen craft based on race and sex. I
started this year knowing very little about the vastly diverse music scenes of Los Angeles, and
even less about how to how to film, use a camera, or edit raw footage in Adobe Premiere.
Through this challenging but extremely rewarding process I have come to appreciate the power
of video as a story-telling mechanism. Hopefully I have also taught people a little bit about what
DJing really entails, the culture of nightlife in Los Angeles, and some of the artists of color who
do this for a living.

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Crossfade Script
Producer / Writer: Bruno Correa
V: Fine 1 – May 3rd, 2018 – Conformed to Fine Cut
FADE IN
LA Skyline at night
Ambient music fades in

SOT ZURI ADIA

It’s a lot of power in being a DJ.
SOT KILLED BY SYNTH

A DJ for me is like a curator of an
environment, a sound.
SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

I feel like every time you meet anybody who’s
in this line of work, you like you take this oath.
Zoom into Downtown LA
SOT CARRIE SUN

There’s this idea that a DJ is meant to like
serve the people in a certain way.
Scrolling wide shot of LA

MARQUES WYATT

It always happens from some people really
believing in what you’re doing you know?
PROF. ROBERT FINK

I think there’s a lot of anxiety and
contradictions around the figure of the DJ now,
you know I mean what’s a DJ for, is he just the
guy who stands up there and goes this?

KALI MADDEN

The challenge is to perfect the transition, you
cannot be a good DJ if you’re transition like
during a chorus

PROF. ROBERT FINK

The DJ has now become like a rockstar, up on
stage everybody looking at that person, and
maybe stopping dancing.
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SOT PROF. ROBERT FINK

CUT

There’s a way in which its… the last nail in the
coffin here is that why is it that when the DJ
finally becomes famous all the queers and
people of color and all the marginalized people
who had been spinning records are now pushed
to the side, and you know, now that the DJ is a
superstar you go look at them they’re all white
guys.

BLACK
Montage sequence begins

Title Card in front of vinyl record
spinning

CROSSFADE: A story about DJs of color in
LA
CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES
The Treehouse Nightclub
Shot of Marques Wyatt behind decks

NATS House music

SOT MARQUES WYATT

SOT MARQUES WYATT CON.

I’ve always been an avid lover of music,
especially dance music.

I had always collected music even when we
were in clubs and my friends might be looking
for girls I’d be next to the DJ booth writing
down titles and this was before I knew I was
going to be a DJ I just had to have the music.

So after awhile I built up a pretty extensive
collection, and I had a friend in high school
who was a DJ. Maybe about a month or so
later he’s like, why don’t you do a party with
me? I have a party coming up and..

Actually the first party I played I kinda rocked
the party.

You know it kinda went so well that he said I
really think you should consider doing this I
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think you have “it”.

SOT PROF. ROBERT FINK

I think there’s a lot of anxiety and
contradictions around the figure of the DJ now.

People say this again and again that if you go
back to the sort of origin moments of club
culture the lights were shining on the audience.

SOT PROF. ROBERT FINK

SOT PROF. ROBERT FINK CON.

FADE OUT

People contrast that with a kind of style of
dance music event now where the DJ puts on a
show, right? And they’re up on a stage, and the
lights are shining on them now.

The DJ was a figure who had power but it in
some ways almost a kind of hidden power.

I think one of the things that people are really
worried about is that there’s a simultaneous
problem that the technical problems of being a
DJ have pretty much
been solved, you can have any music you want
and you can pretty much mix anything into
anything else.

At the same time as the DJ has now become
like a Rockstar up on stage everybody looking
at that person

It does seem to me that there’s a lot of
worrying and anxiety about that

What’s a DJ for?

BLACK

SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

Anytime you select music for people you’re
DJing

SILVER LAKE, LOS ANGELES
The Short Stop
NATS Funk music

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ACTUALITY: Eddie networking on
cellphone

This is an integral part of it as well: texting
SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

SOT EDDIE BERMUDA
My reference point for Djing predates hip hop.
Hip hop came in the eighties

My reference point is the gay house scene in
New York, Philly, Chicago. you know what I
mean like all those guys like paradise garage,
the loft.
SOT PROF. ROBERT FINK

All of the innovations, that we think of as
dance music culture are sort of worked out in
New York city largely by gay men.

The idea that you need two turn tables, yes that
is something that guys from Jamaica figure out
for hip hop but dance DJs also figure it out
more or less at the same time.

SOT MARQUES WYATT

New York club music was the music I knew
was out there but I hadn’t found it yet. So I felt
very much at home when I went to new York
first time.

SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

Looking back at the history some of those
spots didn’t even serve alcohol it was just the
music and water.

SOT MARQUES WYATT

And you gotta understand I was kind of foreign
then people were like oh that’s gay music gay
club music or whatever and just from being in
New York and experiencing how many other
people loved it I was like it’s not a gay music
and I was just really all about bringing that
sound to LA

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SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

To them clubs were..clubs and those spaces in
particular were a place for kind of like the
outcasts of the world.

Social segregation still existed so I mean like
for a lot of openly gay people in the 70s like
those clothes were the only spot where did
themselves and be free.

SOT EDDIE BERMUDA CONT.

Same thing for a black and Latin people
everybody met at the class because like shitted
on all day you know what I mean get
overlooked in society get mistreated but at
night You get to dress up because of yourself
you get to go somewhere and have community.

FUNK MUSIC FADES

You should be able dance it away and escape it
for a little bit and just catch your life.

I try to foster that space every time I play
music.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS
ANGELES

SOT CARRIE SUN

My name is Carrie.
I work as a software engineer during the
daytime but in my free time I like to DJ.

SOT CARRIE SUN
So one thing about the world of tech and one
thing about the world of DJing is that they’re
very male oriented.
I think about the time I was in eighth grade and
I was on the robotics team and there were 20
kids and I was the only girl, which kind of
resembles the way it works at work.
For a while there were about 15 to 20
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engineers and I was the only female.

At the end of the day in both areas I feel like
there’s a need for me to give back or sort of
foster people who I see myself like younger
girls.

THE ACE HOTEL, DOWNTOWN LA

SOT CARRIE SUN

Carrie teaching a group of girls the basics
of CDJ equipment

SOT CARRIE SUN

FADE OUT
Intersessions is sort of like this international
collective that is for femme, non-binary,
underprivileged DJs.

I really love their mission because a lot of it
has to do with giving people the resources to
learn how to DJ

I think DJ has become a really trendy term, like
everybody’s got a laptop and they’re a DJ… so
it’s easy to think about DJing as just like a
skill.

If you can beatmatch if you can put tracks
together then you are a DJ

But I think greater than that there’s this idea
that like a DJ is meant to serve the people in a
certain way.

And so for me for me being a DJ is sort of this
responsibility to get people out of their minds
and into their bodies.

MID CITY/BALDWIN HILLS, LOS
ANGELES

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BOOMYARD REGGAE & DANCEHALL
PARTY

SOT KALI MADDEN

NATS Reggae music and crowd noises

The challenge is to perfect the transition

I officially started DJing last year.
Just starting to DJ as well I’m an opener so I
open when there’s no one there Boomyard
became not only party I DJ at but I also help
plan.

SOT KALI MADDEN

SOT KALI MADDEN

SOT KALI MADDEN

It was scary I couldn’t move and I just sucked I
mean I don’t even know how they let me DJ
but it was a learning experience because then I
was like wow if they’re gonna give me this big
opportunity to DJ at a major event like that
then I need to be good.

Especially being Jamaican having been raised
my parents always listen to reggae and I was
just kind of born into reggae.

I don’t want to listen to lyrics where it’s telling
me ‘oh these are the drugs i do or these are the
parties I go to, or this is what it feels like to
have ADD and die’ I mean..

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SOT KALI MADDEN

FADE OUT

Reggae really gives you introspection and it
makes you think about positive things like my
history, just respecting or appreciating that
you’re originally from a certain place like
Jamaica for Africa for the bigger picture.

Feeling empowered and eating well, they call it
“Ital” and they promote that way of living, you
can’t beat the riddims it’s just a feeling in the
heart that I connect to.

LA sunset shot into evening city shots of
downtown
NATS: music from Technocumbía.

DOWNTOWN, LOS ANGELES
SOT ZURI ADIA

They’re already looking for something to say
oh she can’t play.

SOT VANESSA

You got some kind of shot or chance or
whatever.
TECHNOCUMBÍA PARTY
SOT ZURI ADIA

Zuri and Vanessa DJing together

NATS: latin cumbia and merengue music
being played

It is a blessing to learn how to play here
because you have to fight for people’s
attention, how do I keep them in this room?
Because they will leave.
SOT VANESSA

I want to help build a scene for women. No one
is looking out for the girls unless you’re a girl
trying to push that kind of energy so we really
wanna focus on that.

SOT ZURI ADIA

No requests though..you could be playing Janet
and they ask for Migos and you’re like Jackson
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um..

SOT VANESSA

I know LA. I am LA to the fucking T.
If anyone wants to try me for that.. like no. I
had this whole influence growing up of
listening to the whole Latin sound, which is
something that I wanted to try and touch on
when I was like OK I wanna play this kind of
music now.
SOT VANESSA CON.

Technocumbía like got bigger and it became a
scene where I have people like in their 50s
coming out to party.
this is what we do we have family parties
and I just want to have people remember
community family and culture

SOT ZURI ADIA

You can’t do any of this by yourself I push so
hard because you know I’ve had people I don’t
want to cry people like Vanessa go to bat for
me and I just don’t ever want to let her down I
really appreciate her being in my life I feel like
I have a very strong role model in her

SOT VANESSA

FADE OUT
I love that we built this kind of sisterhood.
People they see us and they acknowledge what
we’re doing.
Put more girls on and keep em going.

Music warps down
SOUTH CENTRAL LA
NATS city sounds, cars, Zuri packing stuff
into car

ACTUALITY: Zuri talking about her next
upcoming show

It’s my friends party and it’s called Brown and
Proud, which is really cute I think of sweet that
I’m on it for like representation purposes. It’s
really nice.

SOT CARRIE SUN

The crowd has to give the DJ a certain energy
and the DJ has to give the crowd a certain
energy it’s almost like a mutual relationship.

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SOT MARQUES WYATT

I’m committed to us having what other places
had when I got into this.
SOT EDDIE BERMUDA

We’re in the business of making people happy.
Rule number one is it feels good when you
make people smile.

SOT KALI MADDEN

You’re not going to become a master of
anything until you put in 10,000 hours and I’m
only at like 900, if that... So I have a long way
to go.

Title Card:
Horizon shot of LA, plane flying by slowly
FADE OUT
CROSSFADE
Produced by Bruno Correa

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Bibliography

Broughton, Frank, and Bill Brewster. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc
Jockey. London: Headline Books, 2006.

Hoskyns, Barney.Waiting for the Sun: A Rock n Roll History of Los Angeles. New York:
Backbeat Books, 2009.

Kun, Josh. The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2017.

Wakida, Patricia. Latitudes: An Angelino’s Atlas. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2015.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Crossfade: A Documentary on Disc Jockeys of Color in Los Angeles is an exploration of the musical art form known as Disc Jockeying, or DJing, through the lens of minority artists in one of America’s largest and most diverse cities: Los Angeles. While the rise of DJ culture throughout Europe and the US has been widespread and rapid, it has been predominantly white artists who have found mainstream success. This is curious as most of the original disc jockeys, especially in the Americas, were black artists. Whether from the Bronx, Detroit, or the Caribbean, these artists were among the first to utilize turn tables as an instrument to manipulate music for live performance. Crossfade examines the experiences of DJs of color in present-day, drawing parallels from the past to the present, and sheds light on the stories of these artists, while working against the current dominant representation of the DJ. Finally, Los Angeles was ideal for such an exploration due to the confluence of diverse musical genres, cultures, and community of artists within the city.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Correa, Bruno (author)

Core Title Crossfade: a documentary on DJs of color in Los Angeles

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 02/04/2019

Defense Date 01/31/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Artists,Beat culture,Beats,contemporary music,Crossfade,dancehall,disc jockey PoC,Disc jockeys,DJ,DJ culture,DJs,documentary,Funk,hip hop,house music,Latin music,Los Angeles,Music,OAI-PMH Harvest,people of color,pop culture,reggae,underground music,Video

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Birman, Daniel H. (committee chair), Mohajer, Shaya Tayefe (committee member), Pecot-Hebert, Lisa (committee member)

Creator Email bcorrea@usc.edu,bcorrea33@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-117269

Unique identifier UC11675584

Identifier etd-CorreaBrun-7044.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-117269 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-CorreaBrun-7044.pdf

Dmrecord 117269

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Correa, Bruno

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA