Pioneer DJM-800 Mixer
2008 was the era when I was playing this kind of electronic music called electro. Electro was very much punk by philosophy and ethos; it was the punk version of electronic music. The artists that were producing electro, we were severing ourselves away from electronic mainstream. We created our own exclusive world. It became extremely popular. It was all about distortion and guitar samples. It really struck my chord. When I see this, the mixer top, it strikes that same chord.
The donation of Steve Aoki's gear enables us to expand our narrative history of turntabling and DJ work into the current era. As an intern in the museum's music collection, I had the amazing opportunity to learn about the secrets behind the magic of Aoki's concerts by examining and documenting the donation of his gear. Like Casey and Grandmaster Flash before him, Aoki uses his DJ equipment as his instruments—but unlike his predecessors, the musical experience that he creates is digital. Hard drives and computers replace turntables, although much of the physical design, controls, and attributes of his gear replicate the experience of a DJ working an analog system similar to that of Casey and Flash.
