Spinnin Records Causes Stir Over "CD-J For Women" Post

Here at DAD, we love a good joke. We've made some, and shared some we've found on the Internet. EDM isn't as serious of a business as many would like to make it, and the pranksters and humorous personalities in the scene are always welcome. What if a joke just isn't funny? What if the joke comes from an entity that's been heralded as one of the best in their respective scene, and offends a sector of the scene that's always been looked down upon?

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Here at DAD, we love a good joke. We've made some, and shared some we've found on the Internet. EDM isn't as serious of a business as many would like to make it, and the pranksters and humorous personalities in the scene are always welcome. What if a joke just isn't funny? What if the joke comes from an entity that's been heralded as one of the best in their respective scene, and offends a sector of the scene that's always been looked down upon?

Yesterday afternoon, the following tweet got sent out on the Spinnin' Records Twitter account:

1.

spinnin-records-cdj-women

I "get" why this is supposed to be funny... but I'm not laughing. In a scene where we have talented women on the turntables, from the top-notch selectors like Annie Mac to the turntablist terrors like Shortee to the drum & bass legends like DJ Storm to the countless other ladies who bust their ass to be taken seriously, an imprint like Spinnin' Records should have some heart. Or some common sense.

Is EDM a sausage party? Definitely. While huge raves and festivals will have droves of women come out to shake their asses right alongside the fist-pumping men out there, the people behind the decks are predominately male. Is it because the women in EDM need to be "cooking their dinner?" No, many of these women are making power moves, producing some of the very tracks we're all shaking our asses to, and genuinely kicking ass just like their male counterparts. And while I won't go out on a limb and say a tweet like this, which is sexist and plain not funny in nature, coming from an imprint that's considered one of the top in the EDM scene? It's ridiculous, and Spinnin' needs to be called out.

Spinnin' hasn't remained silent on this, with a response on Facebook defending their "humor": "Music's all about having fun and this post was obviously not meant to offend anyone." Hey, I get that. Sometimes you have to just take the pratfall or call out the obvious hilarity of a situation. I'm surprised whomever holds the keys to Spinnin' social media didn't take a few seconds to think about this offending anyone, preferably females within the scene that have to deal with bullshit on the regular about not being up to par with the guys who they're working next to. No matter how "harmless" you might think this is, "jokes" like this from labels this revered can set back the current work of women like Nervo, Maya Jane Coles, Nicole Moudaber, Gina Turner, Star Eyes, and legions more.

Now the label did respond via Twitter this morning, apologizing to anyone who was offended. You can read them up above, but know that they don't feel sincere, in my opinion anyways. Especially when the offending tweet (and its corresponding Facebook post) are still on the 'Net for the world to see. Maybe they caught the egg on their face and they're letting the yolk drip. Or maybe Spinnin' just doesn't give that much of a fuck, and will say what they need to say to keep their records playing (and charting), while the progress of the female in the EDM scene has been set back another few years.

ANNOYING CLICHES THAT IMPEDE WOMEN IN EDM

Latest in Music