As the year 2000 rolls on, DJs are increasingly visible on the scene. It's less about being entertained, and more about being part of the entertainment. There is only so much you can do with drums, a bass and a guitar anymore. Some rock 'n' roll insiders agree. Frank Orrall, the frontman for Poi Dog Pondering, acknowledges that DJs are the wave of the future.
Bands are too much about ego and personality.
With DJs the focus is on the dancers, people becoming involved in the experience. And the trend is being welcomed by clubs, which find it a lot cheaper to get a big-name DJ to fly in with his bag of records than to drag a whole band, road crew and equipment in tow, across the Pacific. Filling stadiums all over Europe are not just the Rolling Stones and Michael Jacksons of the music world. These days, the Q-Berts and MixMaster Mikes are pulling in the crowds. Witness Carl Cox's Love Parade, which played in Berlin to an estimated 80,000 people.