DJ Buddy Holly: Sci‑Fi Chronicles & The Controllerism Archive

Title Controllerism, DJing, and the Identity Crisis of the Button Generation By DJ Buddy Holly There was a moment when the DJ controller stopped being a compromise and became the centerpiece. Today, performance pads are everywhere. Entry-level controllers have them. Flagship mixers have them. Even club standard media players integrate performance features that blur the line between DJ tool and instrument. What used to be “extra” is now default. And yet, strangely, the identity question has only become more confusing. Is controllerism DJing? Or is it something else? The Origin of the Split In the mid-2000s, artists like Moldover helped popularize the term “controllerism,” framing it as real-time music manipulation using digital controllers. Ean Golden and others documented, mapped, and pushed the technique into the spotlight. Arcade-button grids like the Midi Fighter. Knob-dense devices like the Midi Fighter Twister. Hybrid rigs with Native Instruments controllers next to turntables. Po...

 Title From Garages to Global: How the Bay Area Built the Modern DJ Blueprint By David Charles Kramer There are cities that host DJs. And then there are cities that build them. The San Francisco Bay Area didn’t just produce talented selectors. It engineered ecosystems. It fused cultures, technologies, and performance philosophies into something that quietly rewired the global DJ landscape. This isn’t mythology. It’s history. The Mobile DJ Foundation Long before controller debates and laptop wars, there were crews hauling speakers into garages, school gyms, church halls, and backyard parties. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Filipino-American mobile DJ crews across Daly City, South San Francisco, and the Peninsula built a sound-system culture that mirrored Jamaican clashes and Bronx block parties, but with its own Bay flavor. These weren’t hobbyists. They were engineers, electricians, promoters, and performers. They built racks. They wired crossfaders. They battled with sound pressure a...

SAM KINISON RETURNS FROM THE DEAD TO ROAST CDJ‑ONLY DJS A Comedy Routine for Blogger (Written in the spirit of Sam Kinison’s pacing, not as a literal impersonation) [OPENING — Calm, warm, almost gentle] You know… I’ve been gone a long time. A long time. And when I came back, I thought the world would’ve changed in some beautiful way. Flying cars. World peace. Maybe a new Beatles album. But no. No, no, no. I come back, and the first thing I see… is a DJ booth. And I think, “Oh good, music survived. Humanity still has soul.” Then I walk closer. And I see it. A pair of CDJs. And a DJ… who isn’t listening to anything. [Still calm — storytelling mode] He’s standing there like he’s waiting for a bus. Headphones around his neck — not on his ears, not even pretending. Just hanging there like a backstage pass he forgot to return. He’s staring at the screen. Not the crowd. Not the mixer. Not the dancefloor. The screen. Like he’s trying to read the future in the...

  **DJ SYSTEMISM: Building a Performance Environment Without Limits** by DJ Buddy Holly Every DJ and live PA performer eventually reaches the same crossroads: Do I build my setup around what the industry expects… or do I build a system that actually lets me perform without limitations? Systemism begins with the second choice. It’s not a genre. It’s not a trend. It’s not a new lane. It’s simply the understanding that your performance is only as free as the system you build around it. Let’s break it down. 1. Start With Your Centerpiece Every performer has one piece of gear that feels like home: a standalone a controller + laptop a laptop‑only rig a drum machine a synth workstation a sampler a hybrid setup Whatever your favorite is — that’s your centerpiece . For me, it’s the Pioneer REV7 with a laptop. Not because it’s trendy, but because it matches my timing, my hands, my workflow, and the way I think about performance. Your centerpiece is the heart of your system. Everything else...

  🎛️ **CONTROLLERISM PADS: Why We Need to Stop Calling It “Pad DJing” (Please, I’m Begging You)** by DJ Buddy Holly There comes a moment in every culture where the vocabulary gets so goofy, so off‑track, so wildly inaccurate that someone has to step in and say: “Okay… are we seriously calling it pad DJing now?” Because apparently that’s where we’re at. People see a DJ hit a few cue points and suddenly the entire art form of controllerism — the Moldover/Ean Golden lineage, the custom mappings, the finger drumming, the live remixing, the cue‑melodics — gets reduced to: “pad juggling.” Pad juggling. PAD. JUGGLING. My laugh disappears into infinity but never dies. 🎚️ Let’s Clear This Up: Those Are Controllerism Pads, Son. If you’re hitting pads like: they’re an instrument they’re a drum machine they’re a sampler they’re a melodic trigger grid they’re a performance surface …then congratulations, you’re not “pad DJing.” You’re using controllerism pads — the pads designed for: finger ...