October 7, 2014

Five top Dutch DJs adorning postage stamps

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:49 am

postzegels-nederlandse-djs_tcm10-18490

During the now world-famous Amsterdam Dance Event that runs from October 15 to 19, five Dutch DJs will receive their very own set of Dutch postage stamps with their faces on it. PostNL, who issues Dutch stamps, considers these five DJs to be, “leading names in the dance music world,” and it would be hard to disagree with that considering the monies they generate.

Then again, since DJing is too often synonymous with dance music, many other Dutch DJs probably deserve a stamp, which is what VICE argues, a few of which have inspired the ones that made it onto the stamps.

The multicoloured faces of Afrojack, Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, Hardwell and Tiësto are the ones on the stamps, while VICE suggests other major names like Dimitri, Antal and Joris Voorn. It’s simple: you’re famous and rich because you’re known outside the country then stamp, you’re great, but remain a domestic or European affair, no stamp. And of course, there’s the glaring lack of women such as Isis and maybe some from this list.

(Links: www.nu.nl, thump.vice.com, Image: www.postnl.nl)

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February 4, 2014

Las Vegas club bans and bashes Dutch DJ music

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 2:56 pm

DJNatashka2010

I shared an article on Facebook a few days ago entitled New Las Vegas Club Will Ban “Mainstream Records” And “Lazy Artists” because I noticed five of the fourteen mentioned were Dutch. Regardless of people’s taste in music, this hit list just proves how popular Dutch DJs actually are. In fact, just last summer you could enter a contest to be married by Tiësto in Las Vegas.

Dutch hits:
Hardwell is from Breda, same as Tiësto.
Chuckie is from Surinam, but lives in Aruba.
Afrojack is from Spijkenisse.
Martin Garrix is from Amsterdam.

Speaking of lazy, shame on you TV station AT5 for claiming that these are “Amsterdam DJs”. Check your facts and don’t be douches yourselves. This kind of gratuitous appropriation is exactly why the rest of the country likes to bash Amsterdam.

(Link: whiteraverrafting.com, Photo: Amsterdam’s DJ Natashka in Munich)

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June 19, 2013

Armin van Buuren featured with vinyl records at Madurodam

Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 9:02 am
800px-Armin_Van_Buuren_2

Recently someone asked me if I had ever been to Madurodam in The Hague, an attraction many tourists and Dutch people visit, especially with kids, and my answer was ‘no’. Someone also recently asked me why Dutch DJs (music producers, really) Tiësto, Afrojack and Armin van Buuren were world-famous to which I pertly answered that Afrojack didn’t count in my books and that the other two make dance/trance music that the Dutch seem to make best.

Now that Armin van Buuren is just that much more popular than Tiësto and considered an export product like some sort of cheese, he’s now also featured in Madurodam.

As a DJ myself I am a bit miffed that Madurodam has set up turntables (you know, for vinyl records) as an attraction when in fact Van Buuren plays off CD players. I don’t care what he uses, but the art of using turntables is and will always be totally different than using CDs.

Madurodam, you’re willfully misleading children. It would be like giving them a chance to play with acrylic paints trying to mimic their favourite street graffiti artist.

(Link: www.omroepwest.nl, Photo of Armin van Buuren by Peter Drier, some rights reserved)

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