The DJ/Producer is an artist. Dance Music on commercial radio. Dance Music as a business. Radical concepts to some – but these are ideas that Gary Salzman, of Big Management, holds as philosophy. You may have not heard of him, but how about Todd Terry, Ray Roc, Jason Nevins, SpeakerBox – these are just a few of the artists that Gary has nurtured and managed to become superstars in the dance music world.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: Gary Salzman is Big Management.
Gary Salzman: One half of Big Management, the other part is my
partner Joe Koppie, and we've been partners for twenty-something
years.
RS: Big Management's primarily a dance entity?
Gary Salzman: Big Management is primarily an entity of management, of
writers and producers, as well as the publisher who works from the
song. So a lot of things have been misunderstood. I don't represent
DJs who don't write and produce. If you don't write and produce, and
you're a DJ, you're not represented by Big Management. We represent
people who have specific ideas, directions, sounds, and who like to
write songs. So someone like Anton Bass, who was on the Ashley Tisdale
album as a writer and producer, he is as relevant to me as Tony Moran,
who's also a writer and a producer. They both have points of view
about a song. Everything comes from the song.
RS: You're credited with being one of the first people to make
the DJ the artist.
Gary Salzman: We were the first.
RS: What was the goal, the mindset, of that?
Gary Salzman: The mindset was try to get people to understand the way
that the band is the artist – the guitar player and the drummer and
the keyboard player and the bass player are the artists, as well as
the singer, and that the DJ in this world is the band. We conceptually
came up with the idea, back with Todd Terry – and we took a lot of
abuse for it, for about a year – that Todd would only play his own
music, or he would start by only playing his own music and mix things
in that worked with that. Because when you went to see that DJ, you
went to see an artist, and I was trying to define the DJ as an artist.
It worked. It was really interesting in the beginning because people
were really sensitive – "he thinks he can only play his own music" or
"what an ego." No, Elton John only plays Elton John, he doesn't play
the Rolling Stones. When you go to see Elton John, he's an artist.
(Our goal) was just an attempt at defining the artist.
RS: And so looking back, is it fifteen years since that happened?
Gary Salzman: Yes, easily, late 80s, early 90s.
RS: How do you think making the DJ the artist versus, let's say,
the vocalist the artist, has affected the perception of dance music in
the United States?
Gary Salzman: Well, in the United States, they've never understood
the DJ as the artist. It's been summarily discounted as rubbish, and
it's not. But that's basically because the United States has always
been dealt with as one territory by the retailers, who couldn't put a
piece, locally, into the marketplace. Until very recently that was
almost impossible, because everyone, all the chains, shipped their
records up to Minnesota, and Minnesota sent the record out. If you
were in New York, and you only wanted to (focus on) New York, you
couldn't. So dance music, because it is regional, didn't really work
well for the retailers in general. And then you had a lot of other
reasons why people (had similar problems), such as Clear Channel,
which specifically makes sure that all of their pop stations are
urban, black-leaning pop stations, and not Latin-leaning pop stations.
The Latin stations would all be Spanish-speaking. So that's another
reason why dance music hasn't worked in the United States, because it
can't find a format. I mean, Clear Channel and Infinity just rip them
apart, just to protect their other stations. Those types of stations
in general affect the other pop stations, so that they are purchased
and taken down, taken apart. I think the only real dance stations you
have out there are independents that can get into the market.
RS: Independent being also internet, satellite, cable?
Gary Salzman: Well, the internet and satellite stations are really
coming into play and making a difference. I'm already seeing things
like I-Party and Fusion make a difference in markets. I'm already
seeing the Original Hot 97 make a difference. It not only makes a
difference in listeners, it makes a difference in what other radio
stations are looking at, because they're respecting these stations and
looking at them. I find XM to be the best of the subscription
services, much more diverse and much more accepting of a lot different
types of music.
