Pioneer multi player CDJ-2000, used by Steve Aoki: Museum Object and Cultural History
Pioneer multi player CDJ-2000, used by Steve Aoki: date made: 2009. user: Aoki, Steve. maker: Pioneer Electronic Corporation.
The object in the museum catalogue
Steve Aoki’s dj equipment, consisting of Pioneer CDJ-2000 multiplayer decks, a Pioneer DJM – 8000 mixer, and a RANE SL3 computer interface, creates a world of sound that melds many musical genres and styles together. Designed to recreate an analog dj set from the 1970’s and 80’s, these components use computers to manipulate and make digital music. In the case of Steve Aoki, the master of EDM or electric dance music, he uses his mixers, faders, and speed dials to produce electronic dance music to create rising beats, synthetic sounds, and hypnotic rhythms that spark conversations as much as spark dancing.
Steve Aoki grew up in California in the 1970’s and 80’s to parents that migrated from Japan in the 1960’s. His father started the chain of Benihana Japanese restaurants where Steve learned a little about hard work, showmanship, and business. Steve Aoki went to college in California and majored in gender studies and sociology, played in punk band, and to make some extra money, started a music label, Dim Mak, and started to dj’s. The 1990’s Aoki’s high school and college days were set in an America that was in the midst of change. Asian American and Latino/a voices and performers were getting more and more exposure in the entertainment world. This diversity influenced Aoki’s music and came to believe in the potential music has to connect with people. He works with a varied set of collaborators who create a wild diverse set of music styles.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 2009
- user: Aoki, Steve
- maker: Pioneer Electronic Corporation
- Object Name: multi player deck
- Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
- Physical Description: metal (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 4 1/8 in x 12 1/2 in x 16 in; 10.4775 cm x 31.75 cm x 40.64 cm
- place made: Japan: Tōkyō, Tokyo
- ID Number: 2017.0125.02
- accession number: 2017.0125
- catalog number: 2017.0125.02
- serial number: IIMP000402UC
- Credit Line: Gift of Steve Aoki
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
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