system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: DJs are brand management and equipment logistics experts, not skilled musicians

Having seen a couple of "big name DJs" at raves, I don't see any evidence that they're doing anything up on stage that couldn't be learned in a couple of weeks.

Now, that doesn't mean they haven't worked extremely hard to get to where they are (if the road to that level of fame didn't require a lot of hard work and lucky breaks, everybody would do it).  But I submit that most of that hard work went into building their following and managing their brand, not learning how to do anything particularly difficult while they're up on stage.

\[Edited to clarify: I am not talking about when DJs *produce* original tracks.  I believe that it takes years to get good at producing tracks that people like.  I'm talking about what DJs do when you buy a ticket to see them live, which usually means mixing pre-produced tracks.\]

Of course to some extent every famous musician's success is a result of their brand management (and lucky breaks along the way) in addition to their musical skill.  The most famous musicians are not the most famous because they scored the best in some worldwide purely meritocratic competition where everybody is judged for their songwriting and instrument playing on some double-blind test.  But usually, I think they are at least doing *something* which takes several years to learn to do well (which is to say, if a newbie were to challenge Elton John in a double-blind piano skill competition, it would take several years to learn to play as well as Elton John).

By contrast, DJs are just controlling machines that play back pre-recorded sounds, that doesn't look like the kind of thing that takes a long time to learn, as long as you know which buttons to press.  And if a "big name DJ" agreed to submit to a double-blind test, where the challenge was to see if someone could tell the difference between them and someone else doing the same job, would it take more than a few weeks to learn how to work the equipment just as well?

Now I've heard some people say that they think the DJs real skill is "reading the crowd" and modifying their performance accordingly.  But I don't know what they think is the evidence for that.  If a famous DJ is performing and the crowd is having a good time, the much simpler explanation is that everybody came there because they knew everybody else would be there, they're inclined to have a good time after spending $100 per ticket, and so they're going to feed off of each other's energy and have a good time no matter what the DJ does, unless the DJ really screws it up.

So, I think big name DJs are people who are good at building a following and got some lucky breaks along the way, not people who are exhibiting any skill which couldn't be duplicated in a double-blind test by someone who spent a few weeks learning.  CMV!
gpt
There are different types of DJs. 

If a DJ is making a beat for a song, that is musical. Premier, DJ Shadow, Kid Koala or Dr. Dre for example.

Likewise, if a DJ is playing only parts of songs (breaks etc) but blending tempos and seamless fades, that is a highly skilled talent. In addition, playing the right song at the right time and in the right order to influence the crowd is also a skill.