Oh, How the Turntables Have Turned.
Audio brand Technics put together an all-star ensemble of the world's top turntablists (DJs) like DJ Qbert, DJ Kentaro, and 2017 DMC World DJ Championship winner DJ Rena. (Rena is the youngest to have won the title at just 12 years old.) Check out this orchestra of talent where each artist is using the iconic Technics SL-1200 series turntable.
For hip hop fans new and die-hard, going to scratch sessions was a big part of your social life. From the early beginnings à la Grandmaster Flash and his student Grand Wizzard Theodore (who is widely accepted as the inventor of scratching), the mid-to-late 70s was the birth of an epic time in music history. Once DJing caught on, getting your hands on a turntable, building your record collection, and starting your own crew was the dreams of so many young kids. Ads like these would keep such dreams alive.
Print ad circa 1977.
For more on the beginnings, check out the reimagining of that time period with Netflix and Baz Luhrmann's two-part musical drama series The Get Down, which covers a time in New York's history where the city was on the brink of bankruptcy and concurrently gave birth to hip hop, disco, and punk. Though the series was short-lived, it put a spotlight on a scene that's never really stopped.