It honestly may not matter how fast a man can shear a single sheep, or how many words can be written on the back of a stamp, or any of the other odds and ends that fill up The Guinness Book of World Records. But somewhere in that mountain of minutiae is a listing for the World's Biggest DJ, a grand title that belongs to Paul Oakenfold. It's sort of an arbitrary honor, but one that Oakenfold definitely deserves.
Why? Well, he was the first DJ to play the main stage at Glastonbury Music Festival, and he won a Grammy for his production skills. He was the tour DJ on U2's Zoo TV tour and founded his own highly successful record label, Perfecto. He has played on every continent except Antarctica--and that's only because you can't really get down in puffy snowsuits--even playing in places notorious for anti-Western tendencies, such as Bombay and Shanghai. He has remixed the world's top stars, including the Rolling Stones, Snoop Dogg, Smashing Pumpkins, Björk and U2. His latest track is a remix of Madonna's new single, "What It Feels Like For A Girl," and he's currently working on the soundtrack for Swordfish, which stars John Travolta and Halle Berry.
Oakenfold started out like most DJs, spinning at parties in his native London when he was only 16 years old. Wanting to take his new career seriously, he went to New York in the late 1970s (which he called "the heart of the dance world at the time") to study for more than a year under legendary disco DJ Larry Levan. He made some pretty good contacts, and when he returned to England, Oakenfold took a job as an A&R consultant for record labels such as Profile and Def Jam to help spread the new sound of hip-hop throughout England. During this time, Oakenfold was responsible for signing Salt 'N Pepa and a pre-jiggy Will Smith.
From there, Oakenfold "discovered" party-centric Ibiza (in the same manner that Columbus discovered America) in 1987 and found the exotic rhythms of Balearic-styled trance, a combination of house, soul, disco and island music. Oakenfold returned to the U.K. with this new sound and took up residency at some of London's biggest dance clubs, where he popularized acid house, playing an instrumental role in 1988's acid house-fueled Summer of Love. It was a turning point in England's house-music scene, allowing for the explosion of electronic music within the United Kingdom. And it made Ibiza the international youth-culture hot spot that it is.
Personally, I had the pleasure of seeing Oakenfold spin late last year. I really didn't know any of his stuff at the time, but he began immediately with a remix of U2's "Beautiful Day." The single had just been released so most people hadn't even heard it very much, but as soon as Bono's vocals kicked in, the place went from mildly grooving to a limb-flailing dance party. From there, Oakenfold was like a master puppeteer--deftly manipulating and moving the party, keeping the crowd dancing as hard as it could until it inevitably crashed. And then he did it again.