Iria

It's true that music-loaded laptops and MP3 players have become widespread objects of consumers' techno lust. But in the world of club and mobile disc jockeys, where hulking turntables still hold an elite status, the mighty iPod is frowned upon as a tool of the trade and computers are just starting to make inroads.

Go out to a hip-hop club, and you might see a DJ cuing up a vinyl record that weighs as much as three iPod Nanos but holds only two songs. Ask the DJ for a song at a wedding reception and he'll likely have to flip through cases of CDs to find the track.

But here and there, DJs are beginning to turn to computers -- and to a much lesser extent, iPods -- to boot up the dance floor without having to carry hefty crates of records or CDs.

Back in the rave days of the 1990s, Atlanta's Preston Craig was criticized for DJing on a PC, which many turntable artists considered cheating because it lacked the artistry of manipulating two slabs of wax to line up beats or cut back and forth between songs.

Now, between 300 to 500 people pack the room at his Friday night party, dubbed Decatur Social Club. Never mind that he's using a laptop; the hipsters just want to hear the indie-pop, dance punk and retro stylings that Craig deftly blends with a popular mixing program called Traktor.

"It's so much easier now to walk into a club and plug in a laptop," Craig said. "It wasn't acceptable before, but now the stigma is gone. ... Now I hear DJs say that vinyl is overrated."
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Read More / Source: SFGate