This page contains an attempt to compile a comprehensive list of academic publications that focus significantly on turntablism and controllerism. Originally published in the edited volume Collaboration, Engagement and Tradition in Contemporary and Electronic Music: NoiseFloor Perspectives, this webpage is an ongoing addendum to the printed list.
The list is organised in separate tables according to publication format, which includes, books (edited volumes and monographs), chapters in edited volumes, journal articles, conference proceedings papers, postgraduate theses (MA, MSc, PhD), and a small selection of non-peer-reviewed media, educational resources, and supplementary articles that are considered seminal in the history of turntablism.
The articles have also been categorised according to the theme and methodology of their research on turntablism/ controllerism. This thematic classification identified five broad categories, each denoted by a letter at the end of each row:
- Ethnography
- Composition & Performance
- New Instruments
- Transcription & notation
- Pedagogy
Feel free to contact me with comments on the list, and any suggestions for alterations and additional items. I hope this list is a useful tool for scholars and fans on turntablism, that will continue to grow as new articles are published and older ones are discovered.
Book publications
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Publisher | Research type |
| 2004 | Neal Forman | That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader | Routledge | E |
| 2004 | Paul D. Miller | Rhythm Science | MIT Press | E |
| 2008 | Paul D. Miller | Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture | MIT Press | E/C |
| 2007 | Stephen Webber | DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching | Focal Press | C |
| 2010 | Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton | The Record Players: Dj Revolutionaries | Black Cat, Grove Press | E |
| 2010 | Mark Katz | Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music | University of California Press | E |
| 2012 | Mark Katz | Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ | Oxford University Press | E/C |
| 2012 | Tara Brabazon | Popular Music: Topic, Trends & Trajectories | SAGE | E |
| 2013 | Bernardo Alexander Attias, Anna Gavanas, Hillegonda C. Rietveld | DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music | Bloomsbury | E |
| 2013 | Sophy Smith | Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration | Ashgate | E/C |
| 2016 | André Sirois | Hip Hop DJs and the Evolution of Technology: Cultural Exchange, Innovation, and Democratization | Peter Lang | E |
| 2020 | Thom Holmes | Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture (6th Edition) | Routledge | E |
| 2022 | Michael Anthony D’Errico | Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production | Oxford University Press | C |
| 2022 | Mark V. Campbell | Afrosonic Life | Bloomsbury Academic | E |
| 2022 | Tom Perchard, Stephen Graham, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Holly Rogers | Twentieth-Century Music in the West: An Introduction | Cambridge University Press | E |
| 2022 | Roy Christopher | Boogie Down Predictions: Hip-Hop, Time, and Afrofuturism | MIT Press | E |
Book chapters
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Book/editor(s) | Research type |
| 2004 | John Oswald | Bettered by the Borrower: The Ethics of Musical Debt | Audio Culture, Readings in Modern Music, Eds. Christoph Cox & Daniel Warner | E |
| 2011 | Nick Collins | Electronica | The Oxford handbook of computer music-Oxford University Press, Ed. Roger T. Dean | E |
| 2011 | Atau Tanaka | Sensor-Based Musical Instruments and Interactive Music | The Oxford handbook of computer music-Oxford University Press, Ed. Roger T. Dean | C |
| 2011 | Garth Paine | Gesture Morphology in Laptop Music Performance | The Oxford handbook of computer music-Oxford University Press, Ed. Roger T. Dean | C |
| 2015 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen | DJs and Turntablism | The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, Ed. Justin A. Williams | C |
| 2015 | Michael Anthony D’Errico | Off the grid: instrumental hip-hop and experimentalism after the golden age | The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, Ed. Justin A. Williams | C |
| 2016 | Hillegonda C. Rietveld | Authenticity and liveness in digital DJ performance | Musicians and their Audiences: Performance, Speech and Mediation. Eds. Ioannis Tsioulakis & Elina Hytönen-Ng, 123-33 | C |
| 2016 | Mark V. Campbell | Control This! Digital Improvisation and Pedagogy | Improvisation and Music Education: Beyond the Classroom, Eds. Ajau Heble & Mark Lave | P |
| 2019 | Mark Katz | Authorship in the Age of Configurable Music | Rethinking American Music, Eds. Tara Browner & Thomas L. Riis | E |
| 2022 | Manoli Moriaty | Collective Controllerism: A Non-Musician’s Perspective of Interactive Dance as Controllerist Practice | Designing Interactions for Music and Sound, Ed. Michael Filimowicz, 30-64 | C |
Journal articles
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Journal | Research Type |
| 1996 | Miles White | The Phonograph Turntable and Performance Practice in Hip Hop Music | Ethnomusicology OnLine (2) | C |
| 2000 | Sophy Smith | Compositional strategies of the hip-hop turntablist | Organised Sound 5(2): 75-79 | C |
| 2002 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen | The Basics of Scratching | Journal of New Music Research, 31(4): 357-65 | C |
| 2003 | Fumikazu Taniguchi | A Musical Analysis of DJ Performances in Turntablism | Popular Music Studies 7:15-34 | C |
| 2004 | Juliana Snapper | Scratching the surface: Spinning time and identity in hip-hop turntablism | European Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1): 9-25 | Ε |
| 2005 | Georgina Born | On Musical Mediation: Ontology, Technology and Creativity | Twentieth Century Music 2(1): 7-36 | E |
| 2006 | Bill D. Herman | Scratching Out Authorship: Representations of the Electronic Music DJ at the Turn of the 21st Century | Popular Communication 4(1): 21-38 | E |
| 2006 | Felicia M. Miyakawa | Turntablature: Notation, Legitimization, and the Art of the Hip-hop DJ | American Music , Spring 2007 25(1): 81-105 | T |
| 2007 | Marta Ciechan | Turntablism: Music for Limited Audiences | Czas Kultury 4-5 (XXIII): 52-65 | E |
| 2007 | Anthony Sze-Fai Shiu | Styl(us): Asian North America, Turntablism, Relation | CR: The New Centennial Review 7(1): 81-106 | E |
| 2007 | Sophy Smith | The process of ‘collective creation’ in the composition of UK hip-hop turntable team routines | Organised Sound 12(1): 79-87 | C |
| 2008 | Tim Lawrence | Disco Madness: Walter Gibbons and the Legacy of Turntablism and Remixology | Journal of Popular Music Studies 20(3): 276-329 | E/C |
| 2008 | Charles Fairchild | The medium and materials of popular music: ‘Hound Dog’, turntablism and muzak as situated musical practices | Popular Music 27(1): 99-116 | E |
| 2009 | Elonda Clay | Two turntables and a microphone: Turntablism, ritual and implicit religion | Culture and Religion 10(1): 23-38 | E |
| 2010 | Miriama Young | Scratch and Mix: Sampling the Human Voice in the Metaphorical Phonograph | Contemporary Music Review, 29(3): 337-45 | E |
| 2010 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Roberto Bresin | The Skipproof Virtual Turntable for High-Level Control of Scratching | Computer Music Journal 34(2): 39–50 | N |
| 2011 | Jesse Stewart | Music and Memory in Keepintime | MUSICultures 38(1): 159-72 | E |
| 2011 | Bernando Alexander Attias | Meditations on the Death of Vinyl | Dancecult 3(1) | E |
| 2011 | Tobias C. Van Veen, Bernando Alexander Attias | Off the Record: Turntablism and Controllerism in the 21st Century (Part 1) | Dancecult 3(1) | E/C |
| 2011 | Kath O’Donnell | Turntables of Doom | Dancecult 3(1) | E |
| 2011 | Nilesh Champaneri | The Hip Hop Turntablist (DJ) | National Association of Music Educators 33: 17-18 | E |
| 2011 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Marco Fabiano, Roberto Bresin | Analysis of the Acoustics and Playing Strategies of Turntable Scratching | Acta Acustica united with Acustica 97(2): 303-14 | C |
| 2012 | Tobias C. Van Veen, Bernando Alexander Attias | Off the Record: Turntablism and Controllerism in the 21st Century (Part 2) | Dancecult 4(1) | E/C |
| 2012 | Paul Thompson | An empirical study into the learning practices and enculturation of DJs, turntablists, hip hop and dance music producers | Journal of Music, Technology & Education 5(1): 43-58 | P |
| 2013 | Alinka E Greasley & Helen M Prior | Mixtapes and turntablism: DJs’ perspectives on musical shape | Empirical Musicology Review 8(1): 23-43 | C |
| 2013 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen | Expressivity and musical shape in turntablism: Response to Greasley and Prior | Empirical Musicology Review 8(1): 44-47 | C |
| 2013 | Ed Montano | Response to Alinka E. Greasley & Helen M. Prior: Mixtapes and turntablism: DJs’ perspectives on musical shape | Empirical Musicology Review 8(1): 48-52 | C |
| 2013 | Tobias C. Van Veen | Vessels of Transfer: Allegories of Afrofuturism in Jeff Mills and Janelle Monáe | Dancecult 5(2): 7-41 | E |
| 2013 | Paul Vandemast-Bell | Rethinking Live Electronic Music: A DJ Perspective | Contemporary Music Review 32(2-3): 239-48 | C |
| 2013 | Christopher Edmin | Pursuing the Pedagogical Potential of the Pillars of Hip-hop through Sciencemindedness | International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 4(3): 83-99 | P |
| 2013 | Noriko Manabe | Representing Japan: ‘national’ style among Japanese hip-hop DJs | Popular Music 32(1): 35-50 | E |
| 2014 | Lorien R. Hunter | Talking Across the Tables: A Conversation with Dr. Mark V. Campbell | Spectator 34:1 (Spring 2014): 44-50 | E |
| 2014 | Mark V. Campbell | Everything’s Connected: A Relationality Remix, A Praxis | The CLR James Journal 20(1-2): 97-114 | E |
| 2014 | Mark V. Campbell | Scratch, Look & Listen: Improvisatory Poetics and Digital DJ Interfaces | Critical Studies in Improvisation 10(1) | E |
| 2015 | Paul Thompson, Stevenson Alex | Exploring the experiences, perceptions and reflections of popular electronic musicians at UK higher education institutions | Journal of Music, Technology & Education 8(2): 199-217 | P |
| 2016 | Douglas MacCutcheon, Alinka E. Greasley, Mark T. Elliott | Investigating the Value of DJ Performance for Contemporary Music Education and Sensorimotor Synchronisation (SMS) Abilities | Dancecult 8(1): 46-72 | P |
| 2017 | Kyesha Jennings, Emery Petchauer | Teaching in the Mix: Turntablism, DJ Aesthetics and African American Literature | Changing English 24(2): 216-28 | P |
| 2018 | Chris Kiefer | Luuma, Between Code and Controllerism.pdf | Dancecult 10(1) | N |
| 2018 | Victor Del Hierro | DJs, Playlists, and Community: Imagining Communication Design through Hip Hop | Communication Design Quarterly 7(2): 28-39 | E* |
| 2019 | Rebekah Farrugia, Thomas Swiss | Tracking the DJs: Vinyl Records, Work, and the Debate over New Technologies | Journal of Popular Music Studies 31(1): 30-44 | C |
| 2020 | Jean d’Aspremont | Turntablism in the History of International Law | Journal of the History of International Law 22(2-3): 472-96 | E* |
| 2021 | Rhythy Quin | East meets West: Investigating the state of DJing culture and turntablism pedagogy in China | International Journal of Music Education 39(3): 327-39 | P |
| 2022 | Richard Elliot | The Most Annoying Noise of All Time | Australian Humanities Review 70 | E |
| 2022 | Luigi Marino | New Technologies, Old Behaviours: Electronic media and electronic music improvisors in Europe at the turn of the millennium | Organised Sound 27(2): 131-43 | E |
| 2023 | Bradley Smith | Turntablism meets classical | Music Teacher 102(7) | P |
Conference proceedings
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Conference | Research Type |
| 2003 | Mat C. Hans, Mark T. Smith | A Wearable Networked MP3 Player and “Turntable” for Collaborative Scratching | 7th IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC’03) | N |
| 2003 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Roberto Bresin | Analysis of a Genuine Scratch Performance | International Gesture Workshop 2003, pp. 519–528 | C |
| 2003 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Roberto Bresin | Dj Scratching Performance Techniques: Analysis And Synthesis | Proceedings of the Stockholm Music Acoustics Conference, August 6-9, 2003 (SMAC 03), Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 693-6 | C/N |
| 2003 | Timothy Beamish, Kees van den Doel, Karon MacLean, Sidney Fels | D’groove: A Haptic Turntable For Digital Audio Control | 2003 International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston, MA, USA, 6-9 July 2003 | N |
| 2003 | Tim Beamish, Karon MacLean, Sidney Fels | Designing the Haptic Turntable for Musical Control | HAPTICS 2003, International Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, Los Angeles, USA 2003 | N |
| 2003 | Tue Haste Andersen | Mixxx: Towards Novel DJ Interfaces | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME03), Montreal, Canada | C/N |
| 2004 | Timothy Beamish, Karon Maclean, Sidney Fels | Manipulating Music: Multimodal Interaction for DJs | SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp.327–34 | C/N |
| 2004 | Takuro Mizuta Lippit | Realtime Sampling System for the Turntablist Version 2: 16padjoystickcontroller, pp.211-212 | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME04), Hamamatsu, Japan | N |
| 2004 | Gideon D’Arcangelo | Recycling Music, Answering Back: Toward an Oral Tradition of Electronic Music, pp.55-58 | C | |
| 2006 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Roberto Bresin | Mapping strategies in DJ scratching | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME06), Paris France | C |
| 2006 | Takuro Mizuta Lippit | Turntable Music in the Digital Era: Designing Alternative Tools for New Turntable Expression | C | |
| 2007 | Nicolas Villar, Hans Gellersen, Matt Jervis, Alexander Lang | The ColorDex DJ System: A New Interface for Live Music Mixing | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME07), New York, USA | N |
| 2007 | Andreas Pabst, Roger Walk | Augmenting a rugged standard DJ turntable with a tangible interface for music browsing and playback manipulation | 3rd IET International Conference on Intelligent Environments, Ulm, 2007, pp. 533-5 | N |
| 2007 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Marcos Alonso, Smilen Dimitrov | Combining dj scratching, tangible interfaces and a physics-based model of friction sounds | International Computer Music Conference 2007, pp. 45-48 | N |
| 2007 | Kentaro Fukuchi | Multi-track Scratch Player On A Multi-Touch Sensing Device | Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2007, 6th International Conference, Shanghai, China, September 15-17, 2007 | N |
| 2008 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen, Marcos Alonso | More DJ techniques on the reactable | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME08) Genova, Italy | N |
| 2009 | Nicholas Gillian, Sile O’Modhrain, Georg Essl | Scratch-Off: A gesture based mobile music game with tactile feedback | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME09) Pittsburgh, PA | N |
| 2009 | Yutaka Tomibayashi, Yoshinari Takegawa, Tsutomu Terada, Masahiko Tsukamoto | Wearable DJ system: A new motion-controlled DJ system | International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACE 2009, Athens, Greece | N |
| 2009 | Karen Snell | Turntablism: A Vehicle for Connecting Community and School Music Learning | International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, 5-9 June 2009, University of Limerick, Ireland | P |
| 2010 | Eoin Smith | Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music: Genre, Culture and Turntables | Sound, Sight, Space and Play 2010, De Montfort University | E |
| 2011 | Nicholas J. Bryan, Ge Wang | Two Turntables and a Mobile Phone | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2011, Oslo, Norway | N |
| 2011 | Erika Donald, Ben Duinker, Eliot Britton | Designing the EP trio: Instrument identities, control and performance practice in an electronic chamber music ensemble | C | |
| 2012 | Florian Heller, Jan Borchers | DiskPlay: in-track navigation on turntables | SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 2012, pp.1829-32 | N |
| 2012 | Ståle A. Skogstad, Kristian Nymoen, Yago de Quay, Alexander Refsum Jensenius | Developing the Dance Jockey System for Musical Interaction with the Xsens MVN Suit | Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2012, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | N |
| 2014 | Florian Heller, Jan Borchers | Visualizing Song Structure on Timecode Vinyls | International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression NIME14, Goldsmiths, University London, UK | N |
| 2015 | Alexander Förstel, Sarah-Indriyati Hardjowirogo, Hauke Egermann | The Actions that Make a Musical Instrument: Exploring Club-DJing as an Instrumental Practice | 11th International Symposium on CMMR, Plymouth, UK, June 16-19, 2015, pp. 762-9 | C |
| 2016 | Enrique Tomás | Politics of Musical Interfaces: Ideologies and Digital Disenchantment | First International Conference on Interface Politics 2016, pp.755-66 | E |
| 2016 | Alexander Sonnenfeld & Kjetil Falkenberg | S-Notation: A Complete Musical Notation System For Scratching And Sample Music Derived From “Theory Of Motions” | International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation – TENOR2016, Anglia Ruskin University, pp. 50-7 | N |
Theses
| Year | Author | Title | University/degree | Research Type |
| 2002 | Leif Gustavson | Zine Writing, Graffiti, And Turntablism: The Creative Practices Of Three Youth | University of Pennsylvania, PhD | E |
| 2003 | Timothy Mark Edward Beamish | D’groove – A Novel Digital Haptic Turntable For Music Control | University Of British Columbia, MSc | C/N |
| 2006 | Sophy Smith | The Compositional Processes of UK Hip-Hop Turntable Teams | De Montfort University, PhD | C/T |
| 2008 | Matthew James Wright | Navigating Time: A Portfolio of Compositions | Goldsmiths, University of London, PhD | C |
| 2009 | Paul Bell | Interrogating the Live: A DJ Perspective | Newcastle University, PhD | C |
| 2010 | Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen | The acoustics and performance of DJ scratching | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, PhD | C/N |
| 2011 | André Sirois | Scratching the Digital Itch: A Political Economy of The Hip Hop DJ and the Relationship Between Culture, Industry, and Technology | University of Oregon, PhD | E |
| 2013 | Alex H. Kotch | Composers on the Decks | Duke University, PhD | C/E |
| 2013 | William R. Northlich | DiY Dynamic: Experimental Electronic Music And The Underground In The San Francisco Bay Area | Wesleyan University, MA | E/C |
| 2014 | Daniel Marc Biederman | The Turntable as a Musical Instrument and the Emergence of the Concert Turntablist | University of Sydney, MA | C |
| 2015 | Megan Ross | Continuing The Quest For Legitimacy: The Institutionalization Of Hip-Hop Djing Education | University of North Carolina, MA | P |
| 2016 | Paul G Nataraj | You Sound Like A Broken Record: A practice led interrogation of the ontological resonances of vinyl record culture | University of Sussex, PhD | C |
| 2016 | Bjørnar Ersland Sandvik | On The Significance of Interface Design – A Study of Digital Samplers In Two Eras | University of Oslo, MA | C |
| 2016 | Michael Anthony D’Errico | Interface Aesthetics: Sound, Software, and the Ecology of Digital Audio Production | University of California, PhD | E/C |
| 2016 | William James Baldry | Turntablist Performance Practice: Commentary in support of portfolio of recorded performances | University of Leeds, PhD | C |
| 2016 | Mariam Rezaei | Commentary on the Portfolio of Compositions submitted for the degree of PhD in Music Composition | University of Durham, PhD | C |
| 2016 | Kate R. Levitt | Turning the Tables: Nightlife, DJing, and the Rise of Digital DJ Technologies | University of California, PhD | E |
| 2017 | Karin Weissenbrunner | Experimental Turntablism: Live Performances with Second Hand Technology – Analysis and Methodological Considerations | City, University of London, PhD | E/C |
| 2017 | Guillermo de Llera Blanes | Controllers as Musical Instruments, Controllerism as Musical Practice – Practices of a new 21st Century musical culture | Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, MA | E |
| 2020 | Takuro Mizuta Lippit | Listening with Hands: The Instrumental Impulse and Invisible Transformation in Turntablism | De Montfort University, PhD | C/N |
| 2021 | Steven Walker | The Cyclical, Reciprocal Relationship Between Funk Drumming and the Hip-Hop Technologist | University of Salford, PhD | C |
Media, resources, & non-peer reviewed publications
| Year | Author(s) | Title | Publisher/location | Research Type |
| 1984 | Dick Fontaine | Beat This: A Hip-Hop History | BBC | E |
| 1997 | John Carluccio | Battle Sounds Hip-Hop DJ Documentary | Independent | E |
| 1999 | Jason Bellmont (DJ Radar) | Notation for “Antimatter” | OM Records | T |
| 2000 | John Carluccio Ethan Imboden Raymond Pirtle | TTM – Turntablist Transcription Methodology | http://www.ttm-dj.com/ | T |
| 2000 | Richard Quitevis (DJ QBert) | Skratchcon 2000 | Thud Rumble | E |
| 2000 | Brian Cross | Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl | Mochilla | E |
| 2001 | Doug Pray | Scratch | Palm Pictures | E |
| 2003 | Laurent Burte | Scratch graphique : Une recherche typographique au plus profond du son | Pyramyd éditions | T |
| 2004 | Timothy Mark Edward Beamish | DJ Taxonomy | http://www.timothywisdom.com/djtaxonomy/introduction.html | C |
| 2016 | Alexander Sonnenfeld | Theory of Motions 1.0 | Self published | T |