Why Weren't There Any Indian Artists On The DJ Mag Top 100 List This Year?

For anyone who follows the DJ Mag results, you might have been surprised to realize that absolutely no Indian artists made it to the list. Last year we saw two acts making it to the Top 100 DJs, and the list of contenders seemed to grow longer every year. We saw quite a few homegrown artists campaigning heavily this year, and with the amount of interest and vote generation that had been taking place, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see at least 3 – 4 Indian acts making it to the 2017 list.

From inside sources and the general grapevine flying around, what we’ve gathered is that with India being such a massive voting pool, DJ Mag basically received far too many votes from here. There was aggressive campaigning happening from quite a few of the Indian artists and if rumours are to be believed, vote collection through bots, college campus deals, and general underhanded methods were followed. Industry members were even circulated WhatsApp blasts giving instructions on which order and what artists to vote for.

We feel that with this amount of voting, there’s no way that technically some Indian artists didn’t manage to make it to the DJ Mag list, so either the Indian voters were given less weightage, or DJ Mag may have disqualified all Indian artists from this round. The latter seems more likely considering the total lack of even a single Indian DJ, but we can only speculate.

Overall, despite the amount of importance DJ Mag is given each year, it’s basically a popularity contest. It would be a step in the right direction if people stopped treating it like the ultimate defining list of top DJs and follow artists like Diplo, who have the right idea!

Only 75 spots til I’m finally off this list 📉👇🏽 let’s go further next year https://t.co/2cxd0Dxuyh

— diplo (@diplo) October 22, 2017