The question that splits the NYC underground in half: should DJ lineups reflect the demographics of the scene, or should they reflect the quality of the music?
The meritocracy position
Personally, I am sick of lineups that pander to different identity groups. I do not think being a girl or being LGBT makes anyone have better taste than straight people, same with skin color and nationality. A DJ is either original or they are not. The curation always has to come first. That is a first principle before any other social factor.
We have a very long list of DJs who want to play, so we first need to consider what they can bring to the table besides music — because frankly a lot of DJs have a very similar sound. Factors include how they can help us grow our community. Marketing ability outweighs musical skill in the booking calculus. There are a million highly skilled bedroom DJs who will never see the light of day due to poor marketing. That is how the world works.
The identity position
The counter-argument is structural. If the pipeline that produces DJs is biased — if certain people get more mentorship, more bookings, more exposure because of who they know rather than what they play — then meritocracy is just a word for reproducing the existing power structure. The identity-based booking tries to correct for that pipeline bias.
I understand the argument. I do not agree with its implementation. Booking someone because they fill a demographic slot produces lineups with social agendas instead of musical cohesion. The audience can feel it. The dancefloor knows when a set was booked for optics rather than sound.
What we actually do
SLIST books based on three criteria, in order: Does their sound fit the event’s sonic arc? Can they bring people to the event? Have they been reliable in past bookings? Three bookings without drama and you are in the rotation. That is the whole system.
The result is lineups that happen to be diverse — because dark music attracts people from every background. Our gender ratios have been getting better than ever. Not because we mandated it, but because the community we built attracts women who feel safe and respected at our events. Three thousand guests processed across twenty-plus events with only two removal incidents. The curation works because the standards are musical, not political.
Judge by output, not identity. That is the position. It is internally consistent. It produces results. And it does not require anyone to pretend that demographic checkboxes make better dancefloors.