12.Practice.Tests.for.the.SAT_2015-2016_1128p

Section 61
Practice Test Five 441
Questions 13-24 are based on the following passages.
The following passages discuss the ongoing debate in the
music community about whether disc jockeys (DJs), more
specifically "turn tab lists, " are actually musicians. Both
passages were written in 2003 by professional turntablists.
Passage I
I played guitar long before I bought my first
pair of turntables, so I feel as equipped as anybody
to offer an opinion on the debate. To begin with,
Line it is very important to define what a DJ is because
(5) it is an umbrella term for more than one thing.
Normally, when I speak of a "DJ," I'm talking
about turntablists, like myself, sometimes referred
to as "scratchers." Innovative, often groundbreaking
turntablists are often unfairly lumped together
(10) in one broad category that includes dance club
DJs, many of whom simply spin other performers'
vinyl records with a minimum of alteration. Like a
wedding DJ or a dance club DJ, a turntablist uses
two or more turntables and mostly prerecorded
( 15) material by other artists, but that's essentially
where the similarities end. But it is the stigma of
using "material by other artists" that hangs over
the head of every turntablist, and it brings us to
the real crux of the debate: Is it possible to be a
(20) musician if you do not create the actual music?
According to the dictionary, a musician is "a
composer, conductor, or performer of music."
A turntablist fits that description. I am undoubtedly
a musician, and I take great offense at the
(25) suggestion that I am not. My two turntables and
mixer are the instruments with which I compose,
conduct, and perform my music, unrehearsed,
for the thousands of people who come to hear
me scratch every year. Like the guitar I picked up
(30) when I was a teenager, the turntables are difficult
to master; I have spent countless hours of my life
experimenting, woodshedding the cutting, mixing,
and beat juggling necessary to be able to invoke the
sounds that I want, when I want. Yes, I use other
(35) performers' music as the base medium through
which I experiment and create, but to say that a
traditional musician is 100 percent original is not
exactly true. Even the most accomplished guitarists
will employ licks and riffs in their playing that
( 40) they consciously or subconsciously picked up from
others. Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton both "stole"
blues musicians' songs and chord progressions
and incorporated them as their own. Yet there is
no debate over whether Clapton or Page is really a
( 45) musician.
In some ways, however, comparing scratch DJs
with rock guitarists is a poor analogy. Turntablism
is more like a new jazz. Like the bebop jazz musicians
of the '40s and '50s who improvised around
(50) a melody, scratchers reinterpret portions of a
song to make it uniquely their own. The sounds
produced are fresh and original and as distinctive
from turntablist to turntablist as Miles Davis's
trumpet or Charlie Parker's saxophone.
(55) Looking back at recent generations, both jazz
and rock were not immediately accepted as valid
music forms. The "Old Guard" music establishment
did not immediately embrace the Beatles,
yet somehow the legendary John Lennon and his
( 60) bandmates still managed to sell a few albums. In
the end, music comes down to 12 pitches, pure
and simple. Anybody who has the skill and talent
to manipulate those notes into something beautiful
is a musician, regardless of the instrument.
Passage 2
( 65) As with any endeavor that requires a certain level
of skill, there are master turntablists and there are
hacks. The quality of sound produced by a specific
artist is a direct result of talent, ability, the material
he or she works with, and the capacity to meld the
(70) three into something worthwhile and listenable.
Ostensibly, at the heart of this debate is the fact
that most DJs and turntablists use music created
by others to compose their sound. But to me,
this silly controversy exists simply because the
(75) true definition of a musician is extremely vague
and eternally arguable. From an academic point
of view, there are those who argue that because
turntablists do not have the ability to alter the
basic chord structure of the song they are using,
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