Taking the Mix to Twitch

DJ culture has long been associated with the collective experience of the dance floor in Electronic Dance Music Cultures (EDMCs), yet it has also spread through various forms of broadcast technology, from radio to television and the internet. In this chapter, we explore some of the ways that DJ culture adapted to the conditions of social isolation that defined the Covid-19 pandemic. We are particularly interested in the adoption of the streaming platform Twitch to facilitate aspects of virtual belonging and online community that emerged to redress the absence of the dance floor. We are also interested in how ‘online DJing’ constructs conditions for virtual engagement by remediating forms of broadcast media. In this chapter we address how DJ culture navigated the transition from in-person events to ‘being-scene’ on the screen, and how affective experiences of the dance floor, the ‘vibe’ and its communitas transformed during this process.