Few DJs have ridden the wild waves of club-land as long as Armand Van Helden has and still survived with their careers intact. The New York spinner’s anchor is soul, disco and hip-hop, and no matter how far dance music drifts from its roots, he’s in the mix, a buoyant reminder of where it all comes from and what it all comes down to.

These days you can spot Van Helden mugging for photos with indie spinners like Steve Aoki. (Van Helden will be at the one-year anniversary of Avalon’s neon-punk party Control on Friday to spin, too). He’s been embraced by many of the hipsters in candy colored Ray-Bans, even if he’s old enough to be their father. Van Helden has soaked in the New Wave flavors and non-sequitur, mix-and-match stylings of the cool kids (as heard on his 2007 track, “NYC Beat”). Even before many of today’s top indie DJs even got a clue about dance music, Van Helden was pointing the way on 2004’s New York: A Mix Odyssey, which features Blondie, Soft Cell and Yes in a seamless journey.

Vinyl is gaining popularity as it grows in the shadow of the flighty MP3.

In Salem, the pickings are a bit slim compared to Portland; however, the longevity of Salem's main record shop, Ranch Records, speaks highly of the loyalty of local vinyl enthusiasts. Since the mantra of a vinyl collector is 'quality over quantity', Salem's lack of record shops does not reflect the people's passion for vinyl and what it represents.

The great shift from tangible music to digital music began a decade ago with Napster and it has turned the entire music business upside down. The Wal-Marts and the Geffens have been fighting against the caffeinated students in their dorm rooms for market share. In the spoils of this guerrilla battle, the vinyl record has emerged as a dark-horse medium that thrives because of the culture which surrounds it. By stocking more vinyl than CDs, Ranch Records is ahead of the curve in anticipating the shift toward tangible music purchases instead of intangible downloading.

This grassroots enthusiasm grows in Salem each Saturday at Venti's Cafe as DJ Timmy spins his records or across town at the Can-Can room where DJ Hit N Runn does the same. Their love for the turntable and the Do-It-Yourself mentality that vinyl represents pours into the crowd and spawns other artistic ventures. College students at Willamette use recycled vinyl for mixed-media collages and artists at the Saturday market use it for jewelry.

The DJing community and the greater dance music scene mourns the loss of a clubbing staple today. No, Steve Aoki hasn’t hung up his record bag, but rather news has emerged that iconic turntable manufacturers Technics will be stopping production on their universally loved Technics 1200s and Technics 1210s.

In a statement re-posted on dance board Global Hardstyle, the company behind the production of the Technics turntables Panasonic announced that they would cease the manufacture of Tehcnics turntables in February next year, citing an increasing decline in sales as the motivation behind the line’s demise.

While the Top 100 DJs Poll sees fresh young DJs enter the list every year, let's not forget those who've gone before and whose contributions to dance music have never been officially recognised. Here, we celebrate some of the scene's unsung heroes...

"2009 one of the best years of my life". Steve Angello.

Steve Angello needs little introduction. Most people will be aware that he is 33.3% of the Swedish House Mafia - the in your face and in demand elite collective of Sweden's house music bad boys; Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso. Perhaps less well now is the fact that he is also the chief A&R and level headed label boss of his own record label SIZE, which has gained much Kudos recently.

He would be the first to agree that 2009 was his own self-proclaimed 'year for music'. From the start he wanted to concentrate his efforts on creating good clubs tracks, and from the results you can see he did exactly as he promised. Make no mistake; 2009 has been Steve Angello's year.

Calvin Harris has said his X-Factor stage raid during John and Edward's performance on Saturday night was intended to undermine the whole concept behind the show.

Harris added that he hoped the boys would win the competition but only because it would be difficult for them to survive once the series ended.

While reading this story, keep in mind that University College Dublin average student count is upwards of 20,000 kids.

Ok read on:
With the success rolling in for his turbo-charged new album For Lack Of A Better Name, not to mention his deliriously anticipated Australian dates for Stereosonic and Foreshore, fan-favourite producer Deadmau5 is riding high right now. Yet it’s not all smooth sailing for the man with the mau5-head, as news has emerged that one of his recent shows in Ireland had to be cut short due to what was believed to be overcrowding.

As reported by Irish news portal The University Observer, Deadmau5 was forced to prematurely end his show at University College Dublin’s Student Bar recently when he noted that the venue seemed extremely overcrowded, fearing for the safety of the punters on hand. A kick arse producer and a sensitive guy, what are the odds!?

Lady Gaga becomes the first artist in the 17-year history of Billboard's Pop Songs chart to notch four No. 1s from a debut album, as "Paparazzi" rises 3-1.

The singer - recently honored as Billboard's Rising Star - previously led Pop Songs with "Just Dance," "Poker Face" and "LoveGame" from her debut release, "The Fame." The set has sold 1.56 million copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan, The album will be re-released in expanded form as "The Fame Monster" Nov. 23.

Since the Pop Songs chart debuted in October 1992, two artists prior to Lady Gaga had plated three No. 1s from their first albums: Ace of Base and Avril Lavigne. (Alanis Morissette also enjoyed a trio of leaders from her first U.S. album, "Jagged Little Pill").

KMVQ (Movin' 99.7)/San Francisco played "Paparazzi" the most times - 131 - of all Pop Songs reporters in the current chart's tracking week (Oct. 26-Nov. 1), according to Nielsen BDS. "Lady Gaga has come on to our station like a tornado," says Movin' Program Director Michael Martin. "When you make hit records, the audience responds,

Cheryl Cole joined the select band of solo female artists to achieve simultaneous U.K. No. 1 singles and albums yesterday. The Girls Aloud member and "X Factor" judge's debut solo album "3 Words" (Fascination/Polydor/Universal) opened in pole position while "Fight For This Love," which arrived at No. 1 last week as the U.K.'s fastest-selling single of the year, went into a second week at the top.



Cole is the 12th female artist in U.K. chart history to record that double achievement, according to the Official U.K. Charts Company, and the third this year, following Lily Allen and Lady Gaga. Underlining her current popularity, the title track from her album, featuring will.i.am, also sold sufficient downloads to make the top 40 of the singles chart, at No. 26.



The "3 Words" album hit No. 1 ahead of some strong competition, with Michael Bublé's "Crazy Love" (Reprise/Warner Music) holding at No. 2. His single "Haven't Met You Yet" climbed 9-5 and another track from the set, "Cry Me A River," hit the singles top 40 at No. 34.



Michael Jackson's "This Is It" (Epic), the partner release to the film of the same name, arrived at No. 3 and Soldiers' "Coming Home" (Rhino/Warner Music) at No. 4. The latter is an album of covers (including "Tears In Heaven," "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Stand By Me") by Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi, Sergeant Richie Maddocks and Sergeant Major Gary Chilton, serving officers in the British Army.

After a white-hot summer, Dizzee Rascal’s new pop-dance direction is about to be unveiled in full on fourth album ‘Tongue N’ Cheek’, the latest chapter in his unstoppable ascent…

Though the promised barbecue summer never shone through, it could scarcely have been more scorching for Dizzee Rascal, real name Dylan Mills. The grime-raised star smashed more festivals than space constraints permit us to list here and crashed the charts with number one singles ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Holiday’, following similar success last year with ‘Dance Wiv Me’. The ‘Boy In Da Corner’ has firmly become a man in the limelight. Still, it’s going to take a tricky balancing act to please rafts of new fans while appeasing long-term devotees. Can he pull it off? Dizzee, frankly, is enjoying the ride too much to worry. Just don’t mention his old mucker, the godfather of grime and fellow Top 10-troubler, Wiley…

If the sign of a real man is to stand on his own two feet, then few could argue that with ‘Tongue N’ Cheek’ Mills is striding into adulthood. He’s come a long, long way since formative days ripping up the pirate radio airwaves out of Bow, East London, to stand atop the UK charts seemingly whenever he fancies releasing a single. Days of teenaged petty crime and school expulsions sure seem a long way in the past. But not only is the new LP a turning point in terms of moving his musical goalposts toward bold, balls-out, pop-laced pastures new, unlike its three predecessors - incendiary debut ‘Boy In Da Corner’, darkly paranoid follow-up ‘Showtime’ and 2007’s transitional ‘Maths + English’ - long-time label home XL are no longer involved.

Released three days after his 24th birthday, ‘Tongue N’ Cheek’ is the sound of Mills going it alone, via his own Dirtee Stank imprint, and flicking all-comers the bird in the process. It’s the distillation of perhaps the craziest phase in his life so far, a period that has married greatest commercial success with surreal anomalies like royal wildchild Prince Harry claiming allegiance (and nearly getting punched on the nose by his hero after acting a touch over familiar at the Wireless Festival). Bursting with three Number One singles, only the stinking rich would bet against ‘Dirtee Cash’, the successor to ‘Holiday’, making it four in a row. To misappropriate the words of blog-pleasing US rappers Clipse, this shit sells itself. And as Mills himself puts it on album cut ‘Money Money Money’, “Can’t stop grinning / Because I can’t stop winning”.