Johnny O. Horton
The Nerve DJs, Founder & CEO
John “DJ Johnny O” Horton, Jr. is founder & CEO of The Nerve DJs a global D.J. coalition servicing promotional music to DJs. Under the umbrella of NerveDJs – I have several websites with nervedjsmixtapes.com as our main – that gives DJs, independent and major artists a place to showcase their music and videos to build a fan base and get discovered by major record executives. I also have NerveDjs radio which includes 7 online streaming radio stations. And my most passionate project under the NerveDjs umbrella is the NerveDJ Institute. It’s a D.J. school for any individual who wants to learn how to D.J. It’s not just playing music; it’s first deciding what kind of D.J. one would want to be.
It all started with a passion I had for music. In 1977 my neighbor “D.J. Dougie” came home from a tour in Germany with a Kenwood turntable made of stone and huge speakers. He was outside playing music on the turntables and drawing attention from all of the neighbors. I asked him if he could teach me how to play music. That was the first time I put a vinyl record on a professional D.J. system. That’s when I fell in love with music. For 3 years I was working with Dougie and Terry Macklin carrying around crates of records and d.j.’ing to improve my D.J. skills. In 1980 I bought my first set of Techniques SL 100s (still carrying around records in crates). Then, in 1981 I bought the Techniques SL1200 which was made for dj’ing and I was the first street D.J. in Cleveland, OH to own them. In 1982 cutting and scratching became a big part of d.j.’ing. I practiced day and night to master that technique.
From 1981 until 2001 I used the Techniques SL 1200 d.j.’ing with vinyl records. In 2001 I bought the Pioneer CDJ 1000s which changed the game. The Pioneer gave D.J.’s the opportunity to D.J. using CD’s (compact discs) instead of carrying around totes and crates of vinyl records. It made the art of d.j.’ing so much easier. It was still a technique to cutting and scratching. It took a lot of hard work and practice as well. In 2004 I purchased Serato Live. Serato software used the laptops hard-drive that contained MP3 and wave files to play music. No more CD’s! Just a computer, a mixer, Serato Live and 2 turntables that mimicked playing vinyl records.
I made a successful and popular career being a professional D.J. playing music all over the country. It is my goal to pass the torch on to the next generation. NerveDJ Institute is designed to teach individuals the history of DJ’ing and learning to match the music to the audience. Learning to DJ is not easy and is not for everyone. It takes hard work, drive and practice, all I put in over 40 years ago!
It all started with a passion I had for music. In 1977 my neighbor “D.J. Dougie” came home from a tour in Germany with a Kenwood turntable made of stone and huge speakers. He was outside playing music on the turntables and drawing attention from all of the neighbors. I asked him if he could teach me how to play music. That was the first time I put a vinyl record on a professional D.J. system. That’s when I fell in love with music. For 3 years I was working with Dougie and Terry Macklin carrying around crates of records and d.j.’ing to improve my D.J. skills. In 1980 I bought my first set of Techniques SL 100s (still carrying around records in crates). Then, in 1981 I bought the Techniques SL1200 which was made for dj’ing and I was the first street D.J. in Cleveland, OH to own them. In 1982 cutting and scratching became a big part of d.j.’ing. I practiced day and night to master that technique.
From 1981 until 2001 I used the Techniques SL 1200 d.j.’ing with vinyl records. In 2001 I bought the Pioneer CDJ 1000s which changed the game. The Pioneer gave D.J.’s the opportunity to D.J. using CD’s (compact discs) instead of carrying around totes and crates of vinyl records. It made the art of d.j.’ing so much easier. It was still a technique to cutting and scratching. It took a lot of hard work and practice as well. In 2004 I purchased Serato Live. Serato software used the laptops hard-drive that contained MP3 and wave files to play music. No more CD’s! Just a computer, a mixer, Serato Live and 2 turntables that mimicked playing vinyl records.
I made a successful and popular career being a professional D.J. playing music all over the country. It is my goal to pass the torch on to the next generation. NerveDJ Institute is designed to teach individuals the history of DJ’ing and learning to match the music to the audience. Learning to DJ is not easy and is not for everyone. It takes hard work, drive and practice, all I put in over 40 years ago!
