According to the singer Neil Tennant, the song concerned the insincerity of how President George H. W. Bush's speeches at the time of the First Gulf War utilised Winston Churchill's wartime rhetoric, in a manner similar to how artists sample music from other artists.
"DJ Culture" was one of two songs written as singles for Discography, along with "Was It Worth It?" Pet Shop Boys decided to use a structure of spoken verse and sung chorus, similar to "West End Girls". The music for the chorus came from a piece Chris Lowe had composed on a Fairlight.
In early 1991, Tennant used the phrase "DJ Culture" to draw an analogy between DJs sampling music and people who "sample attitudes from the past", at a time when he felt the response to the Gulf War was inauthentic. He later described the concept: "Political postures and social attitudes are glibly sampled from the past and the present like beats on dance records".
Parsing the lyrics, Tennant said the refrain "Living in a satellite fantasy" is an observation on the lack of meaningful content on 24-hour satellite television. The trend of reinventing oneself is conveyed in the lines "Like Liz before Betty", about Elizabeth Taylor at the Betty Ford Clinic, and "she after Sean", referring to Madonna's new image after her divorce from Sean Penn. "And I, my lord, may I say nothing?" paraphrases Oscar Wilde's response after he was sentenced to hard labour for homosexual practices in 1895.
The song also included samples of French dialogue from the 1950 Jean Cocteau film Orphée, in which coded and poetic messages are sent over the radio.
Both singles for Discography were recorded at Sarm West with the Brothers in Rhythm production team. The chorus of "DJ Culture" features Tessa Niles echoing Tennant in a style inspired by the David Bowie song "Absolute Beginners" (1986). The duo asked producer Stephen Hague to do additional work on the 7-inch mix. Hague added a string line in the middle section, and he suggested a change to the chorus, resulting in the alternating lines "waiting for the night to end" and "wondering who's your friend".
Preceding the album's November release, "DJ Culture" came out on 14 October 1991 on 7-inch vinyl, 12-inch vinyl, cassette, and CD. The original release debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 13 and spent two weeks in the top 40, and the remix entered the chart at number 40.
The single's B-side, "Music for Boys", was written by Lowe at Sarm West, inspired by stadium house music he had heard at the London Astoria. Lowe made two mixes, including an "Ambient mix". A third mix was done by Altern-8. In the US, "DJ Culture" and "Music for Boys" were released as a double A-side; it reached number 13 on the Dance Singles Sales chart.
The original cover photo, taken by Eric Watson, shows Lowe and Tennant with DJ equipment. The remix cover is a depiction of TV static.
The music video was directed by Pet Shop Boys' long-time collaborator Eric Watson and was choreographed by Jacob Marley, who had worked on the Performance Tour. Tennant and Lowe alternately appear as a pair of doctors, a pair of soldiers in desert combat dress, and a football referee and fan. Lowe portrays a judge presiding over the trial of Oscar Wilde, who is played by Tennant, in a visualization of the line "And I my lord, may I say nothing?" Watson observed: "It's a line-by-line interpretation of the lyrics, completely literal". Watson used computer-generated imagery to create a computer wargame for the opening sequence and composite shots such as Tennant and Lowe in front of the Acropolis. The production cost £150,000 and was their most expensive music video up to that point.
DJ Culturemix
