About The DJ Diaries
Written under Namsan, after dark.
The DJ Diaries is a working reference for dance music and a booking team for events in Seoul. Our team has played the city’s house and disco floors for more than twenty years, and we write down what those rooms taught us.
What lives here
A reference for people who take the music seriously.
The knowledge that usually sits in group chats and back rooms, written down where other people can find it. New material goes in every week.
The Genre Encyclopedia
127 genres mapped by lineage and history: where each sound came from and what it became.
Open the timeline →Seoul Scene writing
Essays and profiles on the clubs, crews, sound and people of Seoul, from Itaewon basements to Seongsu day parties.
Read the Seoul Scene →Tools to play with
The timeline, the machines, the festival atlas, the getting home planner and more, built to be used, not just read.
Explore the tools →Six quizzes
What kind of DJ, clubber or festival goer you are, your era and your sound, each with twelve results drawn from how people behave in rooms.
Take a quiz →Original research
The Seoul Nightlife Experience Study 2025, a bilingual survey of 343 people on how they actually spend their nights.
See what it found →Bookings
The same knowledge, put to work: DJs, artists and whole nights planned for weddings, brands, companies and parties.
How bookings work →Planning something
Tell us the night you want. We find the artists and place it for you.
Two decades in Seoul’s clubs means knowing which DJ fits which crowd and which room fits which night. Send a date and a feeling, and we come back with the artists, a room that suits it and a plan.
Corporate events
Brand dinners, conferences and staff parties, each with its own sound.
Start here →Pop ups and launches
Retail pop ups, brand activations and launches, day or night.
Start here →Weddings
Ceremony, dinner, first dance and a real party, planned as one arc.
Start here →Private parties
Birthdays, anniversaries and house parties across Seoul and Korea.
Start here →Club nights and festivals
Openers, all night sets, residencies, lineups and stage programming.
Start here →Why we do this
Fifty years of people dancing in the dark, and Seoul is part of the story.
Whether you landed this week, moved here last year or grew up a few stops from 홍대 (Hongdae), the history makes the night better. Knowing where a record came from changes how it feels when it drops.
Visiting SeoulA few nights, done well
Which neighbourhood suits which mood, how late things really run and how to get back to your hotel once the subway stops.
Read the Seoul Scene →New in townFind your rooms and your people
Work out what you actually like on a dance floor, then find the crews, parties and venues that play it.
Take the clubber quiz →Grew up hereYour scene, in the bigger story
How 이태원 (Itaewon), Hongdae and 을지로 (Euljiro) connect to Chicago, Detroit and Berlin, and what Seoul gave back.
Open the timeline →Disco and the loft parties
DJs learn to blend one record into the next so the dancing never has to stop.
See the era →House and techno
Drum machines, cheap synths and Black club culture build two sounds the whole world still dances to.
Meet the machines →Acid house and rave
The music leaves the clubs for warehouses and fields, and dance culture becomes a youth movement.
Pick a year →Hongdae and Itaewon
Club nights grow around 홍익대학교 (Hongik University) and in Itaewon, and 클럽데이 (keulleop dei, Club Day) lets one wristband open many doors.
Read the Seoul story →The underground finds its feet
Small rooms in Itaewon and 해방촌 (Haebangchon) build their own DJs, crews and labels, and the city starts exporting talent.
Meet the rooms →Day parties to after hours
성수 (Seongsu) warehouses, Euljiro bars and festival stages. The floor still works the same way it did in 1970.
Explore the tools →And the joy is the point.
A great set at three in the morning is one of the more honest things a person can make for other people. No lyrics to hide behind and no story to lean on. If you have been in that room, you already know. If you have not been yet, this site is here to help you find it.
Most dance music writing either reads like a press release or pretends the music started in one European city around 2001. We try to write about it the way the best of it feels, with respect for the history, the craft and the people.
Rhythm, tension, release, and the strange secular transcendence of a room full of strangers breathing at the same tempo.
Who runs it
Matthew Clement
Matthew Clement has lived in Seoul for more than 24 years and spent most of them behind the decks, playing house and disco as Clement, and before that as DJ 4play. By day he works full time in higher education, teaching business and marketing communication. He started The DJ Diaries to document the city’s dance music culture with the same standards he brings to the classroom: checked facts, credited sources and respect for the people who make the scene. Originally from Canada.
Get involved
The scene is bigger than any one room in it.
Writers, promoters, DJs and readers all keep this site honest. Pick what you have for us and the form writes the email for you.
Pitch a piece
We publish essays, profiles, scene reports and guides from people with something real to say. First person is welcome, and so is Korean. Tell us the idea in a few lines before you write the whole thing.
Tell us about your event
Promoters, crews and venues: send the night and we look at whether it fits a listing, a feature on Instagram or a proper write up. Send it two weeks ahead if you can.
Say hello
Corrections, a city we should cover, a mix with notes, press questions or anything else. If we got something wrong, we fix it and say so.
The button opens your email app with everything filled in, so nothing is stored on this site. Planning a paid event instead? Use the booking form.
Quick answers
Who runs The DJ Diaries?
A small team of DJs, writers and promoters who live in Seoul and have played its floors for more than twenty years. Guest writers contribute too, and the team edits every piece.
Is The DJ Diaries a magazine or a booking agency?
Both. It is an independent publication about dance music culture and the Seoul scene, and the same team plans events and books DJs for weddings, companies, pop ups, private parties, club nights and festivals through the Book a DJ page.
Does The DJ Diaries interview artists?
No. The site does not run interviews. Artist and venue pieces are written from research, public sources and first hand experience in the rooms, and evaluations are labelled as opinion.
Can I write for The DJ Diaries or get my event featured?
Yes. The Get involved section on this page has one form for pitching a piece and another for sending us an event, with the date, venue and lineup.
How do I get in touch?
Use the contact form on this page, or email clement.mj@gmail.com for bookings, corrections, syndication requests or anything else.