This year's DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list, like every year (we imagine), has been met with a lot of speculation and criticism; some warranted, some just ridiculous. You can't escape the fact that this list, year after year, ends up looking more and more like a popularity contest for European house and trance fans than a true representation for the dance music community - for good or ill. Whether its OK that this is fan-voted or not, it's becoming clear that the "Top DJs" moniker on this list could at least be tweaked a bit. In any case, in our continued study of this year's list, we noticed some omissions that we've been scratching our heads over. We could probably give you 100 DJs that should've been on the list, but we condensed our shots to 20. Here are 20 DJs that, based on the year they've had and their DJ prowess, should be on any "Top DJ" list, no matter what angle of dance music you're peeking in.
A-Trak
Skream
Bassnectar
Wolfgang Gartner
Boys Noize
Borgore
Danny Avila
Baauer
Heroes x Villians
Gesaffelstein
DJ Shadow
Why is DJ Shadow getting snubbed everywhere he goes? Sure, he's old. Sure, he isn't playing popular music. He's known as the guy that got kicked off the decks at an ill-informed club in Miami, not as a turntablist that could hang with some of the best in the world in a scratch session. Most people probably don't remember when DMC champion Q-Bert knocked out that "Camel Bobsled Race" megamix of Shadow productions. He's had respect from real DJs since the '90s, and if you're curious how accepted Shadow is by mainstream dance culture, perhaps one should ask why Diplo would reach out to him to sort a Diplo & Friends Mix? Sure, it's a mix saturated with hip-hop and trap music. Trap is dance music, though; 2013 has proven that.