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Jason Bentley (born July 27, 1970) is an American DJ, Producer, and music executive who has played an influential role in the evolution of Dance music and electronic music in the US. Having hosted music programmes on a variety of commercial and public radio stations, Bentley served as Music Director of KCRW radio from 2009-2019. He hosted their daily music show Morning Becomes Eclectic throughout that time, and currently hosts their weekly show Metropolis. Bentley has been a featured DJ at major festivals and events, and is a Grammy nominated music producer, having supervised music for films including the Matrix trilogy, TRON Legacy and consulting on Top Gun: Maverick. Bentley served on the Board of Governors of The Recording Academy, successfully advocating for more inclusion of dance music into the awards.
Bentley was part of the founding group behind urban culture publication URB Magazine, joining as the magazine’s first Managing Editor in 1991, which in turn exposed him to the burgeoning underground Rave scene in Los Angeles. As a music journalist he covered the scene, mixed and promoted the music on radio, and DJed many underground events as dance culture in America took shape. He was a featured DJ at the earliest iterations of the Electric Daisy Carnival, Organic ’96, GIANT events, Nocturnal Wonderland, Circa, Narnia, the first HARD Festival, CRSSD Festival, and the first two Coachella festivals among others.
Bentley founded Quango Music Group in 1995 with partners Bruno Guez and George Ghiz. As an extension of Quango as a lifestyle brand, Bentley and his label partners started the Bossanova club series, staging popular club nights in Los Angeles. Bossanova hosted a range of guest artists during its run, including Daft Punk, Massive Attack, James Lavelle, The Orb, Gilles Peterson, Thievery Corporation, and many others. Bentley departed Quango amicably in 1998 when he was recruited by Maverick Records for a high profile A&R role.
At Maverick, Bentley worked on Madonna’s campaigns, as well as with label artists The Prodigy, Paul Oakenfold, Meshell Ndegeocello, and most notably was nominated for a Grammy Awards as Producer/Music Supervisor for The Matrix soundtrack. He also served as Music Supervisor for the following two Matrix films - Reloaded and Revolutions. Bentley’s music supervision work continued in TV, video games, and supervising music for Disney’s TRON Legacy with score by Daft Punk in 2010, as well as consulting on the 2013 film Oblivion (Universal) with music by M83, and Top Gun Maverick (Paramount) in 2022.
After his Grammy nomination for The Matrix soundtrack in 1999, Bentley joined The Recording Academy, serving on the Board of Governors, various awards committees, and the Grammy telecast committee over several years. He helped to author the first proposal to adopt an album category for dance music, a genre which had previously only been a “singles” category. He also advocated for more inclusion for artists from dance music on the telecast each year.
In 2008 Bentley DJed at the 80th Governors Ball Academy Awards after party, making history by being the first DJ to do so. He performed there again in 2009.
Bentley served as Music Director of NPR affiliate KCRW in Santa Monica for over a decade (2009-2019), hosting their daily music variety show Morning Becomes Eclectic during that time. Embracing a broader palette of music in his role as KCRW’s Music Director, Bentley helped advance the careers of countless indie rock and alternative artists through regular airplay, live performance sessions, and event programming with local arts and culture institutions such as Hollywood Bowl, The Hammer Museum, and The Annenberg Foundation. He also continues to support dance culture through fundraising events for public radio, such as the station’s annual Halloween Masquerade Ball and Chinatown Summer Nights. On Morning Becomes Eclectic, Bentley presented performance sessions and interviews with many of today’s biggest artists including Adele, John Legend, Elton John, Jack White, Hans Zimmer, Vampire Weekend, and Beck among many others. From 2014-2019 Bentley hosted the Youtube / AXS TV exclusive livestream coverage of Coachella festival, and continues to host and produce Metropolis every Saturday night on KCRW.
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