Alright... Some of you guys sound like those snobby DJ's that give us all a bad rep. I was all up on unreleased tracks too, the cutting edge stuff, but I've gotten away from that. I need my performance to be accessible, like a musicology 201 class. You really think the average joe wants to hear pre-release tracks from the newest emerging sub-genere? Not really. Should you play what you want to play or what the audience wants? Think about it, you are there because of them, they aren't there for you. The audience is there because they want to have a good time. (Luckily you can control what they want to hear.)
I'm going to play Frail Limb Purity (Jay-Z and Mau5) on friday, does that make me lame? I think my top-40 focused crowd will be able to relate to this, it's accessible. My philosophy is to play familiar tracks, but also play things like Nancy Ajram (Arabic pop) and Don Omar (Reggaton) and expand people's musical world a little.
In conclusion: Get over yourself, your opinion on music isn't automatically worth more than Joe Public's because you're a DJ.
i don't give a shit.
they just get into the most popular artists of the lot like deadmau5, rusko, david guetta, steve aoki etc. because their interest doesn't go any deeper than what's trendy.
so honestly they don't cheapen any scene i'm into because nothing they gravitate to really ever represents anything i'm about.
Last edited by wrong chris; 09-23-2010 at 11:55 AM.
You have to understand one thing about bandwagoners, they like the mainstream stuff because that is what is easily and mostly presented to them (tv, radio, word of mouth, etc.).
Us DJs and producers dig deep for good underground music (some of which later become mainstream) for a variety of reasons. Mainly because we are tired of what has "just become" mainstream.
When i play out at parties and such I always make sure the hosts and such (edit: heh, rhymes with ghosts n stuff) knows i will be doing edm. Personally I think that playing out at a regular party or club is loads easier then when creating a mix, because you know what the crowd already likes.
I tend to keep my sets a quarter to a third "mainstream" and the rest underground stuff. I try to space out the use of these mainstream popular tracks evenly, but use them less and less as the night progresses and the crowd starts feeling the music you are mixing. In between using them I put fresh new tracks or others that are still underground.
Use the mainstream to keep them on the dancefloor.
Yeah it got kinda OT, but we
GPS of Fresh Wet Paint | "Always Fresh n' Sticky"
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Not trying to be a flamer, just trying to get a little self-examination... Do they really like your underground music, or is it too much trouble to go find another party? If there was a DJ in another room playing mainstream music, who would have a bigger crowd? Are people dancing because they like the music as much as you do, or because they're drunk? People will dance to anything with a beat, but they prefer dancing to music they like.
The other night I was playing off my buddies laptop and he had a corrupted file, I hit play and nothing happened (Never use Limewire!). I got on the mic to cover the silence and threw on the next song in the folder while I quickly searched for something else. The next song just happened to be some slow meringue song, straight Spanish lyrics... People started dancing! I let the song play for a couple minutes, and I didn't loose the dancefloor, they were full of energy and just wanted to dance. Nobody there even knew how to meringue properly... People in a party mood will dance to anything.
This is a classic argument about how accessible art should be. When art isn't accessible it dies. I'm not saying dumb down your performances, but don't make it something only another DJ could appreciate.
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