Always Top 40/Open Format Negativity here

[Karlos Santos]

A lot of Top 40 music is way better than a lot of crud i hear on Beatport etc.

Bashing Top 40 and Top 40 DJs (and lumping them into one) is as stupid as hating on controllers. Its pathetic and its childish.

When i say Top40 im referring to High Street clubs that cater for a mass audience that can include pop/R&B/indie/Dubstep/Hiphop/Dance all in one night. That what my Top40 gigs are.

I do 5 hours and its all mixed. Either beatmatched or cut up and scratched but never just played like an iTunes playlist. Thats total misnomer of a Top 40 DJ.

It takes a lot more skill for a DJ to play 5 hours and to keep 300 people on a dancefloor all night in a 400 capacity club playing a varied, genre hopping set than it does to keep a like-minded crowd who came to hear one genre played when the DJ only play 2 hours then another plays 2 hours or less.

2 hours is piece of piss.

Yeah there are a lot of Top 40 DJs ruining it for the rest by using shit software and playing the same tired "Summer Of 69, Bon Jovi" set every week in some crappy club. But, where do you people think the majority of people are going on a daily/weekly basis. They arent going to super-cool underground clubs. They are going the High Street and thus the standard is/has got a lot better.

Throw me in a club and tell me to do 2 hours of electro or dubstep or whatever and ill piss it. I get a lot of music i dont ever play and it only takes a few hours to get the music together to do a set like that. I know cus ive done it recently.
Throw someone to the lions in a top40 club and most will get eaten alive by the demand of the people that go there.

Anyone who thinks DJing at a decent Top40 club is easy is a moron.

[lethal_pizzle]

You're absolutely right about it not being easy Karlos.

Do you play much music that you don't like?

PS how, precisely, does top 40 = open format?

[bartboy]

Also I think it's fair to say that "Top 40" isn't a great term to use for some songs. There are some great songs that are more say Electro House that happen to be a remix of a Top 40 Hit. Take R3hab's remix of Rhianna We Found Love. It's a great track and I understand how some people will call it Top 40 and some Electro House or whatever it is you want to call it, it doesn't matter it's all music if it sounds great then who cares.

But I do agree that at least on this forum there seems to be a negative view of "Top 40". But then again maybe this isn't the best place to go looking for advice or critiques of your Top 40 set as this isn't necessarily the crowd with the best view of your preferred style of music.

[lethal_pizzle]

it's fair to say that "Top 40" isn't a great term to use for some songs.

Technically "Top 40" is a great term to use for songs that sell a lot of copies, but less appropriate to use for songs that don't.

[haze324]

I play everything I like, and down here it's not referred to as Top 40. When someone asks what do you play - the response is "Open Format".

I've hit them from old school tracks like Me So Horny to Enter the Sandman and they are all songs I would jam to. In the same set I've also played Laidback Luke and Chris Lake. I'm a fan of both as well.

[haze324]

But I do agree that at least on this forum there seems to be a negative view of "Top 40". But then again maybe this isn't the best place to go looking for advice or critiques of your Top 40 set as this isn't necessarily the crowd with the best view of your preferred style of music.

Thing is there's lots of great Traktor DJ's that are not strictly house/tech/electro DJ's - Craze, Shiftee, Skribble, etc and this IS a predominantly pro-Traktor site. So why not support the DJs that try to play a similar style.

[Zaniac]

I just love music in its many forms. Its as simple as that


Sadly this thread is likely to get a lot traffic as us humans like our drama's.

[kooper1980]

All very subjective opinions in here!! Very similar to the whole Traktor vs Serato debate, Controller vs vinyl/CDJ's and Sync vs non-sync. Depends who you are and what you do!

Whenever i hear the mention of 'top40' i instantly think of the top40 chart played by Radio 1 every Sunday or our local Liquid night club, and to be completely honest I don't care how good you can mix it. You can mix it backwards for all i care. IMO its utter toss and i can't think of anything worse than being in a club that plays it!! - like i said though very subjective. one mans shit is another mans gold! :eek:

[Karlos Santos]

You're absolutely right about it not being easy Karlos.

Do you play much music that you don't like?

PS how, precisely, does top 40 = open format?

Top 40 is a crap term i agree. The thing is that the larger percentage of the music played (at my monday gig and most high street clubs) is in, or has recently been in the Top 40 so its just a convenient term of reference.

I do 2 Top 4o gigs.

Monday: Student based. Top40 pop/r&b/dance but i include 90s Dance/90s hiphop. A bit of obvious D&B and Dubstep.

Saturday: More locally based clubbers/less students because students go out in the week more. The music is again Top 40 based but i play a lot more house/Classic house and i replace the D&B/Dubstep with funk/soul/motown. Nothing to obscure but not wedding stuff.

Both nites are good fun. I can be quite creative with the performance but i do not Beatmasher the fuck out of the music cus people dont want to hear that. I mix the majority of it and Im know for being that guy that plays lots of genres in a way that isnt so obvious. Key to a good Top 40 gig is knowing pivotal/crossover tunes that lead from one genre to another (or a couple of songs) so that one minute everyones dancing to R&B the next minute its House but the same people are on the floor because the change in musical direction has been subtle.
Weve all heard those Top 40 club DJs that play Lady Gaga then Queen then Chris Brown then The Killers. They are criminals.

Some of the best sets ive ever played have been Top 40 (im starting to hate that phrase) when ive gone all over the musical spectrum but held the floor all night... People notice it as well. A good Top 40 set stands out and you get compliments because people are given a shitty deal by mant DJs in high street clubs.

How much of the music do i like..? Hard to say. The more you do these gigs the more the music gets under your skin. The R&B stuff is the stuff i dislike the most, especially the slower Jason Derulo type shite.
R&B is very much in the 120bpm range these days so its easy to mix with dance. Much of it is very formulaic and i dont like it.
But, i might not like tune but i will know if its gonna go down well with my crowd cus you get to know what they like.

Take the Maroon Five tune. Its just a pop song. Its MASSIVE, its got a 4/4 beat that makes it easy to play in a Dance set. Its got crossover appeal. These are the kinds of bread and butter tunes that i love. I dont actually like the song but i dont hate it. Its one of those tunes that instantly massive and so its instantly hated by people who dont like Top 40 music.

It makes me laugh that people that dont like or listen to Top 40 always hate the most popular songs the most.
There are much worse songs that deserve people derision than Maroon fucking five.

[sobi]

Nobody says 'top 40' when you ask them what their favourite sort of music is.

Actually (and I wish I didn't hear it as often as I do), a lot of people do say that in the USA.