Adding showmanship to your set

[IznremiX]

Purely an observation, but the top 40 "mainstream" DJs that get hated on are the reason the DJ moved from a position of music provider to rockstar status.

Definitely. But I suppose in every genre of music famous artists achieve a rock star status, I don't think it was any surprise that the shift happened in dance music as well. Along with this, the type of music a lot of these djs make diverges from the traditional spirit/sound/vibe of older dance music, which I think causes a lot of people to hate mainstream acts as well.

My main beef is that live performance is essentially dead especially in the mainstream. This isn't just a problem in djing though. I've been dragged out to a few top 40 concerts, and literally each and every one of them involves the artist either lip syncing or just singing on top of a track which already includes vocals. I've seen some solid dj sets, but I've also seen some big name djs play some very very poor sets. My 2 cents is that if local djs make an increased effort to add more of a performance to their sets, it will raise the very low bar thats been set for djing and will help the art develop

[dripstep]

I think this half-assed pre-recorded drivel will eventually pass as DJing moves from "cool" back to its former glory. The same thing has happened with punk rock. Remember a time when "punks" were real and not store bought? Pop-punk moved into the mainstream with blink182, sum41 etc, and all of a sudden it was cool to have a mohawk and jewlery in your face, where it once was taboo. That seems to have passed and been replaced with different genres (pseudo-indy). I have a feeling that this rockstar mentality of DJs will follow the same path in time. And if not, who cares? I still like the music I like, and will continue to support those that I feel deserve it.
/rant.

[IznremiX]

I think this half-assed pre-recorded drivel will eventually pass as DJing moves from "cool" back to its former glory. The same thing has happened with punk rock. Remember a time when "punks" were real and not store bought? Pop-punk moved into the mainstream with blink182, sum41 etc, and all of a sudden it was cool to have a mohawk and jewlery in your face, where it once was taboo. That seems to have passed and been replaced with different genres (pseudo-indy). I have a feeling that this rockstar mentality of DJs will follow the same path in time. And if not, who cares? I still like the music I like, and will continue to support those that I feel deserve it.
/rant.

Thats a pretty interesting comparison. I wonder if some small pieces of dance music/dj culture will still linger in the mainstream after this whole thing blows over.

[dripstep]

Oh for sure some will linger. As the music changes and evolves, I would hope that at least some remnants hang back.

[loverocket]

"I would appreciate if the commander of this spaceship concentrated on our flight path instead of gallivanting around with the passengers."

[johney]

+1 on dancing behind the decks,

i usually go through a 'warm up phase' which is first 15-20 minutes of my set, and when i finally ease up i basically jump around the whole booth haha

[IznremiX]

Heh not quite the type of showmanship I was hoping to talk about in this thread, but this was A LOT of fun. The promoter for our last gig bought a bunch of CO2 for us to play with