First set today and I realized something funny.

[ponyboy]

In my limited experience you are normally booked by a promoter because you play a stlye of music that fits with the music he wants played at his night. the patrons to said night are there expecting to hear a cerain style of music.

How the hell do you get booked to play music that isn't the style of music you play or are capable of playing?

If it's a house party, play what people want, don't get all up yourself about the style of music, it's a house party and people are there to have fun.

[sebastiannz]

Read the crowd.
Play cheesy shit to start it off.
Gradually space said cheezy shit more and more as they get dancing.
Insert actual music in between.
Cookie.


This is actually a good method that I use to not necessarily clear, but loosen the dancefloor to get them to the bar to buy drinks.

Similarly applies to house parties so that they take a break to get drunk, thus increasing your ability to play good music.

lol...very clever. never thought of that. maybe I will start playing house parties again and test this theory

[keeb]

Electro house remixes of popular tracks tend to go well though.

This. You want to get the common crowd bumping to some proper EDM? Throw them a bone with the abovementioned remixes and use them to transition into songs you're more in love with. Works for me at college parties, but of course YMMV.

[itajeN]

Salmon Dance that shit!

this made my day. hahaha

[willrjmarshall]

I truly feel that if you play with what the dance floor can enjoy and knows well (regardless of what you think of it, but as long as you stick to a genre you like) you will set the house ablaze.

Hey man,

A longer ramble here, but I do have a point.

My own feeling is that DJTT tends to give people a false idea of the importance of catering to what an audience expects (or pandering, depending on your perspective). DJTT has a very strong working/club DJ bias, which is a valid position, but in my experience many of the the things that are claimed aren't consistently strictly true. In fact, a lot of the advice DJTT gives I think would be counter-productive when playing in more underground venues and scenes.

The big one that bothers me is the notion that the DJ is there to play whatever the audience wants. Sure, if you're working in a club or something that makes a kind of sense: but most of the DJs I respect (guys like Four Tet, say) play exactly what they want. It works: the audience turns up to see them play what they decide is good, and because they consistently make good decisions and play interesting sets their reputation stays excellent.

I have read this a bunch, especially on the DJTTs blog. When I was in my party days (mid 90s), you can bet your ass DJs didn't pander to the crowd with recognizable, top 40-like tracks. And likewise, I think the crowds respected DJs in that way and wanted to get their minds blown with tracks they had never heard. Maybe I am turning into an old curmedgeon, but I completely disagree with playing what the audience "thinks" they want to hear, more so now a days when DJ/dance music has been over saturated and commercially exploited.

Exactly. You're not there to play what the audience think they want (after all, they're not experts). You're there to play what will make the party go off, what people will enjoy and what people will find interesting.

It's the same with software development, really. My job isn't to do what my clients say they want, my job is to show my clients what they actually want.

Personally, when I play sets I expect that my audience will never have heard any of my tracks before (unless they've heard other sets). That said, I mostly play at raves and at outdoor parties. We have signs saying "no requests" to fend off the small % of non-ravers who don't know how rude it is to ask for songs.

Edit: I guess a lot of this also depends on your crowd. I tend to play at raves populated by ... ravers. They're all part of the same culture, so they grok electronic music, generally know a fair bit about it and are totally willing to let the DJ do whatever. I've played at commercial bars before and I hated it.

[willrjmarshall]

I always thought being a good DJ meant making everyone on the dancefloor go crazy!! Whether or not YOU like the song doesn't mean it's bad, most DJ's/music lovers will have heard the song a quintillion times and already be tired of it. I always thought being a DJ meant creating a feeling on the dancefloor that no one forgets! There've been times where I was a dancer and was just lost in the music because the DJ played what I liked, whether or not he liked it IDK but I had a damn good time. That's the whole reason why I got into Djing in the first place lol

Oh hell yes. Pay attention to the floor, spin tracks that work and don't spin tracks that don't. Your job as a DJ is to give people an awesome night, not to wank in front of an audience for 2 hours.

But don't be tricked into thinking that the only path to a successful set is playing top 40 hits or something.

[BradCee]

The big one that bothers me is the notion that the DJ is there to play whatever the audience wants. Sure, if you're working in a club or something that makes a kind of sense: but most of the DJs I respect (guys like Four Tet, say) play exactly what they want. It works: the audience turns up to see them play what they decide is good, and because they consistently make good decisions and play interesting sets their reputation stays excellent.

a slight inverse on this would a skillz, he plays what he wants, but brings out remixes and mash ups he's put together, some well known, some you just recognise but have no idea.