First set today and I realized something funny.

[Jester]

On the other hand tho, if you don't like what you are playing then whats the point really. Unless its your main job, play what you wanna hear! Personally, My brothers and i haven't spent thousands of bucks on gear just to play the latest electro version of lady tug tug's new tune at the whim of 14 yr olds or whatever

[Quiggers]

Also its not an arms race, so you've known a song for months, if its new to the crowd, its new, they're the people you're trying to win over, to be your fans. also you gotta learn to judge the crowd, if they look like a top40 bunch then you're not gonna get them dancing with minimal deep techy dance, like wise if the want deep house and you throw on lady gaga, they'll throw you off and out. people will always listen to new music so long as you dont lecture them, play a track they know, if they like it, play something similar thats off you new and good list, then back to what they know, better chance of holding them, and one might come up and ask what the new track was, job done.

[Ross]

Just dont play house then you're good

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

[Jester]

i was just stirring mate

[M Elbert Grant]

maybe from now on i'll just play sandstorm on repeat.

[Jester]

30 different remixes of sandstorm.

[BradCee]

so today I played at my first house party, somewhere around 4-5 hours and it was fun...Anyways I realized that people dance to music that is considered popular or well know moreso than songs that are actually good...

So for example, i played a derezzled remix I found on soundcloud and people were straight thumping to it, but when I play a great house song, everybody went outside to smoke cigarettes!

People are strange, even stranger was that I got requested to play warp 1.9 several times...

as Shirley Bassey once said "People won't dance if they don't know who's singing"

however i believe she also said "why question your head when it's your hips that are swinging"

so if she says people should dance and get the fuck on with it, then they should

[Filterkat]

maybe from now on i'll just play sandstorm on repeat.

HAHAHA! if u played sandstorm for the full length anyways it would probably take up like a fith of your set... what is it... like nearly nine minutes?

[padi_04]

please play this version http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sho...ight=sandstorm

[diamond_shark]

I've been noticing a trend in any kind of performer or musician that happens at the highest echelons of the performance, and it can be explained by anecdote- as well know that the plural of 'anecdote' is 'data' (That was a joke, don't freak out.)

My friend was in University for music studying saxophone. He's an excellent player, and I went to some of the recitals with the high-end students, and I always noticed a common thread-

When people get really good at playing music, they tend to go beyond 'music' to somewhere else. Post-music. It's incredibly difficult to play, and if you understand it (know all the keys, modalities, rhythm changes, time signature warping) you have your mind blown. 'Did you see that?' You'll exclaim, as you watch a guy's fingers rip through scales that the common man has never heard-

The key problem is, it generally sounds like crap to the common man.

I notice a similar trend with DJs, and I've read several articles that tend to discuss musical choice in venues (How to DJ Right, the Art And Science of Playing Records; some posts by Ean/other contributors on this site, DJing for Dummies) etc.

There are always a few camps that emerge:

The ones that believe that the common man is an idiot and needs to be shown what good music is

The ones who emphasize 'the promoter has the cash: Play what he wants or become a promoter yourself'

There's a happy medium lying around there somewhere, the ones that believe that the DJs job is to keep people moving due to their preference in music, while smoothly and carefully introducing different elements into their style, music they've never heard before.

I don't even know where I fall. I've been doing this for only a year, but the more I research into it, listening to endless mixes, BBC radio one selections, soundcloud stuff, reading articles... The highest end DJ stuff I usually go 'Wow, he's got 4 records going at once there. He must be tweaking FX and EQ like you wouldn't believe'... but then when I show them to my friends, they generally say that it's boring, repetitive, too long, too long without beats, too long without vocals, too long without anything recognizable'...

I don't know why there's this insane desire to be so underground and counter-culture all of the time. Everyone spends so much time trying to define their awesome style of mixing dubstep/dirty electro/minimalist house/tech house/eurodance... Does the extreme elitist attitude come in the box with the decks and mixer?