That is exactly the type of forum member I am talking about. Your clueless my man. Dope out of curiosity where are you from and how old are you? Maybe it’s an age and location thing.
Here’s another one, and this is in response to Nephew, there are some great EDM DJ’s that will play an incredible set and every song they play you will know. Listen to Roger Sanchez. I posted a while pack a set he played on 4 CD’s that was sick, and most folks here could name each song with no problem.
I think it’s the very opposite as to what some are saying. Top 40 for what you guys are calling it here in Miami we refer to it as open format is being able to blend genre’s and popular tracks of through out decades of music and compose a tight set. Nothing to do with going 1 - 40 like a juke box. I personally get ALOT more out transitioning from Niggaz in Paris to Show me Love and having every girl in the room throw their hands up and start singing, then I ever got out of turning three effects knob on a house set. **note chicks in Miami are smoking hot so maybe thats it. They eat that shit up.
The last thing I play for is the money. When i landed this last residency I went two months with out cashing one of my checks to remind myself it wasn’t for the money. It was for the fun. The cash was just an added perk.
So you get your knowledge from Google searches. Dubious.
I think you need to educate yourself in some basic DJ terminology.
Selector is a very important word in DJ culture .
I can understand why you would think that but my soul is satisfied by playing gigs that i enjoy as well as the ones i play for rent.
My Djing hasnt gone from a passion to being souless. I still have the passion i always had. I still collect records, i still buy music that i only listen to.
WOuld i be on here all the time if i wasnt passionate about DJing.
I can do both.
Top40 is like my day job and i bet theres a lot of people on here with crappy day jobs.
My day job happens to be a bit of a laugh and is a 5 hour day. Easy.
I guess its hard for people to understand because few people are able to make a living doing both kinds of DJing. At some point most people either give up and go Top40 and lose their soul or just stop Djing altogther. unless they make it big playing whatever genre they play.
I think some of the disconnect could somewhat cultural. Here’s an example…in South Florida we have a HUGE Hispanic population - we are the majority down here. A few weeks back I was at a trendy upscale club that plays mostly House, Progressive, Tech, etc. The main DJ is a fairly well known local guy - he’s played the main room at Space to give you an idea of what level he’s at. My man was dropping tons of great tracks - Dirty South, Hard Rock Sofa, Green Velvet — then out of no where this guy drops fast playing spanish Salsa track. The crowd loved it. This was as much of a popular Top 40, my parents even know this song track, and the entire place was up and moving. Props to him for being able to think outside of the EDM box and play something his crowd would enjoy a few songs later we were back to another Progressive bomb and the place was shaking. There is NO super secret gem track, there is NO combination of 6 effects and loop recorder that would’ve had the same effect on the crowd.
While I normally wouldn’t listen to most top 40 on my own I have respect for good open format DJs. There are a couple in NY I am thinking of in particular who are just awesome and could really keep me having a good time and get me into music that normally wasn’t my style with the edits they used and how it was mixed with other styles.
I see a difference between top 40 and open format DJing though. I’ve heard a lot of bad djs who mixed just top 40 but the ones who cross boundaries into other styles that I would consider open format are usually pretty good.
Hah like i care if you think that.
I play enough ‘proper’ gigs to keep my soul satisfied.
@Keithace, you were the one that brought up age like it was a factor in whether you played top40 or not. You assumed that older DJs didnt play top 40 as though its just for kids. Your wrong.
You must live in some utopian dream if you think that DJs dont play gigs and just think about the money. Ive seen plenty of big DJs just going thru the motions but just cus they arent playing Top40 doesnt mean its any less for the money. Probably more so because at least when i play I put effort in. I earn that money which is a lot more then can be said of a lot of big name DJs that are just miming or playing pre-mixed stuff like many do.
Serious reality check needed in this thread.
Yeah this thread has got bogged down in the term Top40 which i explained at the beginning was an inadequate term, at least for the Top40 kinda djing i do.
And this is what this place has become…where fellow forum members tell a respected member of the community he should become a prostitute over a Top 40/Open Format thread.
And this is exactly why I enjoy the Serato Community much more now a days.
yeah, this thread is ridiculous. I can feel the night / day difference between the avg djtt user and the avg serato forum user.
I feel like there’s a greater focus on EDM styles here, more kids/adults are on here that don’t necessarily have many years of experience (in general), and there is a lot of “idealism” about djing “for the love of music” and all that mess.
whereas the serato forum is filled with lots of guys that are doing weekly mainstream/top40 / hip-hop sets, and are about getting paid (and the love of music too)
when I got back into djing I was definitely in the djtt category, but as time passed I’m now in the 2nd.
Thats not the definition of prostitution. Would you work in an office if you didnt get paid. No cus you wouldnt enjoy it.
Im not forced into doing the gigs, i do them out of choice. I enjoy it.
If you would rather do no gigs and get no money thats your call. I would rather do the gigs and have some money. If i got paid half the money id get another job but i dont need to.
This leaves me the spare time to be creative in many many other ways including getting paid to do non-top40 gigs. Whatever gigs i do, i get paid to do them. Cus thats my job. Im a DJ.
Your problem is that your hung up on Top 40 music and the slim definition you apply to it.
THIS is EXACTLY why spin “top40” gigs, i have a blast, play songs i want (and want to show them) with songs i know they want, and make them go nuts. not a better feeling in the world.
