The other day I was at a party where they were playing pandora radio and after a couple of hours I decided I was going to plug up my pacemaker and try to get the party jumping. I start off doing my thing, starting with slower stuff (hip hop and latin jazz) that slowly gets faster towards house music. After a while one of my good friends came up to me and said we had to turn me off, and they plugged it into the lady gaga station on their PC. It was a little disappointing.
I’ll provide some back story, I have been mixing in my spare time for the last year and a half, I had never done anything for a crowd of people before, but I am good enough to not have obvious mistakes like beat matching and phase matching. Yet, no one really understood what I was trying to do, or what I was trying to play.
What is the lesson I should take away from this? That I should be prepared to throw more lady gaga in to my mixes?
I guess the lesson is, judge the crowd and play what they want.
If its a Top40 crowd they may just simply not like what you are doing even if its is musically better or whatever.
A Top40 crowd will not think “ooh that beatmatching is good” they will think “i dont know this song therefore it is shit”
If you cannot bring yourself to play Lady Gaga then dont play at parties/gigs where they expect it.
Its very very very easy for someone to tell you that you can play cool music and top40 together and mix it up an the crowd will dig it. The fact is that is not always true.
I do a gig where i have to play Top40 stuff, that is what they want but thay also respond to other stuff if i do it right. Its a good gig.
I have another gig where the crowd will simply piss off the dancefloor if they do not know the song. (i do it for the money).
Every credit for doing ‘your thing’ but you gotta know if ‘your thing’ is gonna work or just die.
Sometimes you can be too good for a crowd. I guess you were just that.
I like house and minimal, but I play them mostly for myself. At the parties I do, if you don’t have the latest Lady Gaga or Madonna, they go sit in the kitchen! So I play a few Top40, slip in an appropriate house track, go back to the Top40, do a breakdown with a minimal bit, etc.
Basically I’m trying to educate them. At first they didn’t get it, but I’m easier on them now and they are getting into a bit of house!
That first time everyone leaves the dance floor is a sickening experience! But you learn a lot from it.
i don’t have any personal experience playing top40 shows, but if i was in your shoes if you have the opportunity to play that same venue in the future- find top40 songs that you like or can atleast stomach and play that. even if it doesn’t allow you to really express your style, confronting the challenge will only make you a better and more versatile dj which will increase your worth to prospective contacts later down the road.
All very true but, if you dont spin at a Top 40 nite you would be very surprised at what does and doesnt work.
There are lots of EDM (boy do i hate that term) remixes of Top 40 tunes but you can bet that they will totally bomb on some dancefloors.
Seriously, if it has to the Top 40 Radio Edits, suck it up or dont do the gig.
Trying to “educate” can be a total waste of time on some crowds. Also, whos to say it is educating. I get a lot of Top 40 promos and the majority come with a remix pack by the usual suspects and a lot of the tracks are rubbish.
Seriously guys, Lady Gaga - Telephone at a Top 40 nite fills the floor. Play the Crookers version and people stand around thinking what this crapola version and then you have a queue of women complaining that it isnt the “real version”
Im not saying dont try playing the remixes, i am saying dont be surprised if it empties the dancefloor.
BTW - most of the equipment in my signature was bought from money earned doing these bloody “Top40 nights”… blow me.
At least it was at a friends party and not paying gig…
The best mixing skills don’t mean anything if the songs dont resonate with the audience.
Always try to get the girls dancing.
Being a mobile DJ is tough, that same set could kill at a club setting where people go to hear that music. I’m not sure if you had that mix planned but maybe plan less and go with the flow more. Dont stay set on your playlist if it isnt working… and… some people have no taste for “good” music… haha jk
Everyone who has worked as a dj has cleared the floor before, stay grinding!
Ahhh. It’s a lesson which comes to every DJ at some point in their life. And it appears you have reached yours: “Exactly how much Lady Gaga should I stock up on”.
The simple answer to your dilemma is “the entire hard drive”, yup, fill up your entire system drive, and fire off one Lady Gaga track after another. Problem solved.
I had a conversation with a buddy of mine about this kind of thing while driving down to Baltimore this past weekend.
He’s a “starting out” DJ. Meaning he’s played frat parties and a couple other paid gigs, but hasn’t made it into the club circuit at all. He really enjoys EDM with a passion, but has been trying to reach a larger crowd and actually be able to book some gigs.
The Top 40 stuff, if you aren’t into it, seems like whoring yourself out. Yes, you make money… but do you feel dirty afterwards? That’s what my buddy explained it to me as. He was booked for one event that ended up being a rap/top 40 night when he was up front with them about being a DnB/Dubstep DJ, and he ended up setting up all his equipment and playing off some kid’s iPod. Still got paid, but it was a learning experience.
If you’re going to go down the top 40 route, it requires having a much wider selection and “newer” tunes, and keeping up with music you might not otherwise. EDM is a niche, that is getting bigger at the moment, but it’s still toward a relatively smaller crowd.
Personally I plan on doing it for fun and not as a main profession, but there are mixed opinions on this.
Lady Gaga pays my rent. It’s been my experience over the last few years that as painful as it is, knowing all that crappy radio music is still better than needing to get a real job.
So true, so true. When I played out it was a mix of hip/hop and new wave. Neither of which was my favorite, but it fed me pretty well and the chicks were all over me.
Me…this weekend…had to play a 21st. Was for family…so…i kinda had to.
Had to take my whole kit of gear and speaker and ALL!
I usually play Psy…and have been getting into Electro…but i had no clue what they wanted really.
i had a CD the B-day girl gave me…and some Hiphop and RnB that my G/f said to play.
So I started with Minimal Techno…getting everyone in motion…then started some funkier fidget. They were not really into it at all.
Then I jammed some top40 of her CD…kinda picked up. Then she asked to play Justin Bieber. They went OFF!
ARGGGG!
then this other kid with a laptop rocked up and asked if he could play a bit. I let him have 45 mins…and he knew all the kids there and was rocking it!!!
Shitty music…but he HAD the crowd!
So i poked through my GENERAL folder and found some real commercial remixes and shit.
Played that and they dug it.
So yeah…my point is that you gotta play for the crowd. I come from a background where i play MY favs…and educate the dancefloor with new shit etc.
In the weekends situation…I could not get away with that.
Take a lesson from a legend, Z-Trip. He basically said what he does is he’ll play those well known hits at the beginning of the night to gain the audiences trust, after that he says the crowd is usually more open to some different music.
i was recently talking to another DJ and we live in a pretty conservative town. We got LMFAO 10 months after it had been played to death already. Also anything that’s not top 40, is considered techno. He was talking about how he was playing an aftergrad and when he played some dubstep all the sudden these kids were lovin it. It’s all about gauging the crowd.
You can usually avoid these situations with a little research ahead of time. Find out what the venue is associated with (musically), and what the punters expect.. or if you have come in as part of a promoters scene/night, then check out what their sound usually is.
People will dance to anything, but they almost always have preconceived ideas about what it is they want to hear.
it’s always going to be a balance. You can’t just play what the crowd wants 100%, otherwise your not going to stand out from the next guy and you might as well just hook up an iPod. You can’t just play what you want 100%, no one may know it and feel really out of there comfort zone. Play a mix of crowd favorites and your own personal selection and you’ll be the crowd hero and the guy who’s breaking in new tracks.
I guess one of the benefits of taking decks, mixer, laptop etc is that it helps you ‘get your feet under the table’. It says ‘this is me, this is my gear, now listen to my music biatches’.
