I DJ in a top 40 nightclub, lots of bars around the area I work in with a wide range of clubs and music styles. People bar hop a lot. Now dubstep is not something my boss wishes to play, it is a sure fire way to kill the vibe in the club and start fights, (we tried and that is what happened almost every time).
I don’t like dubstep myself and know very little about it and who is who in the dubstep world, however the night is not about me but about the people and I am fed up with dubstep requests.
So I feel I should throw in a track or 2 throughout the night but I want to be cheeky about it, maybe just a 32 or 64 in between 2 tracks or maybe a song or 2 that could be considered dubstep by the majority of people who think they like dubstep that will fool them into thinking I am playing dubstep.
Does that make sense or shall I elaborate?
Any advise on some tracks or tricks would be appreciated, preferably in the 120-140 bpm range
This is a funny dilemma. Every person I have played dubstep for thinks it is horrible and when I hear it at a club it never goes well. Yet it drives people wild at festivals and raves. One answer: it is drug music. Plain and simple. I am not sure what to think of that. I have tried to appreciate it and analyze it. I cannot understand it. The beats are weak the ryhthm is wack and the wobbles are just heavy metal guitar riffs reproduced by a synth. I have seen Skrillex live and he is very good. But I was not medicated and therefore could ony appreciate his stage presence and energy on stage. He did demonstrate a possible answer to your dilemma DJMpress. He would throw in pop song mixed with his dubstep drops keeping the crowd alive. I have searched for some of these remixes and have come up cold. Maybe you can start remixing them before your gigs. For example scan through your dubstep for some bomb ass wobble drops and then just drop them out of pop breaks. For example: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, etc. I recommend you practice some builds and effects using your software and/or mixer to get good at the transitions.
Ah, you don’t need dubstep, you need brostep. I gotcha covered.
Drunk in this (Phetsta Remix) - Surecut Kids
Basically loud screaming of "I’m drunk in this club blah blah blah) should get the dance floor in the mood if you’re in a club. You can mix out real quick if you want. I like to drop this with “how low” by ludacris over it during the verses and just do a little controllerism/mashing routine with the vocals. I use the Savoy Rmx of How Low which is a bit heavy too. Then again I don’t play clubs, just at parties.
Stuttering (Millions like Us Remix) - Loick Essien
Decent grind song. People gotta be in the mood for it though. Has some good vocals and a bit of a “hip-hop/R&B” element so you might get away with it.
Dubstep just doesn’t seem like it would go over well at a top40’s club scene. Even dubstep/brostep remixes of pop songs can be way too heavy and monotonous. They are a pain to find a way to mix out into something else because they are so bass heavy that you need to match it to keep up energy and feel. I don’t ever have a set format so I can tailor the rest of my play list and the lead-in and out (with non-top 40’s songs) to get to the dubstep. Not sure how much freedom you have.
Definitely go with the remixes, there’s a ton of them. Such as Noisia’s remix of Katy Perry - ET. If you play house you might play some Gemini (he sounds like prog. house with a dubstep beat). Or you could just play skrillex. Lots of DJ’s that I listen to have dubstep sections of their nights/mixes to scratch that itch, and I don’t think its really hard to mix out of, just set a 1 or 2 beat loop, then drop a house beat over it, then apply the filter liberally. It will sound like you did something tricky and the crowd will go wild.
Be very very careful… your doing Top 40 club night (i do one)… despite what im sure it seems a lot of people are telling you, NO not everyone wants to hear dubstep.
if you play ‘some’ you will get nagged for ‘more’ and if you play it ‘obvious’ you will then get asked for ‘harder’ ‘less well known’ stuff. I guarantee this !!!
Judge your wider crowd and their reaction to any dubstep you play not the actual people that ask for it cus they will shut the fuck up eventually.
Its a Top40 for a reason, people there want to hear Top 40, they like Top 40. Doesnt matter that Lady Gaga, Taio Cruz & Chris Brown and the rest are morphing into the same one 120bpm tune … it doesnt make Dubstep anymore appealing to people that want to hear David Guetta/Snoop.
“oh everyone wants to hear some dubstep” is the biggest lie on the planet.
Im lucky, my Top40 crowd do like a bit of dubstep and i get to play a few small sections of it thru the nite (and i can go quite off the typical with it) but if i play more than 3 tracks in a row the crowd thins out and im not there to please just ‘some’ people, im there to please the majority most of the time.
No amount of advice from anyone on here will inform you better than your own judgement and that is inevitably decided by the amount of people on your dancefloor… if its full, just keep it full.
Dont get me wrong, i like dubstep (some of it) its just the smell of MKat on peoples faces that annoys me when they come over and ask for dubstep. What, are they using it like talc these days !!!
Really? I thought that stuff had (thankfully) died down when the law changed. I never notice people on it any more which is good, they make terrible company when they are coming down and getting all bitchy.
@Karlos - really? Like MrPopinjay I thought it had gone the way of the dodo. Also, I never really associated dubstep with drugs - except perhaps horse tranqualiser and of course weed
Also doin some top 40 parties and i tried it several times to implement popish dubstep. Didn’t work. The crowd wasn’t digging it. I try to stay away from dropping dubstep these days, cause i want to keep my peeps dancing all night long ( wise words by lionell richie)
In Preston, Dubstep is drugs - drugs is Dubstep.
When i was promoting that Dubstep nite last year the worst job was always counting the money cus the notes stunk of it. There was a draw in the office that nobody ever like opening cus it just stank of MKat… the managers wallet stank of it.
But in a bar I can’t find this working.