Committing to a genre...

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Committing to a genre…

Hey guys,

So this is my first post on this forum, so please be nice!
And if there’s already a thread covering this topic (or this thread should be in a different group) then just let me know.

I play techno mostly (and some deep house) and want to focus on this genre to develop my name.
I played at a student night on Friday last week, where what they wanted was mostly mainstream chart 40s.
So in the end, I made a compromise to play some more electro/house type tracks.

I understand that as a DJ you should be reading the crowd and adjusting your mix accordingly (never plan out a set from beginning to end, etc).
But at the same time, I don’t want to start confusing people with the different genres and style of sets I play.

I’m more interested in club DJing but obviously took on the student night, as it was also good experience to be playing out.
Has anyone else had a similar situation? And any advice?

Thanks.

2

I think you forgot to check your expectations for the crowd you were playing for.

3

Thanks for the message. Yeah, it was obviously something that was in the back of my mind in the run up to the night.
Also the reason I decided to take a few more electro/house tracks just in case; lucky I did.

Just a thought for future gigs; whether I should focus more on the relevant venues/crowd.
Or to keep taking on gigs at other events such as student nights, etc, even if it means playing a different genre to what I want to focus on.

4

You should take the gigs that you want to represent your work, but sometimes those don’t always pop up. When i was in college I turned down gigs that weren’t really up my alley (for instance a party where the theme was “Speak Easy on a Train” and they wanted 1920s era jazz, but also top 40/dance hits) and instead we started our own parties and gigs and got invited to do cooler things because of that (playing a school spring festival, a show at an art museum, etc.)

5

Oh man, with a 1920s gig you could go all Swing House up in that bizz.

6

Play what you get hired to play. If they pay you to play an 80’s party, don’t play techno.

Start producing original tracks in the style you love. If your music gets hot, so will your name.

Then you can tell the 80’s parties to keep the $300 and use it to buy tickets to your festival.

7

It is always good to have a collection/knowledge of several different generes so you can do different events without struggling.

Back in the early 90’s when I started DJing, I was into freestyle, NY house, hip house, club & vocals, and euro techno and did a lot of events - sometimes just one genere, other ones were a blending of several.

As a wise older DJ told me when I started to have what people want to hear (and pay for) and collect what you really like. I really hated going to the record store and seeing the club DJs who only bought what they were paid to play and had no real love of music. Might as well be a wedding/birthday/bar mitzvah DJ at that point…

8

Know your audience, (music wise), give em what they want, and use yopr imagination, and talent to ‘push’ that boundary, push for reactions, and try something that generic DJ’s just don’t do. Don’t try to educate em with what you personally love, that won’t work.
If you play music you hate, you are doing it wrong.

Nothing wrong with being a wedding/party DJ, if you love some of that music, and love entertaining to the best of your ability. There’s an awful lot of shit DJ’s who think a wedding/birthday party is an easy gig and easy money, who play generic shit, with no imagination, with their head stuck in a phone, without good equipment, and no good knowledge of music or DJ’ing. It’s not an easy gig if you do it right. If you are in it just for the money, and not sor the love of the craft, then, you shouldn’t be entertaining people at all.
I’ve been to weddings and events where DJ’s were lazy, and overall, shit, it was noticed, not just by me. I felt sorry for the person who hired the DJ, having been ripped off by someone who promised more than what they could deliver. Grrr..

9

You can also turn down a gig if it doesn’t fit to your musical taste. I used to find myself in the same situation, earlier I only played a kind of specific techno and house subgenre/sound and turned down gigs from time to time. If it is the same situation as you described and I show up playing my music (I don’t have a collection of popular mainstream tracks and I do not want to invest my time in music that I don’t like), nobody is going to have fun. Turning down the gig and politly explaining that probably your musical style probably is nog going to fit their party is just the right thing to do.

This also further elaborates that you take your DJ’ing seriously and know what you’re talking about. Which will mean that if they organize an event which does fit your style, they will call again!

10

Sounds like you’ve got 2 choices:

  1. You can play what you want to play, or;
  2. You can play what the crowd wants to hear.

What you can’t do, is play what you want to play, to a crowd that wants to hear what they want to hear. 'cos if you try that, you’ll end up playing to an empty room.

And who wants to do that week in, week out???

11

In overly broad and general strokes, there are two ways to approach DJing:

  1. As an artist

You are an artist, and you are presenting your art. This does not have to be confined to those people who are producing their own tracks. DJing is the art of collage, and the way that you are blending and combining different tracks is still an “art.” In the extreme, this is presented in a “like it or leave it.” Advertise your own performance art, and then perform it.

  1. As a service.

The DJ is there to provide a service. This is not a living juke-box situation. You have been hired to entertain a crowd, and you should do that by playing what the crowd expects to hear. Perhaps there is a designated theme for the event, or perhaps the crowd wants/expects to make requests. In any event, the scale of success is based entirely on the enjoyment of the crowd.

There are pro’s and con’s to both approaches. History is littered with mis-understood artists who dies penniless and broke, and corporate sell outs who completely lost their souls and became drones. The day to day reality is decidedly more in the middle. There are a LOT of very successful “artists” who will toil away in obscurity hoping for a steady regional following and happy just to be up on stage. There are a LOT of very successful “wedding DJs” who are wowing clients every week by helping them throw the best party of their lives.

Be very careful with the word “compromise.” Playing what the audience wants to hear is not “settling” or “less than” playing your BFF sub-sub-sub-sub-sub genre of music that is sooooo underground it’s just one song on a loop for 4 hours.

I don’t know you. You don’t know me.

You did say that you are still need to “develop your name.” You don’t have a name, today. You don’t have a brand, today. There is nothing for your to risk right now.

Find your passion. Find the thing that moves you. And play that. At home. Write about that music, on your blog or social media. Make mixtapes based on that music…even if no one hears them.

As for playing out, take any job you can get, and do a good job while you are there. Play what the people want. Play what the promoter advertises. Show up on time. Be professional. Learn the craft. It takes years. Those things are noticed. Getting noticed for being reliable, ontime, professional…those are the traits that open doors to opportunities.

12

Ive had a similar situation when I played a nightclub in Lexington. Heres the thing, if you play at a club where the crowd is coming to see the dj instead of other activites maybe going on, you will probably not liked well if you play music the crowd doesn’t wanna hear or doesn’t know, so always keep your music deep and diverse. What I did was when the crowd was out to smoke id play tech house, which is my style and a style I generally stick to. I was playing for a top 40 crowd so I saved all of my music for when they were on the dance floor. Always take requests btw. Most likely there is more than one person in the audience that wants to hear it. Good luck buddy.

13

keep 2 names… one name for the sound/genre you want… and one for those top 40 college gigs.

the last thing I want is for my name to be associated with top 40 rofl…

14

Pretty much this.

15

@SEKIO:

There are Gigs in the genre you wanna Play (and for which you are booked) and there a gigs you have to Play the crwods expectations.

If I get you right you mainly don’t wanna be assimilated to a genre you do not want to be the main one the People should know you for.

Now 2 possibilities:

  1. You accept any gig, no matter why, Money can be a Motor but also improving your experience of playing for a crowd.
  2. You only Play the gigs in your genre.

If you decide for #1 then:

  1. You accept the fact that People will Assimilate you to a “Crossover Style DJ”
  2. You don’t want #1 to happen and then there’s a simple trick you can use for People not to Assimilate your DJ Name to another genre: Use different DJ Names.
    For example:
  • Parties with Top 40s: DJ TOP40s
  • Techno Parties: DJ TECHNO
  • Deep House Parties: DJ DEEPHOUSE
  • etc…

Many DJs use a different names when they are playing in a different genre than the one they are allready wellknown for or in a genre they don’t want their Main Name to be assimilated to.

Also Bookers and Promoters should then know what to expect when they book as DJ XY (well the professional ones…heard of People in Kasachstan who booked Tiesto for a 15th birthday and wanted him to Play HipHop all night Long).

Also DJ/Producers use this simple tactic…best example is Diplo which uses Major Lazer as Name for his other Project.

16

LOL haven’t seen the posts right before mine…apparently great minds Meetup here :wink:

17

Wow, thanks so much for all the responses and advice.
I definitely don’t want my name to be assimilated with Chart40’s or the like, so yes, I will continue taking on gigs that aren’t 100% in my preferred genre (for experience etc), while at the same time focussing on techno when I can.

I like the idea of different DJ names to separate the different projects/gigs/etc.
I guess in this case, you would also need to be able to predict what kind of crowd it’s going to be, before the event.

18

If the not-so-ideal events are pretty small-scale, I don’t see a need for multiple identities. Should just try to have fun with it, man. I think the idea of, like, “oh, this guy’s a deep house dj but that electro set from him was actually crazy!” is pretty cool. Not a one-trick pony and such.

Compromising entirely is one thing, but making some smaller compromises isn’t such a big deal. Spend some time seeing if you can find some stuff in those other genres that resonates to some degree, or stuff you like that has crossover potential. I think crossover stuff is huge if you can find it, because then there’s a chance you can convert some people - get them interested in what you like.

Definitely shouldn’t go into things like that with the goal of improving your presence as a techno/deep house dj tho. Like you said, the experience is valuable. Money is cool. All you can really ask for from something like that. Just pick up events like that when the opportunity arises and it’s convenient/worthwhile for you, have fun with them if you can, but prioritize what’s most important (which I assume is still the techno/deep house side of things).

19

At this point I only play gigs where I feel excited about the music I can play. This still varies based on how I’m feeling but I end up burnt out playing somebody else’s set list.