DJ Craze released a bossy routine yesterday, after which he made a post stating that he made it because he felt that DJing was not respected the way it should be. Deadmau5 has also recently been going on another one of his "DJing is super easy and requires no skill"rants.
My question for you; do you feel respected? Do you feel respected when you play? Does it depend on the venue? How do people react when they find out you DJ? And so on and so forth.
EDIT:
Thanks for the responses guys, I think my initial post was a little vague. I’m not talking about personal respect (receiving respect as a person), I’m talking about respect for the art form. Over the last few months with SNL skit, Paris Hilton thing, the selfie guys “performing” on american idol, etc. the mainstream is beginning to see DJing as a little gimmicky. Craze, Shiftee, Endo, A-trak and tonnes of others have made responses because it bothers them that their art form is being treated as something trivial rather than being explored more deeply.
What I meant to ask was, on a local level, how do you guys think the people at your gigs feel about djing as an art form?
[quote=“IznremiX, post:1, topic:68636, username:IznremiX”]
Deadmau5 has also recently been going on another one of his "DJing is super easy and requires no skill"rants.
[/quote]That’s because he’s a worthless asshole with no respect for the scene, the music, the crowds, or anything else. The fact that any DJ buys and plays his music should have his equipment confiscated and his collection, whether digital or physical, burned.
Yes, yes, yes. And they mostly eithe ask what I’m into or start humming Sandstorm or occasionally say something about light switch raves if they’re old enough to remember homestarrunner.
It was funny…at a party a while ago…somebody pulled that “why bother, anyone can be a DJ” thing. So, I stepped back and gave him the gracious “after you” hand gesture towards the setup.
He kind of just looked around at all of our equipment confused, scoffed, and walked back to the bar.
Before I became a DJ (full time) I was a keyboard player (full time) and was touring constantly. In bands, all of us musicians were respected - at least on our good nights.
As a DJ the feeling I get is more appreciation than respect. Guys will say “Great job man” to me, while saying “I could do the same damn thing” to themselves. Whether they could or not isn’t the point. It just looks easy
Thanks for the responses guys, I think my initial post was a little vague. I’m not talking about personal respect (receiving respect as a person), I’m talking about respect for the art form. Over the last few months with SNL skit, Paris Hilton thing, the selfie guys “performing” on american idol, etc. the mainstream is beginning to see DJing as a little gimmicky. Craze, Shiftee, Endo, A-trak and tonnes of others have made responses because it bothers them that their art form is being treated as something trivial rather than being explored more deeply.
What I meant to ask was, on a local level, how do you guys think the people at your gigs feel about djing as an art form?
Depends on the venue… At local bars you get snubbed because someone thinks you suck because they’re drunk and want to hear Garth Brooks and you don’t have it.
At an actual club or an event that promotes house music I’ve gotten nothing but love.
Same experience here dude. I used to think that there was no point in really trying play artistically at the “local bar” type of places you described because people were so uninterested in DJing. This changed when skratch bastid came to our city. Redbull had booked him at a bar which is notorious for being the most painful to dj in (terrible sound system, rude crowd, etc.). Overall, it was not a fun place to play at. I was expecting it to go piss poorly and he completed rocked the place. Everyone was taking videos of his turntablism and was overall very into it. I think with the right type of performance style and what not, you can definitely earn the respect of crowds that are typically uninterested. Albeit, it is very hard to do.
Anybody (within reason) can “play guitar” too. It would take me about 2 minutes to teach you how to play the rhythm part of Smoke On the Water or Louie Louie.
I knew the right hand piano part to Heart And Soul since before I knew where middle C was.
That’s all Paris Hilton does…play those 3 chords over and over again. It’s just that what we do is so much more subtle that it’s hard to tell the difference between good and bad until you’ve heard a fair few sets and actually thought about them.
You don’t get it until you leave a set in a totally different headspace than when you walked in.
It doesn’t bother me.
Paris Hilton* and I do not compete for gigs or crowds, and we never will. And while I’m a nobody, it has nothing to do with fame. I don’t do “sick drop, bro”. And, frankly, I’m glad the people who like that have somewhere to go.
(* or almost any other big room DJ you want to hate on)
I wouldn’t be able to happily entertain their crowds any better than they could entertain me.
I think that in the entertainment world people will respect you if they really like what you are doing. No one will respect a mediocre band playing mediocre music, and no one will care if you are giving your blood there to make everything happen or not. You have to be unique on some way for those people there. If you are, great, if you are not, they will not respect you. I think that goes for anything that involves entertaining a crowd.
Your absolutely right, but seeing it go from being a completely apathetic club to one that was suddenly interested in something artistic (and not just getting “turnt” ) was really interesting.
I can relate and agree. However I can tell you that having grown up in s large city with a thriving scene the respect was only given from the genres that were dominating the scene at the time … Example drum and bass / jungle was really big in the scene so the only Djs really respected were d&b and jungle djs… House/trance/tech Djs werent… Then fast forward a few years and the prog house and trance scene are breaking into the scene hard and some tech… Now there’s dispute over which djs are better based solely on genres…
Now I don’t agree with this kind of prejudice but to some extent can see where it comes from… In my mind mixing house has always been easy for me…
Now bs k to point izn I know the feeling here in Sask it’s truely pathetic… This is what happens when for 25 years there’s only been one bar in town that’s stayed open and it just happens to be a country bar… In fact most the bars here are country or pop or both … And when their both good luck straying into the inner folds of electronics sub genres…
I don’t agree with it, but I’ve found respect often comes based off what equipment one plays off of. People are quick to dismiss anyone with a laptop even if they’re on all 4 decks, looping, cutting, mashing and so on.
I think the respect for DJs has gone down recently just because of the huge advancement in technology that gives anyone the ability to be a ‘DJ’ at home. Now the way I look at it is, a lot of people can mix tracks but that doesn’t make them a DJ. I play drums on occasion and I’m decent at it but I’m not a drummer. That’s the best way I can explain it.
Problem is, every douchebag these days thinks they can do better than someone else and for the most part, only those people with a trained ear can identify the difference between someone who has dedicated a huge part of their lives to music and some dude who knows a bar owner that can generically play track after track.
It’s crazy how well known Deko-ze is in TO, I didn’t realize he was so big! On a side note I’m glad I’m finally moving out of here in the near future as well haha.
I’ve spent time and played in a bunch of cities, and of course they are all different, so whatever.
But In my current city…this is how I have found success.
----If you play what people WANT to hear…no respect. If you play what people NEED to hear…respect.----
It may sound a little philosophical…but it is true. Play the unexpected, play the unusual, play the out of place, mix it up.
90% of club and rave djs are pretty much playing the same 1000 songs on a monthly basis.
When I play a track and someone looks at me and they have that look in their eyes…like…“I have just lost control of my body, why is it moving this way…and HOW??” That’s when you know your playing good tracks.
Even other djs will respect you, because you put the time and effort to find a track that no one in your area has ever heard.
Its hard to respect anyone that is playing tracks that can be found and acquired in 15 seconds on itunes for 99cents.
Put forth the effort, people will notice.
IMHO
Many of you know my style of djing, is based more on finding the most obscure tracks i can play (good ones) I’m a digger for life!
) was really interesting.
