First gig, need help finding music. Thanks in advance

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
,
1

First gig, need help finding music. Thanks in advance

I’m doing my first real gig on december 9th, it’s a friend of a friend’s 18th (But I don’t know the guy) Another friend who is a tiny bit more experienced then me will take on the largest part of the evening but it’s my job to start and play the first couple of hours. My DJ friend assured me that most likely nobody will dance. He said just play some background music, electro or something.

So what I had in mind was some very chill electro and tech house. No massive drops, and a good amount of vocals to give it a commercial feel. Might throw in some Katy B, Laurent Wery, Lykke Li for the strictly commercial people and also just to have a bit of variation.

But the problem is I am not familiar with these genres and I would be very thankful if someone linked me some youtube videos or just posted a list of track names.

By the way just in case people do start dancing I’ve prepared a set with just about everything in it with a lot more energy, but I got that covered.

2

Right, so you’ve got a week to hit up some record stores, do some research and buy 40 or so tunes YOU like.

3
4

The top 40 songs I do like are way to energertic, I could play a few but what’s important is that I need to provide background music that won’t be very disturbing, kinda like in a club.

And yes I already thought of beatport and could just search the top 40 electro, BUT I need the to find a lot of mellow stuff, and if you don’t know or love the genres this could be difficult.

5

Start digging…

6

then look at other genres under beatport…there is more than just electro house there

7
8

Thanks, I don’t think the people at the party won’t appreciate grime… or dubstep, or too much dnb. But man I wish I could play it.

9

Nobody here is just going to up and hand you a playlist. Get to diggin’, son!

Also, although YOU’RE thinking of playing chill electro and tech house, what kinda music is the friend of a friend (and the rest of his friends at the party) expecting? Even if you’re a warmup DJ, you don’t have to necessarily play ligher house, tech house, or electro if people are going to not dig it.

Also, for looking at beatport - I’ve found that for more chill stuff, look at the top 100 classics in genre’s like electro or progressive house. The electro stuff is way less ‘attention deficit’ than the top stuff now, and progressive stuff is, well, more ‘progressive,’ and less anthemy. Think ‘expander’ instead of ‘avicii’.

I will say that diplo remixes of pop songs tend to be very noticeable, but sometimes a bit toned down and not necessarily full on bangers (I mean, most are solidly bumpin, but maybe, his remix of ‘helicopter’ by bloc party? Also, with a lot of tracks, you can tone down some of the ‘oomph’ by just turning the bass down a bit and softening the track up)

Also, worst case scenario, if you’re there to just play music that people won’t dance to, and only MIGHT take notice of, you can kinda play whatever. Get whatever tech-house, techno, lighter electro tracks that are the cheapest on beatport that you think don’t suck, and go to town. You’re free to mix as you like, from super casual, easy outro → intro mixing, maybe drop some samples of pop stuff to keep people’s interest piqued, all the way to mixing lots of little bits of more minimal stuff all together al la “Jeff Mills - Exhibitionist” style (just less bumpin)