Have you ever felt “out of place” at places you have DJed?
This is exactly how I felt at this thing I DJed at my school. It was a thing for parents to watch their kid on a basketball team go through their warm ups. I was asked to DJ the shit to add some spice. I had my full DJ setup, and reallllly nice speakers that my school bought. I played at a very low level the whole time, because the coach was telling me to constantly turn it down, when I could barely hear it out of the speakers. I just felt so out of place, with such a small crowd of people, and none of them gave a shit.
This almost happened to me today, I DJed an art show. Played disco house and indie rock. For the first half hour, I felt like I was playing to myself, random person walked by and would just look at me, then keep walking. Thank god it picked up and people were walking up and shit and telling me good job. But yea, for that first part I was really regretting taking the gig, especially when I wasn’t getting paid.
I had the worst house party of my life the other day…
Well not really… Just really different.
I’m a white kid who djs with his friend for house parties, and a girl (my age) asked us to dj at a party at her house.
Expecting that it was her party, I accepted… But when I got there. They gave me a USB full of bollywood Indian pop music stuff and asked me to play for an indian wedding homecoming thing. Still not too sure what the situation was, I feel that we played a pretty good party for two white kids, and 40yearold Indian people requesting songs I’ve never heard of before.
Looking back, it was pretty funny, and was good fun and has some good laughs… But in te future, i need to start asking what the party is for
Mmmm, something similar - there’s a bar in Bristol that regularly gets DJs in, but it seems that none of the clientele really care that you’re there or playing. Its a little out of the centre, in an area mostly populated by well to do mid-30 types. I think the bar only hires a DJ to allow the people that go there to convince themselves that they’re still ‘down with the kids’
They do pay pretty well though so I just suck it up …
coming from a more “intense” scene where i play usually powerful music at peaktimes, i tried once to play for an audience which isn’t that much into the music and doesn’t want to be pushed by the music too much.
i tried to keep it low so they can enjoy the party but i felt a lot out of place and was continuously busy with keeping myself under control so i dont become too fast or too energetic ^^
since this time i didn’t so much gigs anymore and focus on the ones i really love to do ;o) the whole “performance” gets a lot better.
and for gigs i feel that i aren’t the person to do this job with love and an 100% dedication, i don’t do it and leave the slot for another dj that does it that way
this may effects my popularity but i don’t aim for the popcommerce shit and stay with the 5-10 gigs in the year that have substance
Hahahaha, that’s hilarious! I’m Indian, and I can’t imagine some other DJ coming in that was not Indian and asked to play Bollywood hits. How’d you mix lol? Jus slam or fade? Haha oh man, definitely made my night .
I used to DJ at a bar where all they wanted was Schlager music and après-ski bingo. Sometimes I had to play the same songs all over again the whole night. The people were ecstatic. Once I tried to push them into more EDM stuff they went angry. Someone even threw a bottle of beer at me which banged at the wall behind me.
While it was good money I refused to do that anymore because I felt out of place and didn’t have much fun at all.
Now all the “out-of-place”-gigs are weddings of my family or very good friends. Since that doesn’t happen that often I suck it up and go with it.
I don’t take money for spinning at weddings because I feel like being raped afterwards - that would make it prostitution.
At weekly pool parties here this summer we had 4 or 5 DJs switching on and off and it would be hip-hop rap hip-hop pop top 40 blablabla then I’d go on and drop only house; switched those parties up hahaha! Cincinnati would get a Miami vibe for my sets and this is the hip-hoppiest city I know.
The past two house parties I’ve done have been pretty rough. The first one was for a bunch of hipsters at an art expo/kegger (yeah…) and I opened up the night with a lot of grunge/classic rock type stuff. Then the ladies started getting a little sloshed and wanted to dance, so I switched to some electro. All the hipsters were like “WTF bro, shit’s weak” and I just didn’t give a f**k, because there were people enjoying it.
The second one was more electro themed and it was my first time working with another DJ. The set was perfect and we fed off each other great. Unfortunately, there were a grand total of 20 people that showed up and someone got drunk and started slapping people, which turned the whole night into a drama-fest and generally bummed me out. Except for the music, the party was crap.
I played at the upstairs of a bar once that was filled with about 20 people. They usually play pop music. All I had that was low enough energy was R&B. I don’t play straight pop music. I had no booth monitor, so it was difficult to beat match, so I just faded in and out of songs and didn’t worry about it.
The bar “doesn’t like hip hop” and last time I was there, downstairs on their dancefloor (again with no one there) I was told by a manager that he couldn’t play my music upstairs because it was “too much hip hop” and I needed more pop (meanwhile they are playing hey there delilah by the plain white T’s, which is depressing daytime bar music, upstairs). I just gave him a quizzical look, and went back to mixing. One thing was though - the bartenders and wait staff loved the music I was playing. They kept coming up to me and telling me good job, since I guess they were tired of listening to the same old boring pop shit over and over again. There were two bartenders downstairs with me, and I asked them if they wanted me to play anything, since they had to listen to the music and do nothing, and they said they liked what I was playing and to just keep doing my thing.
I just tend not to worry about it anymore. You can never please everyone. Doing house parties has taught me that much. Just keep doing whatever you do.
Definitely. The place I play friday nights had a bit of trouble with trying to change their crowd as it was getting a bit rough. This is when they hired me as some ‘new blood’ to try and change the vibe of the night. It used to be a lot of bashment, garage, ragga… generally too rowdy and drawing a rough crowd.
I was told to play 'commercial, so tried to stick to well know house stuff, dancefloor classics, pop, and some 80s classics. Literally everyone in the bar was coming up to me and bugging me to play bashment and “stuff we can dance to!”
I’ve never felt so out of place and unwanted at a gig before or since.
Eventually the problem got sorted by the doorstaff just being ruthless about who they let in and its quite a nice vibe there now.
I played this one gig, on a stage, in front of people, it was weird as hell. I certainly didn’t belong, but it worked out. I’ll never do that gigs again.
I had a one off gig at a strip club about 20 miles from where i live. it was halloween so i expected the club to be busy. i looked at the playlists in VirtualDJ they already had playing music regularly and came across pretty much what i expected. It was RnB, UK garage, Speed Garage, Soul, Pop, little sexy jumping house/electro and cheesy chav mixes mostly. I started off with some what i’d call post funky or perhaps minimal funky. After about half an hour i started throwing UK garage loops over so to bring it up. That was the start of the complaints. I then threw on an hour of typical RnB, half the tracks i played they’d got already on VDJ. The club started filling up and some punters were dancing so i decided to try again to bring it up with some house/electro. The girls complained straight away, I hadn’t even mixed 1 track. I ignored them even though i felt like giving up and throwing on their VDJ. However I continued and went into my comfort zone by increasing complexity of my dj’ing adding loops. samples etc. I looked up about 30 mins later and by the looks of it, this encouraged more punters in the place as there was a speaker outside the front door and there was a que to get in. The club started turning into a bar rather than a strip club. The girls were pissed off but as i’m a long term friend of the owner who trusted me. The night ended up a big success for the club for people paying on the door and drinks behind the bar. The girls ended up starting to enjoy themselves rather than complaining as there was a good atmosphere and management started to throw freebies their way. It maybe a regular thing in the summer and i was lucky it pulled off. It’d have been harder with bollywood but saying that i have used samples and such before in sets.
moral of the story, don’t take gigs that you aren’t 100% stoked about and KNOW that YOUR choice of music will be well received. don’t whore yourself out.
I “dj’ed” my company holiday party… Been with the company for 3 years but this was the first time i went and they always wished there was music playing during the party so the decided to ask me to do it this past holiday. Never knew the room set up but they told me to move a few tables and i can set up. Every one who sat next to the dj table had to have been 40-60 years old… Every one who was my age (28) or around my age were on the other side playing pool or at the bar. .. But once most of the old ppl left and the younger crowd got wasted at open bar they started to dance.
I think that’s bad advice actually. Sometimes playing out of your comfort zone forces you to become a better DJ. I’ve learned how to mix hip-hop and r&b a lot better since taking this weekly gig and it’s just made me a better DJ because I constantly burning through tracks and trying to find a new one. Then again, I like open format DJing. Anything else is fucking monotonous.
Also It’s not “whoring yourself out” - sometimes you have to play the game to get ahead, plain and simple. I’ve grown really tired over the years of the statement “don’t whore yourself out” - because all that means is that you are too scared to do or try anything different. There are plenty of famous open format DJ’s (Like DJ Vice) who used to be wedding and event DJ’s before they hit it big. Just because you think your super-specific genre is awesome doesn’t mean everyone else will - and it doesn’t mean it gets you paid. If you can afford to DJ and not get paid - good for you, I hope that works out - but I can’t. I don’t have that luxury or the desire. I love to DJ, but I hate being poor. And my hate of being poor trumps my love of DJing or any genre of music.
I see your side also, and I did the open format thing in college to pay the bills 4 nights a week, and hated every minute of it. My love is with electronic music. Id rather not play at all, than play open format.
But yes, your perspective is accurate in the open format club/bar world for sure. The only EDM guys who get big, get big from productions not DJing
My co-worker has a friend who needs a DJ for her son’s First Communion. He asked me but I’m gonna have to pass on this. He mentioned “she wants Polish music”… I have no clue what to look for.
But yea, for that first part I was really regretting taking the gig, especially when I wasn’t getting paid.
