Hey guys just wanted your thoughts on how you introduce your crowd to new tracks and what not. This is stemming from my set last night.
I had a super disappointing set, I was just off and had no flow. The night wasn’t packed but steady enough that the floor was going a few times. Since it wasn’t packed I became very self conscious of what I was playing because I knew the crowd would be a little more fickle about what song they’d dance too. My set ended up being all over the place because i’d have to cross between top 40 electro remixes to try throwing in stuff I really wanted to hear. Floor would be going then drop so i’d have to bring it back to the top 40 electro stuff. Maybe I just picked the wrong night to try introducing new stuff but the question still stands, how do you work in or introduce new stuff to the crowd.
I remember seeing a Z-trip interview where he talked about how he starts super familiar so that he gains the crowds trust and then from there he can usually get away with whatever.
the headliner shouldn’t introduce any new music unless its an absolute certified banger, it is the job of the guy before him to feel out the crowd, and bring in good new music, this is a time when the crowd is dancing and waiting for the headliner, so they will most likely stay on the dance floor if there is something they aren’t sure about. the opener can drop whatever they want as long as the genre is close and the energy doesn’t quite get there.
The only issue if you are the second on the bill is you have to have humility and pass the great tracks you find up to the hierarchy until you pay your dues and start headining.
If your closing, it is generally your job to play epic tracks, and most importantly reintroduce old classics every now and then that people have forgotten about.
this style of formatting only works for local dj’s only (not international, not interstate, not producers) in genre purist clubs eg, house, drum n bass, breaks etc… It won’t work in commercial & rnb clubs because everything sounds the same and has the same intensity, and no one gives a shit about the music anyway, the crowd just want to rub up on someone’s leg.
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this style of formatting only works for local dj’s only (not international, not interstate, not producers) in genre purist clubs eg, house, drum n bass, breaks etc… It won’t work in commercial & rnb clubs because everything sounds the same and has the same intensity, and no one gives a shit about the music anyway, the crowd just want to rub up on someone’s leg.[/quote]
Yeah man, totally, it’s all the same. You’re a tool. DJ AM is rolling in his fuckin grave.
You want to introduce people to new music? You need to slowly shift them over. You need to drop the track at the right time. That’s what it means to be a GOOD DJ. Get the crowd in the right mood and you can play anything as long as it’s similar in style to your other tracks and it’s good. I promise you that. If you’re playing top 40, try playing something with a catchy hook. Keep teasing the hook as you do your mix/blend whenever you get an instrumental break in the song you are mixing out from.
a little bit of this. If you know what you are doing, you can get away w/ anything. On the flip side tho, if you don’t, then you will be stuck in cheesy radio style top40 hell the whole night or risk your whole crowd leaving (which is def worse). So you’re asking how do you do it? Only you can truly answer that. I will tell you that it takes experience with working with that type of crowd. If you find that you just can’t seem to figure it out on your own, then maybe look into doing something else. Hope this helps
dj am didn’t play commercial he played party, mashing up everything in a new and interesting way, he was also quite clearly a pioneer and a headliner, we must have different definitions of commercial clubs, and the people who attend. Maybe before anymore feathers are ruffled we should classify
z-trip
2 many djs
dynamo productions
et al. as party, not commercial, they are mash up artists on the decks before mashups resembled girltalks songs
commercial is, christina aguelera, britney, rhianna, chris brown, katy perry etc… repeat. It’s over produced, over compressed, over in a week teeny bopper garbage!
Well I had another set tonight that was much improved over Fridays set. It definitely helped to play a few familiar tracks then bring in one of my own and then back again. Timing Is everything, I’ve also found that where I’m from if it’s an unfamiliar song and it plays through a breakdown your dead in the water. They can handle the breakdown in all the top 40 songs but they seem to get confused with breakdowns from unfamiliar songs. It’s so strange how some people don’t get the concept that the song is still following a beat and pattern. Hold your horses and a beat will kick in so you can continue to hump anything in site and pump your fist
I play a few songs they know (that i know that works) then 1 i don’t know and then back to a few they know and then 1 they don’t know. After a hour or so on main set i start taking risks once i know i have gained their trust and take it from there.
edit your tracks and shorten the break. Long breaks are agonizing in a club/dance setting. Or throw on an acapella/scratch over the break making a beat. If a break is long and there is nothing I can do about it usually I’ll just loop a 4-8 bar sampled beat from another song.
I learned to DJ from a well known club DJ in S.F. One of the lessons he taught me is to rotate the dance floor. Which means you have to clear it every so often so people can go and get drinks. If they are dancing all night, they are not buying drinks. Not buying drinks, means the club is not making any money off of them. However, he said a good DJ can always bring them back on the dance floor at anytime. This is where knowing your crowd helps and also knowing your music.
So here is what I do, I typically go about an hour with stuff I know the crowd knows and that they will dance to. Then I may throw in one new song. I will typically lose half the floor. But I always have a song in mind that will bring them back for after. This is where a DJ must know his library and what will work. This can only be gained by actually playing outside of your bedroom and through many trials and errors. Experience is key with this one.
I also use either the first half hour or last half hour to introduce new songs. I prefer the first half hour, cause this will typically induce requests which gives me an idea on where to go with my set for the night.
Just a background, I play at open format clubs. Top40, House, Electro, and Hip Hop. 5 hour sets each night I play.
I was at a very big, very commercial party and the mc grabbed the mic and shouted: “Are you ready for some dubstep ?!”
The crowd went wild. But I wouldn’t have the balls to this at that kind of party.
DJ ATX, great advice. I do the same and play open format as well.
I’ll introduce new songs early in my set. If I’m playing hip hop I’ll squeeze in a new song between 2 hits, but only play the first verse and hook…and I agree — always have a crowd favorite in mind to real them back in.
Oh and I’ll never just play something I want to listen to. If I KNOW I want to play a new track on a given night, I’ll know what track to lead with that will set up the new track. If they bite, it’s on. If not..i have my go-to track standing by.
Ya ATX, that advice is super helpful. I know people have always emphasized making sure you give the floor a break to get drinks but no one has really followed up on how to get it back. Also I’ve always made the bad mistake of playing a new song but not having a plan b ready for if it doesn’t fly. That’s when I’ll kind of panic and I scramble to find the perfect son to bring them back
ATX has the right view here.. I learned this lesson from a club I played at in Florida where I catered to a crowd from 21-80 in age. Key here is this club came straight from Burbon street in New Orleans and the owners truly explained the concept of rotating the crowd. I would only play 2-3 songs of any genre in a row. Play some motown to get the older crowd going, then go into some 90s to send them to the bar and bring out the middle group, then some urban stuff to rotate more, and then back to motownish stuff.
It’s a key element that will not only keep your crowd happy, but your club manager happy because people are buying drinks. Sure when you switch you may see half your floor leaving, but do it right and there will be a whole other group ready to hit the floor behind them.
You definitely have to always have a track in the back of your head that you know will bring them back just in case your switch doesn’t work though!
the context of that is “unless it’s a certified banger” and I thought i said it was in relation to genre specific clubs, wait a minute I did LOL but more specifically underground clubs. If you are playing one of the peak sets, by all means play a boring eclectic track to flex your ego of how many styles you know, but watch everyone stop dancing the faces on the crowd change they wont leave, but they wont be amused.
If your playing a peak set it’s your job to keep the energy, and you don’t need to rotate the floor in any club i’ve played at cause everyone dancing is on drugs and the bar primarily sells water to them lol… they want the crowd to sweat, it’s the wall flowers that buy drinks and the bar manager doesn’t want them to dance. Hence making the statement about commercial crowds… have fun jukeboxing and rotating the floor.
I should have also been a little clearer that there is 2 openers, 2 warm up sets usually slightly different sounding to the headliners, two peak sets, and 1 warm down and a closer.
Having different styles of the warm up acts allow new talent to come in and stops crossover of tunes with the headliners, This means when the current sound gets a little old and the warm up guys get a bit of a following you can change their slots, this prevents the club from becoming stale and allows it to evolve more naturally.
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