Been a few months since i posted - my bad been busy etc etc
any ways, in this club and the DJ is playing a radio playlist, and just fading between tracks completely out of time , key etc. it was sounding dreadful, and in every transition the crowd was looking round not knowing what to dance to as the beat hick-uped along until he faded the old track out.
So i try and have a good time ignoring this, just trying to get into the groove of whatever he’s playing, even though none of it is what I’m into. But after nearly an hour in this club I’m fed up - i want to have a good time here with my friends but I’m just not feeling it.
so:
I go to the booth, catch him when he’s just staring into space and ask him if he’s got any house music and if he could mix a few tracks together.
His reply was that he loves house music, and thats all he used to play, but it’s not what the kids in the club want and if he played it then he’d be out of a job. i try and get him to go for it but he’s not moving.
Kinda got me thinking: This guy has become an iTunes jukebox. The passion and soul has gone. surely if it gets to that point you know it might be time to at least move to a different venue?
The guy must enjoy being behind the decks?? But who enjoys seeing an awkward crowd every time you try and change tracks? To the extent where you just let one track stop and then press play on another deck every time.
I duno if anyone else has seen this sort of thing? what do you do when you feel your not allowed to express yourself behind the decks anymore? Is it your fault for not moving with the clientel? or for not keeping them interested in your music? or is it out of your control when tastes just change as things progress beyond what your into?
My read of this is less generous than yours - it sounds like he’s fronting; he doesn’t have any house music or doesn’t know what he does have, or he lacks confidence in his mixing skills for house and was worried since if you asked for it you might notice that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me if all the above were true, he’d (1) do a better job of mixing the music that he does have to play – not necessarily flawless since it’s not his style but certainly not what you describe, and (2) he’d find you a house song that would still be popular with this crowd and work it in. Hell there are so many different styles of house music and house remixes of so many different kinds of songs that you can lay down house next to pretty much anything these days. There are four on the floor house remixes of every pop song you can think of, as well as hip hop, funk, classic rock n roll, jazz, metal, punk rock, pretty much any damn thing you could imagine. You didn’t say what kind of music he was playing but if he really loves mixing house I’d think he’d jump at the chance to work something in.
My guess, the owner hired the cheapest person he could find willing to play and this guy figures he’d fake his way through. Honestly I don’t have a problem with that on its face as long as he actually wants to be there doing it – before I knew what I was doing I certainly bluffed my way into a few gigs that were far above my talents and rode it out by the seat of my pants. But that’s how I learned; it doesn’t sound like this guy has any interest in learning, and it doesn’t sound like the crowd is inspiring him in any way to want to bother.
you should give that guy some REMIXES of the top 40 he is " Forced " to play … the club i play at asks me to the same thing but i refuse instead i play House or Dub remixes of the top 40 they wanna hear , and it gets the hipsters going and i get to play the House and Dub i wanna spin …
Its a funny one because i know one DJ that does this and it is the same for the crowd the awkward moment when they all look at him during transitions and i know another DJ that does it but the crowd love him and think hes the best DJ around.. He admits that he can only ‘bar’ DJ rather than ‘club’.
But i know the feeling when your in a club and the bad mixing is putting you off the music, i play in a commercial club (we can play house before and after certain times) and sometimes i think whoah this is too cheesy for me but the experienced mixing between all the DJ’s makes it enjoyable to listen too.
I approached a DJ in a local bar the other day, he was playing cheese and didnt really look enthralled by the nights proceedings. I started talking shop and he admitted that he hates the music he’s playing and only doing it for the money.
That proper sucks.
If im playing music to people, I want it to be music I’ve personally vetted and passed as quality music. A DJ is, afterall, a filter of sorts. A sieve to remove the wheat from the chaff, and we all know how much chaff is out there!
When a DJ stops becoming that, through any reason, he is no longer a DJ, he is a jukebox and thus; has lost his soul.
You can see these souless husks of DJ’s in pretty much any cheese bar in your town.
I will never become that, partly because I don’t need the money and partly because I could never allow myself to not care about my work.
I play a ‘commercial’ bar in London every so often and I started out not really feeling the music, but once you get into it and realise that all the punters LOVE that stuff then you realise that your job is so important, because you’re picking the right tunes for the right time and bringing in other things that people didnt realise they liked. Its now one of my favourite gigs.
Was in a club in Basingstoke a couple of weeks ago, same kind of music as op had. asked the DJ about electro/dub step/dnb, his reply was ‘no and that’s what makes this the most popular venue in town’.
House music is made to be liked and pretty much the pop in EDM. Yes you can play top 40 but what you do when you reach #40? you revert back to #1? You should at least feel 10% of the crowd to now what is proper to play next.
I would make a mixtape to the owner mixing the top 40’s on my style adding good house, electro and whatnot and find myself a nice part time. So sorry but this is a dog eat dog world and in the end everyone would benefit from it (minus the guy who is jobless).
Personally, I want to be able to quit gigging for cash when I’m 40ish and can’t keep up with the music anymore. It’s why I never want to DJ full-time (because then I’ll be relying on it financially). One day, when it is passing me by, I wanna just sit back and say “I wanna listen to AC/DC and fuck today’s music, it’s not like it was in my day!”
I see older lads like this all the time. They’re well past it, completely out of touch with the crowd, clearly hate what they do but love telling people they’re a DJ.
Of course you’re allowed express yourself behind the decks. The excuse he gave is a common one, but an excuse (not a reason) nonetheless. I play commercially but the beautiful part of gigging is taking the remixes that I source, the lesser known tracks that I listen to, then mashing it with an average Saturday night club’s mood and taste. To me, it’s finding that blend between what you enjoy, what you’re good at mixing and what the punters want to hear, that is the real test of you as a DJ. Forget genres, gear, styles or gimmicks.
That said, is there a small possibility that you were that guy who went up requesting tracks that would never suit the venue or night? I try not to fob off these guys, personally, more enjoy the chance to chat to them (as long as they’re not acting the know-it-all) and come to a compromise, but a lot of DJs will.
