Mixing the Top 40
I’ve been asked to DJ a dance at my school and it’s going to be a lot of iTunes top 40 kind of stuff. I’m more of a electro house/dubstep kind of guy so any recommendations on how to mix this stuff? I’m pretty new to mixing that kind of stuff so any suggestions would be appreciated!
go out buy some top 40 remixes that are very vocally. Thats it. Makes it easier to mix and gives you some time. Unless you are doing some hip hop then have things cued up do hard cuts.
Mixing the Top 40
+1 buy remixes of top 40
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seems like this question gets asked often here.
get on a record pool that has intro/outro to tracks. That’s the easiest way. The rest is no different than any other genre…just get your phrasing right.
I find that the BPMs for these top 40 tracks are EVERYWHERE… So i generally just echo out and bring in another, or dont even bother mixing it too much.
For these kind of things, no one really cares if its a dodgy transition.
Even though this is probably the wrong kind of advice, it works for me in some situations.
You aren’t going to be familiar enough with the music to throw down a good set… it will be mediocre at best.
Why not hit up a dj friend who does play mainstream and kick them down some money for playing. You booked the gig and can bring the gear and someone can come play like it was a club gig 
DJrecordpool…
record pool, then go listen to some top 40 DJs and try to figure out how they do it.
Quick cuts. Practice.
is there any newer dj’s that aren’t “electro/dubstep” dj’s anymore?
I disagree with this. It’s such an easy genre to mix, most of the tracks have a 16 beat intro/outro or 32. Just mix the first with the last of each track and youre sorted. Itll take you a minute to figure out how to mix them.
I generally would play the slower top 40 stuff in the earlier part. All your wiz khalifa, drake, beyonce, jessie J etc as its around 70-110 bpm. Then work your way up to the 120’s and mix them for the remainer. Throw in the older hip hop stuff thats recognisable like lil jon, usher, ludacris, 50 cent etc to get crowd going in the earlier part.
It’s not much different that mixing your house and electro, it’s just shorter mixing phases.
Good luck
If you are a “DJ”, this should not be a problem. DJ’s should be able to mix anything. Unless of course you don’t know your basics: Phrasing. Counting Bars. Recognizing Breaks in songs.
+1
this.
listen to the mixshow.com
they have a couple good top 40 mixes in their archive you can listen to and maybe replicate.
dj remark is pretty good with top 40, i think he spins with 21xl/eventsco in LA.
It’s not that I don’t know how to DJ, I am just asking around to better myself. It never hurts to get new ideas from other people.
Oh ok.
Well Top40 is one of the easiest music to mix since it encompasses all genres. Most Top40 nowadays are really just watered down EDM. Only thing that varies are the Top40 hip-hop songs. I just do cuts at the drop on a lot of those.
I agree with your point, mixing top 40 is not necessarily more difficult than another genre… and your suggestion on the nights musical progression is spot on.
But aside from the technical aspect of mixing commercial stuff the OP needs to understand what songs to play. Selection is important, not just playing the hits.
It’s no more difficult than any other genre but still requires knowing the music well and that’s not going to happen over night.
Also, if it’s not your forte and you are just playing those songs for that event, its going to eat into your profits to buy all the songs you should have for that one gig.
Exactly ^
Reading a crowd is key for mainstream top40s. The crowd will be very picky and they usually only want to hear the original song, not electro remixes. Bear in mind, like any top40s crowd, they have ADD and you shouldn’t be playing songs too long (either mix it after the first or second hook). Unless the song is a current club banger or a classic. Depending on the type of crowd, you would need to know whether to play urban top40s or pop top40s. I would ask the coordinator of the dance, what kind of top40s will the students prefer. If its a mix of both, be prepared to ride up and down the bpm wave.
make play list in itunes.
let it play.
look like you’re doing cool things on the mixer.
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profit.
it’s top 40, they aren’t going to care if you mix it well… they just care about your song selection. maybe if they like some of the Guetta and Rhianna and other “house-like” top 40, then you can make a little set out of that… but otherwise just simple track drops, no layering, just focus on track selection to make them happy.