I can definitely relate man, it’s a frustrating situation. It’s a very strange dynamic that you try and break songs and they don’t work, but all the sudden when they gain more “mainstream cred” then they kill. If something makes my head bob, I like it. I don’t get the thought process behind a lot of these people when they hear a new track, do they think “wait will other people like this? I better hold off on liking it until it catches on” what kind of person is that.
It’s like this really, you wouldn’t want your favorite artist to play the same songs over and over again, eventually you’d want them to come out with new hits or a new album, so why would you expect the same from a DJ. To the extreme, next time a person requests that track, loop 16 and just let that bastard repeat for a good 5 minutes straight. That’s what it can be like to be a DJ sometimes, you hear and play a lot of the same songs when you play to a close minded crowd.
i think almost anyone who’s played a gig can relate to this. best advice i can give is to play gigs that want/ask for your type of music. once you have that, it will be much easier to get the dancefloor goin. sure there will be some people in the crowd that wouldnt normally listen to your type of music, buttttt once you have the dancefloor movin, if you get off-the-wall requests, all you have to do is point to the dancers and smile…
Had a funny one 2 weeks back, It was an all nighter 6 hour set which I love as I get to play so many genres. Any way a very very fit but annoying twat woman asked for some D&B, to which my reply was of course, but not for another a hour and halfish. At that point I was working my way through house, enough people were dancing, next stop Electro, Breaks and so on.
I tried to explain to her that I was catering for everybody’s taste, but D&B will have to wait as I prefer to finish the night with D&B. Obviously she wasn’t interested and relentlessly stood there for the duration of nearly two songs and repeated her self over and over with a whole host of different reasons why I should play drum & bass that second. After a 7min’s this previously hot girl all of sudden turned in to a fuck ugly annoying whore that I wanted to beat to death with my 1210.
I kept my cool, interrupted her mid flow and signaled with my hand for her to come right up to me as if I was about to talk in to her ear. I lent right in her face locked eye’s and in a confident mono tone voice I said " I’m going to ignore you now! "
Her face was priceless, absolute shock horror. Like I said she was really fit, I don’t think she was used to being talked to like that. Considering what I wanted to say, she got off lightly!
After 13 years of dj’n, thats the rudest I’ve been. Considering the shit you get, especially in high street bars or clubs, I think I’ve done pretty well, one day I’ll finally print a shirt " I’m not a fuck’n jukebox "
Im always perturbed when I see these threads come up (as they often do) and I see the many posts that go along the lines of “well it is your ‘job’ so do your best to comply” sort of viewpoints.
It seems to me like there are 2 kinds of DJs out there:
the traditional DJ that serves as more of an addition to the overall atmosphere of an event
and the artist/performer DJ who’s music is more of the focal nucleus of an event
The 2nd type of DJ can be confusing to certain people…you see…they look…and and even sometimes sound like the 1st kind of DJ
The artist/performer DJ recreates/reinterprets music while using the crowd as an element in the creation process. A little different from the “dude…you play other people’s music” outlook. Its more of a personal artistic expression and less of a mutual conversation. Its an expression and the crowd may or may not relate to or even like it.
The 1st kind of DJ is what many people are used to. The kind of DJ who takes requests and is there to serve you in a different way. (i.e. radio DJ).
Both can play great music but asking the radio DJ to bust out their Lemur and Ableton gear and create a metaphysical sound canvas is out of place. Just like asking the artist/performer “DJ” to well…do anything besides express what they are there to express is out of place (IMO). Would you ask a painter to do something your way or a guitarist to strum something with more of a “jingle” to it?
Maybe its a respect thing…maybe its an ignorance thing…maybe its a when-you-make-it-bigtime-you-dont-have-to-worry-about-it issue. If you take requests, great…however, I think its disrespectful and ignorant to assume that because you’re a “DJ” that your “job” is to make people happy. Bullshit…its an art and the “DJ” is the artist who may be fortunate enough to be getting paid to express their passion…but its not their “job”.
PS: FUCK yea Mylestec!!
I think his other video completely balances the scales and catches my “hear hear”
