i find this extremely annoying, but it comes with the territory, i guess. i dj very regularly at spots where the crowd enjoys top 40, but on any given night, there can be a number of different crowds that are a majority of the people there. this particular night was all hip-hop heads in the crowd, and i was doing my thing. this one girl and her 3 friends parked themselves in front of my booth and were YELLING at me the entire night to play “I’m Sexy and I Know it”
If it was another night I would have done it, but if you think I’m gonna play that track in the middle of a hip-hop set, you’re buggin.
One response: “Tits or GTFO,” then have them arrested for public nudity after they kick the party up a notch, because they don’t deserve to experience awesomeness.
if the crowd is partying hard dont request. if its barely packed and you say can you play a certain song in your set tonight is okay. just dont be rude to the dj or aggravating. we are there for people to have a good time.
I didn’t watch the video, as I’m at work…but my attitude is that if it’s a so-so night, people are there and enjoying themselves but I’m not really into the set, I’ll play whatever people want to hear, but if I’m sticking with one genre, and the party is bumpin, sometimes you have to smile and come up with some bull shit haha
i agree with you dude, i know exactly what you meant and agree with what you posted. Makes you wanna get an air horn and just go off in there face.
Would a loud horn pa be acceptable?? lol
Regarding the whole request thing…In a club enviroment, MOST people already know what type of club they are going to. So i tend to agree with the Video.
As i mostly spin EDM varying from Dub/Drumstep, Electro, Prog., Funky I know if the night im spinning is a DnB night…then ill spin my DnB with some drumstep. Im not gonna go and drop a Prog set right after a DnB DJ…that would just totally KILL the dancefloor. Its the same as requests.
While im spinning if some tart comes up to me and wants me to spin like Calvin Harris or Steve Aoki its like ummmm you do realize its a DnB night right??
I never say that but seriously I do think to myself…If you wanted to listen to Calvin Harris or Steve aoki Why the fuck are you here? Are you lost?
Now If its a Top 40 night, or just like resident DJs at one of the million same top 40 mashup, Cheese Clubs then hell request whatever you want…cuz it all sounds like poo.
Same with Wedding/Event DJs they are there to cater to the crowd thats THEIR Job. They are there to please the people, its why they get paid.
Completely agree with this. I was doing this girls sweet 16 in the summer and she gave me a list of songs she wanted to hear, and they included that hip hop songs. I had just gotten into a house set and the dance floor was packed when she comes up to me and says " you haven’t played any of my hip hop in a while". I explained to her that it would kill the energy, but she insisted that i play her song next. She’s the one paying, so I did, and needless to say, people left, leaving her and her 3 friends there. Just pissed me off, and I just wanted to tell her told you so..
Slightly O.T. but, this is a long story, 100% true.
I had this one occasion where this girl was leaning over the top of the booth shouting some tunes name…
I said do not lean over come to the DJ booth door (there was a sign that said “Requests Here” with an arrow.
She kept leaning over with a drink in hand near my laptop. This went on, over and over maybe 20 times until i threatened that i would have her thrown out if she did it again. By this time i was fuming as she was disturbing my nite,mixing,drinking etc
She dug her mobile out of her pocket, typed the track name into it and leaped onto the booth shoving the mobile into my face just inches away from my nose. I completely lost it, i grabbed the phone (clam-shell type) and just threw it behind me without breaking the glare at her face.
It hit the stone wall behind me and smashed into pieces. The lighting tech were pissing themselves the students at the DJ booth door waiting to make requests were totally gobsmacked, mouths wide open.
The girl looked for her phone but it was totalled and she ran off crying.
I was stood there thinking “shit what have i done”… ive worked in clubs all my adult life and despite what shit you get you just dont react like that.
the next day, sure that she would report me i emailed the manager of the Student Union and told him everything and apologised and offered to pay for the broken phone.
She did indeed report me, she went to the Duty Manager and the Venue manager who had read my email.
They told her that i had already told them about the incident and had admitted it and that if she wanted to take matters further they would make me pay for the phone (as i offered) and would meet out some kind of punishment… BUT they also had CCTV footage of her CONSTANT abuse and persistent harassment of an employee of the Student Union and that if she took matters further then so would the S.U. which would lead to a lifetime ban of any Student Union and a ban of any pub or club that was connected to the S.U. under whats know as the “Pub Watch Scheme” that keeps trouble makers out of venues across the city. She was a first year student so she would have ZERO social life for the next 3 years.
She dropped the charges and i never heard from her again.
After watching the CCTV The Duty Manager said he didnt know how i showed so much restraint not to smash the phone into her face (which id never do of course).
I have a similar story… The club I used to have a residency at (Friday night, lot’s of EDM) asked me in an emergency would I DJ a mid-week private party that was being held there. The money was good so I thought I’d give it a go. At the beginning of the night she too, hand’s me a list of what she want’s heard during the night. initially, I think this is great, as it give’s me a guide to what she wants played.
The twist comes however when I dared play something outside her list. Every time I did, she come’s storming up to the booth, shouting and screaming to play her song. The only reason I took the abuse is because, as my residency, I was representing the club and didn’t want to lose the club any further private bookings. Although I informed the manager I wasn’t doing any further private party’s!
On a separate note, a regular pest once threatened to get her mate to stab me because I didn’t play a “Lilly Allen” song in the middle of a D’n’B set…
i get it all the time…
i dont know whats worse, screaming younger girls or older grumpy women…
i find it easier to suggest a different song than say “no im not playing that (shit)” straight out.
oh and what pisses me off is when the’re that drunk they forget that they were dancing to there requested song just a few minutes ago and ask why have you not played my song,
im like, eh i did, NO YA DIDNT etc etc,
i had one girl last week at a top 40 bar ask me to play rihanna we found love in a hopeless place and i was like… you danced to it already, no i didnt - yes you did, oh did i? well, will you play timbaland pass at me ? i said, your messing with me now yeah? that was the song i played after rihanna , you were even jumping around screaming the beat as i was mixing it in… oh sorry, i dont remember, well then play maroon 5 moves like jagger, i stopped and staired at her she screamed right in my ear PLAY IT and i screamed back WHAT… ITS PLAYING RIGHT NOW. and she says your lying, i just said, please go away and let me do my job,
next day i was telling a friend the story and and how it nearly made me loose my cool my friend was like LOL man she was well wasted, look, ive the video footage, and its her jumping around like a mad thing to the rihanna track… i just had to laugh.
ps. having a good sleep the night before or even just 40 winks before the gig helps a lot when it comes to dealing with such people
I’ve played out 3 times at small house parties, etc.
First time out, “play Party Rock Anthem”…I do, 5 minutes after the song ends.. “can you play Party Rock Anthem again” - requested by the same person that requested it the first time.
Second time out, “fuck all these people dancing, they don’t know what real music is, will you just play Tool the whole night.” “well Tool doesn’t seem appropriate for an office christmas party.”
Third time out, “could you play more country music” wtf?
Last time this happened I was elbow deep in an electro top 40 set, which is typically pretty safe and as expected the crowd was loving it. Some drunk bint comes over and starts rubbing up on me like a cat that wants tuna, asking me to play Ja Rule. WTF? Not even someone that was relevant in the last decade!? This happened 5 or 6 more times but it was at a house party so I couldn’t have her kicked out.
I remember i was at one of my local clubs about 3 weeks ago with some friends and it was the funniest shit i had ever seen on a dancefloor.
There was no special DJ just the residents playing on a Saturday night. The First DJ was spinning mostly Hip Hop, 50 Cent, Eminem blah blah blah, there was a decent crowd of people dancing, maybe 1/3-1/2 the people were dancing.
Then one of my girlfriends asks the DJ for some house music…I have never seen such a huge transition from ALL the people on the dance floor leave…and get filled with the other 1/2 of the people in the Bar…literally in under a minute all the people not dancing were dancing and vice versa.
This happened all night long where they would rotate hiphop and house music.
Now, being purely an EDM DJ, most of the places i spin are strickly catered to the EDM crowd so i dont ever really run into these issues, as well I am pretty picky about where I spin, and IF i am the 1st or 2nd to play before the headliner I will gear my set towards setting up the next guy oppose to doing my own thing and possibly setting up for a Headliner flop which i have seen a couple of times.
My Question is to you guys…When you get into a situation like stated above…what do you do to cope with it to appease both groups of people if that is even possible.
