This is something that’s gone back and forth in the back of my mind for the past several months. I come from a musician background, and I’m trying to develope some kind of neat way of performing music from my laptops using controllers and so on. The usual stuff, and because of this I naturally ended up on this site, reading up alot on the whole laptop-performance field through the articles on the blogg. But since a lot of the stuff is mostly directed towards DJs, a lot of articles are pretty unrelevant to me.
I get that a DJs job is to “act as a filter” for music, as in, he goes out and finds the music that is good and fresh, packages the new hot tracks in a way that keeps exciment through out the whole listeningexperience and makes sure people at the party/club have a good time.
But what does a DJ do, really? I mean what is the difference between a good and a bad DJ? Is it the music he plays, in what order he plays it? The transitions he makes between different songs?
The reason I’m asking this is because I’ve always been curious about DJing, partly due to this site and partly because I feel that me being a person who devotes a huge part of my sparetime searching for new music to listen to just as well could devote some time to present all that music in a nice way for other people to listen to.
Maybe I should just pick up a beginners guide to DJing.
A DJ listens to a lot of music and plays the correct tracks in a (hopefully) unique and creative way to create an enjoyable mood for a given party. The bad ones make people run away from the dance floor or accept the fact that “DJs suck and it’s just the way it is at weddings,” and good ones lead to spiritual events and can influence the development of music as a whole.
in the broadest sense: a good dj entertains listeners by playing an arrangement of many songs in an appealing combination.
in the more detailed sense, you can’t really pinpoint it any further without first recognizing that there are many different types of audiences which in turn means there are many different types of djs.
You’ve got Radio DJs, Wedding DJs, Studio DJs, Club DJs, Rave DJs, Bar DJs, all of them usually specializing in certain genres of music.
Then you have DJs who take mixing music to another level by creating new music using their mixing tools such as Turntablists, Controllerists, Live PA Artists.
Like any creative craft you have full-time professionals, you have weekend warriors and you have gearheads and hobbyists.
To outsiders, this whole game might seem really shallow but it’s only as deep as you want to dive into it - it can be a very deep and complex craft if you want to take it there… or it can be as simple as playing other people’s music.
I can sum it up in one sentence, quoted by an old friend of mine:
[quote=““an old friend of mine””]
You pick the tunes, then you play them. If you pick crap tunes, you’re a crap DJ.
[/quote]
Implied: if you play them like crap, you’re also a crap DJ.
There is indeed an art form to making a really, really sick mix. Otherwise, I’d have not gone crazy on the dance floor all these years. Watching a really technical DJ on vinyl back in the day, like Jeff Mills, was absolutely mind blowing. Today, there’s a lot of gadgets involved but it’s still pretty fucking awesome… just a bit different.
yeah DJing is a lot about the right track selection and setting the mood, i went on a bit of a rant yesterday in another post and talked about opening DJ’s playing nothing but bangers. This to me, pisses me off. An opening DJ needs to start things lightly to get people into the mood, and start drinking, and slowly work up the set so when the headliner or support come on, theyre ready to progress the night to the next level. Opening DJ’s that go out and play nothing but high-intensity peak time songs are crap DJ’s IMO. My worst 2 experiences at a residency i had back in Australia were when this happened, the opener played nothing but “big” tracks and ended up playing a few of my “highlight” songs, all before 11 oclock.
A peaktime DJ needs to get people in the mood to dance, because by midnight most people are already drunk and want to get on the D-floor, but also needs to give them some time to wind down and go fetch a few drinks occasionally. A good peaktime DJ will “tell a story” with his sets and have “highs” and “lows” in his set. Kind of like a book…
thats just a pic of how a story or narrative should be told but i think the same applys to DJ’ing. A set should have ocasional “mini peaks”, and then wind down a little, and then be bought back up further again…
Im a DJ/producer, so occasionally i like to throw in one or 2 of my own tracks into a set, but i also have a large collection of loops/grooves/oneshots, either that i made myself, or that ive recorded from other songs, that i like to incorporate into sets to keep things interesting. People love hearing things they know and or can relate to, but they also love it when you put a new twist on things. Thats why you have a lot of remixes, and the ability to remix things live is a good skill to have… The thing i love about DJing is that no 2 DJ’s are going to have completely the same style, method, or structure to each other, and this keeps things interesting, and can make the difference between a good dj, and a great dj… or a completely suckass DJ occasionally.
A good DJ can read the crowd, and can adjust his set at any particular time, to suit the dancefloor, or whats going on, and understands the dancefloor/bar rotation cycle. Theres nothing wrong with “pre programing” a set, hell i do it all the time, and it makes my sets seem that much more polished, but in saying that, you have to be able to adapt aswel at any given time. The club owner is gonna be pretty pissed if hes not makin much money at the bar because everyone is allways on the dancefloor, so its good to throw in a few “filler” tracks every now and then to give people a break and a chance to drink, while all the same, keeping the mood and pace of the particular time of night. Also he wont be too impressed if no one is dancing either.
So basically DJ’s share their knowledge and love for music, and present it in an interesting and unique way, that “hopefully” the crowd can enjoy.
Hm, interesting read. Might try some DJing, eventually. Basically I should just grab some tracks I think are good and that I think people at the party will think are good and try to just play them in a neat way. Right, got it.
Being kid and all, and not much of a partygoer, it would seem like I’d perhaps need to grab some experience on that front as well?
Also, sorry for the pretty basic-knowledge questions, but I really have no idea where do dive into this kind of stuff to get deep.
yea definately try and get experience in front of a crowd ASAP if your serious about it. Doesnt matter if its at a party, or wherever, just as long as its in front of people. i know too many friends and DJ’s that have spent too long in the bedroom mixing, and wouldnt know what to do in front of a crowd or freak out.
I had this happen with one of my good mates. He did some AWESOME mixes and productions, so i invited him to play an opening slot at my club night. He had never played in front of a descent crowd at all, and had only done one small house party. But all the mixes he showed me were really solid, and i had been and mixed with him at his house a few times, so i knew he knew what he was doing behind the decks. Anyway, come the night… and its his turn to go on, and he starts freaking out and having a panic attack. the first few mixes were train-wrecks, but by about half way through his set, he seemed to be doing a lot better. Needless to say, he told me he was scared shitless, and froze up and didnt know what to do for the first half hour.
He ended up playing the open slots at my nights on a regular basis, because he was a good mate, and i really wanted him to get more confident in front of a crowd, so i sorta threw him in the deep end to learn to swim so to speak, but the first few times, the mixes at the beginning of the set were a little hairy at times, until he started to relax.
Now hes currently taken over my residency in australia, since ive moved to europe and im glad to hear hes doing really well, but, i definately recommend getting experience playing in front of a crowd ASAP. The longer you wait, the harder its going to be, and the more of a complex you are going to create about playing in front of people.
That about sums it up for me tho. Sometimes when I’m reading the forums and threads about “beatmatching vs synch” and “you’re not a real DJ if you dont beatmatch manually” etc. it seems people forget that it really is 95% song selection, arrangement, and smooth mixing, after that who the hell cares!?! (btw i typed up an eloquent response to that thread the other day for like 30mins only to have the site crash and i lost the post…but whatever…this is the summary version)
IMO DJ’s usually ride a dead horse down the beaten path and follow Top 40 trends, which are controlled by media corporations/moguls, and wear out already over played pop tunes because that’s what the douche/douchette’s on last weeks Jersey Shore were dancing to.
My musical taste had long kept me out of the mindset of wanting to DJ as I was submerged in the underground hip hop scene listening to artist like Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, etc… These are not artists people would dance to, therefor I would probably not have done very well. I am hip hop. I love the elements of the life and always wanted to contribute to the progression of the lifestyle. My life had been consumed with motorcycles and most of my free time was spent riding and getting in trouble as a result (cops hate wheelies if you didn’t already know). I have owned a copy of Scratch for years and it always gave me goose bumps.
After hearing Girl Talk for the first time my perspective was shifted greatly. He used songs that everyone knows and can relate to, and I honestly thought I would consider dancing if I had heard something like this played at the bar vs. the top 40 CRAP that’s been shoved down my ear canal every time I enter a public establishment.
I then started my hoarding of music that I enjoyed as a child, stuff my dad would clean the house to, tracks I heard on various mixes, and in general finding material outside of the hip hop scene. NOT Top 40.
I’ve been sorting and sifting my iTunes library for years and picked up some controllers this summer to start learning the art of mixing them together. My plans are now to be a multi-media DJ by also making montage video’s to play my tracks over and eventually including the audio from said video’s as part of my mix. It’s going to be something completely out of the norm and the music will be such a wide variety that everyone in attendance will appreciate some part of the night as the only genre that won’t be played is country.
I think this is the direction every DJ should have taken from the get go, but in the quest to get paid peanuts and drink tickets most are content just playing the same shit on heavy rotation with very little effort to discover or introduce something out of the norm.
Fortunately I live in Chicago, a city big enough that I’ll be able to find plenty of establishments with broadened horizons. I could probably find a place to play underground all night if I wanted to. But I’ve decided to learn it all which will allow me to drop a few of my favs from a genre of music very few people know or listen to, even though some of the material is probably the most well written poetry period.
What a DJ does is very much in a state of transition at the moment, no longer is a DJ who just mixes out from track A to track B - your completely free to put your own spin on things. Every DJ (especially in the digital domain) is going to do something different so there really is no definitive answer to the question “what does a dj do” other than make speakers move
Be proud of the music coming out of the speakers, at the end of the day it is about delivering the right music at the right time to the crowd, or to no crowd, building a crowd and making it hard to leave. Always look around and see if you have people nodding along, feeling at home with your tracklist and getting pumped and energised. That is the power you hold, to influence and manipulate your audience to the vibe you are sharing. DJing is a powerful thing, done right and skillfully it can unite people from all places in life like some kind of multicultural, tribal wizardry! Learn how to cast those spells and feed off the audience, once you get them going you become their guide and your role is to amplify and inspire the party. In return they will amplify you and then you can have more fun!
When you get in the zone with the crowd and your ability to take them on a musical goodtimes quest you will be hooked.. It’s a blast and rewarding in so many ways when it all comes together
Put in the time, the research, progress your skills, play many many genres and be grateful everytime you get to play out some big speakers, whether it is to 3 people or 3000 it shouldn’t matter to you if you love to hear the music.
IMO.. Let’s assume you got the music/access to music.
The most important part to being a DJ is Selection.
Don’t matter on the venue, the event, the stadium.
The DJ will make a selection of what they believe will work on their audience.
Some Party DJ’s can be dynamic and do this on the fly btw..
Selection is a by-product of knowing your music, knowing what you have, when to use it, and HOW to use it.
Choosing the right music at the right time for that particular audience. We provide a service to audiences to give them a great time, introduce tunes to them, and present it in such a way that they want to hear you again.
If that means playing Top 40 tracks, so be it, give them what they want, they are the ones paying you, not the club. Without people, the club would have no money to operate and pay you.
A busy dancefloor is the result of what you do, and you could be the best technical DJ in the city, but if your music is rubbish, no-one’s gonna care. Knowing about beatmatching, is seriously important too. It’s what makes your selection ‘flow’. Although that skill is for a more discerning audience, some won’t care how you mix.
I have and still hear technically shit dj’s playing a serious selection and winning, with no beatmatch, with no FX, no fancy gadgets or controllers, and still get re-booked.
FX, sampling, live scratching, clever use of loops, and pushing your equipment to it’s technological ends are very much advanced techniques that definitely do add class to the set tho, but I’ll still say, selection is THE most important thing after electricity and the means to play your tunes.
I’d consider myself pretty technical when it comes to playing live. I like my sets to flow, generate a good vibe, and use the available technology to provide a sound that is mine. I’m useless at scratching.. so I won’t do that.. occasional backspin maybe…
