It’s a great responsibility to be in charge of a sonic space with the goal of rocking people’s bodies/minds/hearts. DJing is like community service – a lot of your soul goes in to it.I don’t think it’s even about the awesomeness (or non-awesomeness) of the tracks, but more on the ‘vibe’ of the room/crowd and the ability of the dj to tune in to and ‘massage’ that vibe. When I go in and DJ, I’ve given up having a set list of tracks to play, because I rarely know ahead of time what the crowd will be like. Rather, I DJ A LOT before hand, trying out different combinations of tracks, mixes, transitions etc. so I ‘learn’ the tracks inside and out. This allows for more flexibility and adaptability when I arrive at the venue where I then proceed to:
- assess/make assumptions about the crowd music preferences (BTW, these are just general guidelines – remix as necessary;)
- what are they wearing?
- Hipsters? – prolly play punk/funk/disco.
- Gays? – have some Madonna/Prince electro house remixes on hand.
- Hippies/Burners? – maybe downtempo, psytrance (yuck!) or glitch:)
- Hip-hoppers/bros? – prolly like drum n’bass or dubstep
- Goths – electro, IDM, industrial dance
- Hot stylish folks in their late 20s with glasses and sleek ‘techno’ clothing? – most likely techno/mnml:)
- What’s the girl/boy ratio?
- More girls? try melodic stuff – get them dancing first and the boys are more likely to join in;)
- More dudes? Well, they’re prolly all your friends at this point, so they’re down for what ever – have fun:) (though don’t forget the ladies;)
- what are they wearing?
- assemble small ‘micro mixes’ in my head of one or two tracks (that I know work well together from practicing)
- proceed to ‘test’ those mixes on the crowd against my assumptions about attendees
If you have a LOT of different tracks (and are thoroughly familiar with them) than you can take whoever where ever – which is what a dj’s supposed to do. Think of yourself as a shaman taking people on a trip. You wanna make sure they’re comfy because chances are, you’ve got some mighty potent music magic to alter their mind/bodies/hearts – not everyone is always prepared for it;)
On the flipside, dancing to repetitive rhythms is one of the oldest artifacts of the human race. We’re designed to like rhythms (music, sex, sleep, eating…). People WANT to dance – you just have to show them how, perhaps by speaking in the same musical language they do for a while…
Note: Big thanks to electracomplex for inspiring this post. Thanks Brandon!
