Quote: (09-27-2013 05:47 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:
Quote: (09-27-2013 04:37 PM)Wavy Wrote:
I am still having trouble grasping the concept of what a dj actually is. I love music and could easily have enough of it to play some good shit, but what more is there to it besides playing music for people? what do all the turntables and stuff consist of? what is the purpose of it all?
All the mixing and beat matching...is djing basically like being a mash up artist?
No.
The same way that chess isn't just about moving pieces around the board, or pool isn't about just putting balls in the pockets.
Commercial dj'ing is primarily crowd control/manipulation at a drinking establishment.
It's more about song selection and program design, than it is about beat matching and mixing. Some very successful dj's, even by old school standards, have paltry mixing skills, but have excellent program design.
Not mixing the beats, or matching the mood to the crowd makes people STOP dancing. They don't even realize it. But when you're up on the booth, every time you drop a song, you see the crowd reacts. And you can instantly tell when you're fucking up.
You want the crowd to dance. You want them to sweat. And they want to sweat. They want to feel the beats more. This is part of what drives them to drink. Drinking then makes them cut loose, and cutting loose makes them drink more.
Usually you have a 4 hour set
10-11 - people are just getting there
11-12 - folks are just starting to drink and loosen up
12-1 - the party is heating up and starting to peak
1-2 - the party is going to peak, but you've got to put folks in a good mood on the walk out.
By 2 Am, they should be well drunk and ready to fuck whoever they hooked up with.
Knowing how the night goes means you can't play club bangers from 10-2.
You can't just play popular shit from 10-2
You might never be able to play old shit, recurrent shit, or break new shit - depending on your crowd and what they listen to.
That's why it's not just setting up a playlist in iTunes and replacing a live person.
WIA
This. 1000000%
So I used to DJ a fair bit in clubs and you can not start with club bangers at 10pm, start with some "Warm up" sets, usually deep house/tech house kind of stuff. youll eventually ramp up a little, and slightly ramp down, then ramp up a bit more etc etc, kind of liek a wave that is slightly increasing in energy level, then at peak times (1am-2am or 2:30am-4am depending on the city you're in)
You can drop the bangers.
Another reason why you cant have high energy much 24/7 is the other DJs that come on before or after you. you'll need to listen to their sets, and know what styles of music they play so that the music of the night is seamless. Its actually not that hard.
The hardest part is just, bringing people to the club because You are DJing, You can start as a promoter and meet clubbers, let them know you're a promoter and can get them in for cheap/guestlist/extra drinks/whatever and once you have a solid set of contacts let them know you're DJing at the club(after you get the gig with the organizer) and call them up.
This is the hardest part, as you'll pretty much have to babysit your customers untill they get to the club, along with deciding what you're going to play or at least have a general idea of tracks to choose from (meaning you're going to have to learn all of your tracks) it can take a lot of energy, as basically you become a businessman and you have to build up a brand (you the DJ) to bring your customers in that come to see you, and work on customer service skills, to help them on the way to your club, and follow up/thank them afterwards. . .it's not really *that* hard, but it does take a bit of effort.
Also, you should learn the basics of CDJ's and Mixers and how to DJ without using laptops first. this is because many times stuff messes up with computers, and you've got to be able to switch to cds/usb on the fly if you need to(rarely happens now but still its best to be prepared)
I actually just DJ with USB's (I know how to beatmatch without using laptops) 99.9pct of CDJs have usb ports now so I just bring my usbs and CDs of the same tracks just incase something happens.
but yeah just carrying around a couple of usb ports and DJ head phones and a small cd case is just way easier than dealing with lap tops and setting them up/carrying them around etc...
If you want to go farther than a regular club DJ (which is actually a good gig if you can get it) is producing that same music.
This is difficult. . .like really difficult and definately takes the 5,000+ hours of work. BUT
the rewards are pretty much infinite if you make a hit.I know a lot of people that have done this (I'm working on this too whenever I have the time) I know a guy who pretty much has two houses, (one in L.A. and one in florida) some crazy suv car, and travels the world DJins his hits he made. I Know another guy who just started his asia tour. . .and he hasn't even had a hit yet! Just makes decent music, and he's pretty much set as well money wise. A lot of these guys I've talked to and tell me about how they pretty much pipeline girls before they even get to a place (despite having girlfriends/wives) and pretty much just have lots of fun. . .while making lots of money.
I don't really see many downsides unless you get into drugs and heavy drinking.. . .something you REALLY don't need to do, especially if you're making hits and are "The Man." I saw an article of Steve Aoki(the guy that throws cakes in the crowd lol) order those healthy wheatgrass-type juice things on his Hospitality rider and a whole bunch of fruit etc etc. So really how you handle the "Scene" is up to you once you get in.
Also, I don't really have much sympathy for DJ's who are "over it" mostly because other than Being a DJ, I've also been involved heavily with event production/organizing/"talent buying" and that is a MILLION times worse than being a DJ could ever be. The amount of work/hours that you need to put in, along with the amount of HUGE B.S. you have to deal with dealing with the huge amount really bad DJs(in skills and personality) crappy club owners who don't know what they're going 99.9% of the time (theres a reason why clubs have a life expectancy of 3-5 years) and a whole plethora of crap to deal with makes DJing seem rediculously easy in comparison. But the amount of crap I had to deal with, is somethign I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies.
About that article, yeah that's not news, that's been happning since around 2009-2010, eventually you will have to be a producer/DJ to get anything done (it's almost that way now). . .BUT if you can make it, the rewards are great, not to mention that very soon, other parts of the world (china, SEA) are geting richer and will be able to have increased demand for all of this. . . I don't think DJing will be "Ending" Its more that electornic music is becoming much more of a solidified pop genre (like rock and rap) It's just changing. . .rapidly.
The whole "Everything sounds the same" argument (which is true btw) is pretty irrelevant, as its pretty much what the customers want, as they vote with their wallets. Music has ALWAYS been like that look up Haydn(classical music) as he was one of the first people to realize this and use it to . ..get rich off of his music way back in the 18th century when classical music was "pop music"
This isn't new at all, and it happens untill the next big thing comes along, when the next evolution appears. A lot of artists forget about that and cling too closely to art, rather than adapting, and/or creating the next big thing. Everything evolves and changes. A lot of these people in this article somehow forgot that.
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