In another thread, I wrote this:

quote:

Oh, I totally agree that a lot of trance DJs are bad when it comes to offering a diverse night of music. I put a lot of this down to the low demand that their fans place on them: just play what the fans expect, the latest from Above and Beyond, Armin, et. al., and they will be happy. I think the DJs themselves probably like a much wider variety of music than they actually play, and they might even want to play a bigger variety of stuff, but their success has come from catering to an extremely narrow niche, so that's what they keep doing.

When it comes to DJs who have been around for a while, have some level of fame, and still play nothing but one or two genres, I always wonder how much their playlists reflect their own tastes and how much they reflect what their fans (and perhaps their labels) have come to expect of them.

Personally, I can't imagine that, for example, a trance DJ who plays nothing but epic trance really likes nothing else in dance music. Do you think it's possible that some DJs have "pigeonholed themselves" by getting famous on the back of one genre and then finding that their fans expect them to play nothing but that? I can't imagine being a DJ and playing anything but as broad a range of my favorite music as I could while still trying to keep things coherent. But lots of DJs do otherwise, and I don't believe, at least in most cases, that this is a matter of their tastes really being that narrow...maybe for them it's a matter of "keep playing the same old stuff or lose my fans and paycheck."

yes

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I dunno 'bout that. I think about a rock band like AC/DC that hasn't changed one iota for the last 30 years -playing the same basic hard party rock night after night- yet they seem to give it their all whenever they perform, totally losing themselves in the music and enjoying every minute of it. And their fans wouldn't have it any other way either.

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This is why the avenues you go down as a young DJ are so important.

Perfect example is everyone's current favorite, Deadmau5.

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

You go against whats popular and force a style and make it epic with your dj skills.

The masses like to be lead

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not nearly as extreme as you're bringing up, though I sense that something similar's happened with Zabiela over the past few years.

Case and point, Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren

Their older sets, you'd hear a lot of harder and techier trance which made them so much better. But nowadays, they use harder and techier trance as more of a break between uplifting stuff.
I looked kinda ridiculous when I'm going absolutely nuts and everyone else is like, this is shit.

Kinda sad really.

Good DJs will get the dancefloor moving. Great DJs will lead the crowd

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Originally posted by chinamon not true. i say "ugh" but i am a tranny.

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Originally posted by kotsy lol colour me retarded

Sometimes DJs do ignore their original fanbase though. Take Jonas Steur for example. Can't say I like his current direction in productions and DJing but he reckons it's gaining more fans so kudos to him.

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Originally posted by Clovis This is why the avenues you go down as a young DJ are so important.

good point

Yep, I'm a big fan of diversity in dance music, the whole idea is to push boundaries. I think trance has really lost this in the last few years, to its detriment.

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This is one reason why I appreciate Paul van Dyk, at least he plays a good variety of tunes.

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I think the one's who don't wholesale pander to their audience and their expectations of them find some kind of compromise in between. That is, they'll just restrict their musical motions within a certain range of genres that still borders fairly close to whatever their fans expect them to play. I suppose it gives their fans what they want, and doesn't amount to just DJ'ing on autopilot.

Armin is quoted as saying in an interview that if he had it his way, the music would 'be all ambient and werid.' (link?)

Unless I am misunderstanding this, or am not taking into account its context, I can't imagine a more defined example of just living up to your reputation.

I also think it's not entirely accurate to describe this as a matter of playing only a certain number of genres and not liking anything else in Dance music. I'm perfectly willing to entertain the fact that although a number of DJ's like a variety of genres aside from what they play, they prefer to focus on playing out what they've developed a reputation for, independent of being pigeonholed by their fanbase.

I guess you just have to ask them.

Last edited by Paradox Lost on Oct-30-2008 at 11:06