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House in a hip hop environment (pg. 3)
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| quyntarious |
First off, you really should pay for tracks, not only to support the artist but for quality. Most of the stuff available for download on limewire or other share sites are not quality MP3's (I personally prefer at least 256kbps.) but rather 128kbps. While this is fine for the average I-Pod or computer, the files aren't high enough quality to play out. (Although most of the house parties I go to have an I-Pod hooked up to someone's stereo system.)
Second, I have learned that people either really love, or just don't like, electronica. I would love to just show up at a party, play a slammin' set and have people appreciate those lesser known but monster white label tracks but it doesn't work that way. I am not a big pop music fan, even when it comes to hip-hop I much prefer more obscure, lesser known artists/ tracks. People at college house parties want to be drunk, play beer pong, sex people up and then grind on them to some Fitty-Scent. (Misspelled on purpose.)
Third, a story. I live in Athens, OH, and last year at Halloween I my roommate told his boss I would DJ the party if he wanted, which was true. My roommate didn't really get across the point that all I had was happy hardcore and drum and bass. So I explained to him that's ALL I had to play, and still he wanted me to do the music. I agreed. That night a few amazing things happened. Since ravers tend to find each other there was a mini-rave in the office, and after some Jagerbombs and a few more Red-Bulls I went berserk and played a killer, balls out set for about an hour. Half way through the set this girl comes up to me and asks "Are you going to play any 'real' music tonight?" Since I am new here, I need to explain something. I love electronica. I love everything about it, in fact I am sure my hard drive is going to hate me for finding this site. When I am not listening to some new CD I just bought (I am currently rebuilding a CD collection stolen from me 7 years ago.) I am listening to DJ mixes. So when she essentially said it was not real music, she pissed me off. I had some popular songs on my laptop (which happened to be hooked up to the line-in of my Nuo 2) but I simply looked at her and said "This is real music. I don't have anything else." The moral of the story? People should keep an open mind about music, and they don't. I have seen a fight almost break out between roommates because one of them played a few trance tracks between the normal music, the guy came in and said "Dude, no one wants to hear that raver !" Meanwhile, there were 5 girls dancing and rubbing each other in the room...to the "raver ." Go figure.
- Quyn |
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| jupiterone |
i don't see the big deal. i played a party this saturday for a friend, mainly a hip-hop/classic rock crowd, it's much better to mix things you like if you're actually friends with many of the people at the party, simply because they'll probably understand the motive for you playing the track you're playing.
but really, i think the key to playing at parties that listen to music you normally don't listen to is to just have a good time. play some snoop dogg, play some dr.dre, play some funny that'll get peoples attention.
when people are drunk, they'll usually move to whatever catches their ear, all about understanding who you're playing for.
p.s: this went down as on saturday, especially for the girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nmXrCJIsAo |
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| elFreak |
| quote: | Originally posted by Imu
it's not that simple. where I go for example, the EDM scene is dead. If there is an EDM scene it consists of bad house (calabria, rise up, world hold on), sickening electro-glitch, or cascada (and maybe some daft punk). And yeah, the only consolation is that you're getting experience on the dancefloor. |
new york is not far from CT.
ffs i know people from NH that would travel to Montreal and Boston for gigs...you have to chase them, "the scene is dead" is not an excuse if you want to play. |
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| Imu |
| quote: | Originally posted by elFreak
new york is not far from CT.
ffs i know people from NH that would travel to Montreal and Boston for gigs...you have to chase them, "the scene is dead" is not an excuse if you want to play. |
that's very true...but since we're discussing college parties in this post, "the scene" refers to college parties lol
also, i agree that people should keep an open mind about music and don't. honestly, I have a pretty ty time dj-ing college parties because i can't play what i want to. what's more frustrating is that most of the time when my set is technically brilliant, no one notices, and a lot of times i can play the worst set of my life, but as long as the songs are good people are like "omg wow that was amazing"...sometimes i wonder what the average person thinks a dj is doing behind the decks and the fancy equipment. A lot of ppl I talk to are like "I always think DJs just try to pose with their headphones"...which is kind of annoying
Either way, I think the best solution is to get plastered when dj-ing a set at college parties. It makes life less painful. And I used to get pretty annoyed when I got the "are u going to play something I can dance to?" comments...but if the girl's hot and u can get some out of it, then why not lol |
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| jakjak9210 |
| ^^^ im totally agreeing with the last statement, i play killer sets for my friends, and my own enjoyment, but at "dance" parties i play popular hip hop mixed with electronica and house. Keep the hot girls dancing and the night goes over well. :toocool: |
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| Yohan |
I encourage everyone to get some experience playing for mainstream/top40 crowd, esp. new bedroom DJs
Not that something I'd do anymore, because I'm rather tired of playing cheese, but I still keep a cd wallet full of some cheese in case I do get stuck playing gigs that requires me to play cheese.
Interesting how you can play with the crowd by starting with some remixes of popular tunes, and slowly build up to some marco v and len faki. Of course, providing that everyone is sufficiently liquored up lol.
But yeah, I turn down gigs if I know it's going to be mostly mainstream crowd |
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| Imu |
also, u learn over time that the hot girls control the dance floor.
no hot girls on dancefloor = no horny guys trying to dance with them = empty dancefloor = bad reviews as a dj
Armin (#1 dj to add some ethos to this statement lol) himself says that ur priority as a DJ is to ensure that ur crowd is satisfied...so while thay may be selling out...it depends on what ur trying to achieve. college DJs mainly want money and girls...so that approach works. if ur looking for integrity and showing off ur skills etc...u need to be spinning at smaller parties...especially if ur at college |
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| Yohan |
| quote: | Originally posted by Imu
also, u learn over time that the hot girls control the dance floor.
no hot girls on dancefloor = no horny guys trying to dance with them = empty dancefloor = bad reviews as a dj |
have you ever spun at a proper edm club?
| quote: |
Armin (#1 dj to add some ethos to this statement lol) himself says that ur priority as a DJ is to ensure that ur crowd is satisfied...so while thay may be selling out...it depends on what ur trying to achieve. college DJs mainly want money and girls...so that approach works. if ur looking for integrity and showing off ur skills etc...u need to be spinning at smaller parties...especially if ur at college |
you're very new at this, aren't you |
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| Imu |
lol i have...but im not referring to a proper edm club here...i spin at edm clubs over the summers when i have time...when ur at college for 9 months in a year, u spin at frat parties...in which case everything i said above is right
either way, are u contesting the idea that a DJ is meant to satisfy a crowd?
if u feel strongly otherwise do express why. |
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| DarkMemoria |
I think that most North American mainstream club DJs have encountered this problem...
its a bit of a confidence shaker the first few times you try to play all the house / trance you like, only to find an empty floor. Booze helps, but you eventually have to accept that you have to start somewhere, not everyone starts out playing to packed clubs / arenas playing the music they want with 2 min breakdowns.
I play mostly mainstream remixes (Britney, Rihanna, cat Dolls, Katy Perry, etc), with a mix of house (usually more accessible stuff - i.e. Deadmau5, Kaskade, Morgan Page, but sometimes earlier in the night I dig a bit deeper / more progressive with 16BL, Eelke Kleijn, etc), and cheese (Put Your Hands Up, Calabria, World Hold On, Etc). I suppose it can be considered selling out to some degree, but you have to adapt when you have no EDM clubs in your city.
It helps if you don't absolutely hate what you're playing, broaden yourself to pop and eurodance a bit (i.e. September - Cry For You, more Radio 1 friendly stuff). I also work in another club where I literally just run videos off some silly program (VDJ... muchmusic style) - top 40, etc, and that one is much more brutal because I'm not allowed to -actually- mix, just MC and allow the program to auto-crossfade (read: trainwreck). Regardles, once you learn to accept that sometimes you just have to play mainstream, then you realize that DJing has great benefits like bar tabs, guestlists, and easy money :)
Yes its really annoying when people come up and ask you to "play something thats not techno" ("hey man play some ing SEAN PAUL or sumthing so I can get sum pussssssay"), but you'll realize its almost all guys that are coming up and asking you to play that stuff, girls usally can have a good time to house music, and once they hit the floor, the guys just follow.
It also feels great when people come up and compliment you for actually mixing instead of just running virtual DJ and slamming bad mainstream songs together, and you'd be suprised how many more house / EDM fans are actually out there.
Great thread that I'm sure many can relate to! |
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| Yohan |
| quote: | Originally posted by Imu
either way, are u contesting the idea that a DJ is meant to satisfy a crowd?
if u feel strongly otherwise do express why. |
lol. i get a kick whenever someone refers to Armin/Tiesto/PvD as number 1 DJ |
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| quyntarious |
I started DJing mostly for myself. And as a college DJ, I try to find ways to exposed people to electronica. I started playing house as a way to play something a little more dance friendly and now when I look for tracks I have three categories: Tracks I love, tracks my roommate would love and tracks that I think everyone would enjoy. I am usually right on about them for the most part. I haven't played any house out yet, but the people to whom I have showed my house mixes have all responded positively. I understand the role of a DJ, but I never became a DJ for those reasons. I became a DJ to do mixes that appealed to me. Of course the more I play out the more I am tempted to start playing more popular music. I never really did it for money, I did it because I want to share the music I love with everyone else.
- Quyn |
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