There is a point in every event that the professional Wedding, Party or Event DJ gets his/her reward for a job well done. You can see it in the smiles and posture of the guests at the party. They can’t help but let the great energy of celebration get the best of them. If no one is facing us, we see other forms of evidence if paying attention. It is easy to be misguided by the packed dance floor. I have been at events when the dance floor is packed since people really want to dance even if they do not like the music the DJ is playing. Dancers will dance! It is the passion and excitement in how they dance that is a greater indicator of success for the professional Wedding DJ.
When I was younger, I used to worry that when too many people asked for requests it meant I was doing a bad job. This is not always so. Time and experience have taught me that often they are having so much fun that each new song gets them fired-up about another great song they want to hear. Requests can be an effeective means of determining success or failure as a professional DJ. The difference is how they ask.
A while back I was helping out another DJ at a wedding. The crowd kept shifting between wanting old and new music due to the varied ages of guests. Some folks were feeling avoided and angrily appraoched the Wedding DJ station with comments like, “Do you have any music from this decade?” or ” Do you know there was music invented before last month?”. These are indicators of the Wedding DJ missing what the crowd needs.
On Saturday night the requests were more like, “Wow! Marvin Gaye was great. Do you have any other Motown?” and “The Bride loved Pitbull so much she was wondering if you could also play his new song with Ne-Yo ‘Give Me Everything’? Please?” I played both Motown and Pitbull and they worked out great. The greatest reward for me was seeing The Bride smiling ear-to-ear. At the end of the night, The Bride, Groom and her sister all gave me big hugs when I was leaving, as if they were about to lose their new best friend. It certainly made the ride home on the Garden Sate Parkway a breeze on that hot summer night from this beautiful outdoor, backyard Wedding DJ.