There was Joe Jackson song in the early 80’s  played as professional DJ named “A Slow Song” with one of my favorite chorus:

“But I’m brutalized by bass and terrorized by treble… And i get tired of DJs! Why’s it always what he plays?”

I happened to be at a club in NYC Friday night and one of the professional DJs seemed set on playing house music even though no one besides his few friends were into it but it is ‘what he plays’ so he kept playing it. This is one of my biggest gripes with professional DJs – the lack of ability to move past their own needs and meet the needs of the audience they are getting paid to perform for. Can you imagine Peyton Manning bringing out his putter and start playing golf when the crowd paid to see him play football because he felt like playing golf? Or 40,000 people show up to listen and watch Beyonce perform the songs she has made popular but instead she breaks out into a bunch of hard rock songs because she is in the mood for rock and not pop/dance?

I wonder why professional DJs think their personal taste has anything to do with being a professional DJ? I rarely play what I listen to at home when being paid to be a professional DJ. In a four-hour set at a club or party will I add one or two songs that MATCH what is being enjoyed by those paying me? Yes, I will. The key is that it matches what I was requested to play and it is 2 out of 75 songs. I do not do this at weddings or corporate events though, too much riding on these events.

Sometimes I wonder if this is just a matter of age, maturity and experience. I assume I was similar when I was younger but do not remember clear enough to state otherwise. Today, it is about you. I am done with needing to prove how much I know a certain genre or how ‘into it’ I am. I am done proving myself. I know what I can do and stand by that. Trust your professional DJ to do their job but also hold them accountable to what you agreed upon. You paid them!It is your professional Wedding,party or Event DJ.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

There is a specific moment in all gigs when the professional DJ needs to let loose all of the songs they know will work in peaking the folks on the dance floor to their maximum enjoyment for the night. It is not always clear in advance when that will be but a professional DJ can often know which songs that will be the catalyst early in the gig. They are the songs that people have requested in multiple numbers and all seem to fit with each other and are popular enough to appeal to the larger group beyond those on the dance floor at the moment. That is the moment when the professional DJ “Unleashes The Hounds” till everybody goes wild with enthusiasm and joy.

One would assume that these songs will be the same night in and night out but not always the case. It varies depending on the crowd, culture, age, gender and event. The one mistake a professional DJ can make is to “hold back the hounds” till it is too late and the event is winding down. The professional DJ may think that people will be staying later than what really will take place and is keeping them till the height of the event thinking that will be the right moment. This is unfortunate because they may miss that opportunity for pushing the energy to the highest level possible. That moment is what people usually remember about an event, the moment when the hounds where unleashed and everybody ends up soaked with sweat and huge, exhausted smiles on their faces. When you see this, you know you have done your job for the night.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

One of the gifts of being a professional DJ that works with a MacBook is the ability to obtain music quickly and efficiently when needed for a gig. Recently I had a situation where I needed music for a high school graduation party that the family who booked the gig are from another country. No problem. They requested music from their country, which I had a small library of but not really enough to produce an excellent night of music for them.

Years ago when DJing an event like this, the professional DJ would have had to either spend lots of money buying individual or collections of music to meet the needs of the host, play the wrong music or not take the gig. Today it is different. We can obtain music we need to meet specific needs of the event directly from the Internet; all we need is an internet connection and a credit card, and bang, we have the music we need in a matter of minutes!

Historically, this has been the most stressful part of the preparation for a wedding or event – making sure we have the correct music for a professional DJ gig. This is much easier for a club DJ since they know what their audience likes and grooves to. A specific event needs a more diverse library. Often the client who booked the gig has one vision for what will be best for their event and the guests are wanting something different. This has been mostly eliminated through the use of fully collected music library on a notebook computer.

Tonight’s professional DJ gig will have the correct music fortunately. I have the music the family wants, especially the young lady who just graduated from high school as well as her parents. I will not have to deal with the nightmare of producing music and then not being able to meet the requests of the guests. I will be prepared for whatever genre or style of music they desire.  I remember the days of bringing with me six racks of 12″ and two racks of ’45s’ vinyl hoping to meet this same need. Should be a fun night!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

One of my favorite event forms to DJ have always been class reunions. I enjoy the opportunity to provide music to facilitate memories for people that have shared some part of their past together.

I started doing class reunions back in the early 80’s, by accident really.  There was a group of Police Officers in Morris County who were all big motorcyclists. They belonged to an organization named The Blue Angels. They hired me once as a professional  DJ for an Oldies (50’s & 60’s) gig, and from there I ended up doing many class reunions because I got a reputation as a good professional Oldies DJ. This was funny to me since I was not born during a large chunk of the music I played and was a little boy during the rest. In took time for me to build a solid collection of this music on vinyl (all there was back then) and more importantly know the music. Eventually, I had what I considered enough knowledge and library to do this on a regular basis. This is where all the reunions started coming from.

Class reunions are fun times. The professional DJ has a real clear direction of what selections to play, leaving some room for those who want music from other periods than high school or college. This tight playlist offers the opportunity to really dive into this period and play both what was on the top of the charts but also to play stuff that was not as popular. We can do this since we know that if you were in high school or college at the time the music was out, chances are you had some knowledge of the whole music scene. This is unique because usually we cannot play the lesser known, music from the past, people just do not know it except those who were in their teens and twenties at the time.

So if you are a professional DJ who really has an affection for music from a certain period, I encourage you to market yourself for class reunions during that period. They are such fun events and you get to jump back in time for the night along with the guests. Trust me, these are such fun events and you will want to do them all the time!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ