Tag Archives: Creative Rhode Island DJ

A Professional DJ Opens Up His Music Library

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Last Saturday night, I had the opportunity to again DJ at Barefoot Boogie at Insight Meditation Center in NYC. Another DJ and myself were both celebrating our birthdays! I find DJing is one of my favorite ways to have fun and share my birthday celebration with others. This time was no different for this professional DJ.

 

Whenever I offer my DJ services for the Barefoot Boogie, I always like to try to open-up my massive music library – part for the challenge of scrolling through more than 35,000 songs and partially due to the fact the environment and crowd support a diverse and expanded playlist. I have so much fun excitedly cruising through the lists and finding the exact perfect next song to segue from the last one knowing that mixing it up with different styles and genres is what is appreciated most at Barefoot Boogie.

 

As my professional DJ name and business are growing I feel fortunate that many of my clients also appreciate diversity and varying styles of music and dancing. It reminds that being a professional Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ is where I belong! Here in this part of the country I get to provide music and entertainment for weddings, sweet sixteens, reunions, anniversaries, graduations and all kinds of events and parties with a diverse crowd and guests that are not all the same and, therefore, all want to hear different kinds of music. One of the true benefits of being a professional Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Professional DJs Playing Remix after Remix

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I have not been a fan of a steady diet of remix after remix of old samples added to new beats. It somehow seems like a way to take someone’s work and pull it apart. Think if we did the same thing with a painting or a novel? But music is somewhat different. Music is more malleable than most artistic forms. Artists have been doing their versions of artists songs for as long as there has been music. So, it is not a great leap to take their recorded music and reshape it to your needs. I need to clarify that I think it makes total sense for the artist or producer to remix at their leisure. It is their creative piece to begin with, but when we do so, it is without their voice being heard in the creative process. This seems different to me.

What I did find interesting though was hearing great inspiring speeches and phrases dubbed over beats. An example was Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream Speech was dubbed over some basic hard-driving beats. Of course, this is not a new practice, just one that deserves further exploration. Is it against the basic premise of artist’s work is left alone except when the artist themselves are giving their creative input to make certain it meets their standards and maintains their intention?  Artist integrity also has to be considered. As an artist, would you be OK with someone you have never met taking your work and reshaping to the way they want it? Any shape they want. They may even take out your vocals altogether, or just the lyrics they do not like.

As a songwriter, there is a conflict here. Of course, they are fine with the idea that someone likes their work enough to care, maybe not as accepting to the concept of it being pulled apart at the seams and made into something brand new, without their input. I think it would depend on the artist.

I wonder how Pink Floyd feel about hearing their songs sampled over a disco beat or Johnny Cash to a Hip Hop beat (both exist)?  What about Sinatra remixed to Country beats?  Or Mozart to Heavy Metal? Would these artists lose sleep from agony or embrace the new, different form their work has taken?

I think it is important to recognize that not all artists will feel respected and admired by the final results. Some may be blown away at what we can do today without bands or musicians, yet others may cringe at the thought. While we dance away to the new version of Sly and The Family Stone’s Everyday People, I invite you to keep in mind the original artist’s intention and how they would feel about our new version of their song. Hear their voice and let it speak to you and connect with you. It is not that I am saying that remixing or sampling are bad, just think it is important to be mindful of the original artist and their focus, creativity and direction. Are we honoring or ignoring them in our need for something new without actually creating something new? This is the question for the professional DJ.

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DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Professional DJs Moving Music Beyond Borders

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There was a young man named Chris recording some of his most recent piano compositions in our studio this morning. I was and still am blown away by his force and grace at the keyboard. He reminded me in some ways of George Winston in his ability to transition from and to forceful, very intense and soft, gentle caresses of the keys seamlessly. An exceptional Professional DJ can create bridges between cultures through music. This is what a Multicultural DJ does.

One of the great things that music can offer us is a means to break and go beyond borders and limitations that are created individually or socially.  I think about when I was a kid. My family was not the most culturally aware or respectful but when it came to music, there were no barriers or prejudices. At night my parents could be listening to Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Beethoven, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Fiddler on the Roof, Rossini’s William Tell Overture (which I thought was The Lone Ranger theme), Santana and Hugh Masekela.

For me, it was The Beatles, Motown, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Beach Boys, Santana, Steppenwolf, Simon and Garfunkel, Elton John, Sly and The Family Stone, Bill Withers, Jimi Hendrix and The Byrds. I am sure there were others but those were the ones that owned my turntable during my early childhood. Of course, that all changed when I reached my teens.

Today music from Brooklyn, Jersey, LA, Texas, Mali, Mexico, Cuba, Turkey, Spain, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Indonesia, India, Philly, Detroit, UK, Italia, The Middle East, Africa in general, Jamaica, Hawaii, Ireland are all regular guests in my bedroom these days with other ‘friends’ visiting from time to time.

Music can do this. It is amazing to me how easy and painlessly music can expand our vision of what is possible between people, cultures and sound.  Turn on your radio and briefly flip through several different stations that you do not regularly listen to and enjoy the diversity and creativity that you will experience. Music can do that and more.

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DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ