It is fun sometimes to take the time to learn music from different styles and genres that are not part of our normal DJ Music library. It opens new doors into what people enjoy and along the way we find new stuff that gets us pumped up about music and being a professional DJ. I have been experimenting with Trip Hop, Ambient and Acid Jazz lately. I did not grow-up with these styles of music an they are not as incorporated into many of the professional Wedding & Events DJ so I needed to dig on my own to learn about them and be able to expand my repertoire to include music from these groups and artists as well. For any professional DJ who is feeling stale about the music they are listening to these days, I encourage you to step outside your world and explore a new genre of music, one that is far from what you typically listen. You might be surprised by what you find!
Tag Archives: Rhode Island Professional DJ
Older, Old Skool Professional Hip Hop DJ
I remember when we first heard Sugar Hill Gang. It was Rapper’s Delight on Sugar hill Records. It was a relatively new sound that was produced on their own label. I do not know if they knew it at the time but the choice to lay down tracks on their own label was the beginning of what has shaped the music industry since. I am certain they did not know they would fuel a musical genre that no one outside of Brooklyn and The Bronx thought would last more than a few years, forget about owning the business for the next 30+ years!
This was their first single and it was the first hip hop single to reach the Billboard Top 40 and they were the first hip hop performers on American bandstand, many folks believe RUN-DMC were first but it was actually Sugar Hill Gang. They were sued for sampling the beats from Chic’s Good Times, the first of many lawsuits that the Hip Hop business has had to encounter. They settled out of court and Nile Rodgers was afforded part o fall royalties forward. They were from Englewood, NJ and not NYC as most people assume.
They seem to have lost recognition for their pioneering music to others artists like RUN-DMC who were more famous and successful It is like Hip Hop refuses to acknowledge where it came form although it has had such a short history for a musical genre. Today, Old Skool means five or ten years ago, not the roots of a musical style that is diverse in its breath and focus based on a social movement of changing attitudes and actions to the greater good of all people. It is sometimes hard to see this in the music that is called Hip Hop today, although very danceable and fun.
Professional DJ: Why’s It Always What He Plays?
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.
Knowing When To Unleash The Hounds As A Professional 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.
Music, Dance and Culture As A Professional DJ
It does not happen often, but every now and then I have to really dig into my experience as a professional DJ to figure out how to make things work at an event. Most recently, it was due to some cultural differences that I did not take into account and fortunately was helped by some of the guests to understand and find an effective solution.
Even though I have lived and traveled through a large section of Eastern and Central Asia, I still view how an event is supposed to go in the USA from an American perspective. This is not necessarily a bad thing but can be a blind-spot when not taking into account cultural differences. If I was in South Korea or Uzbekistan, I would not think twice about ASSUMING the way we do it here is the way it is done there. But being here in the USA, my vision is not as wide and expansive at times since it is my home. I ASSUMED that the order of events that are typical for an American social event were the same everywhere, big mistake. I know better. I ASSUMED that there is some time before dinner for people to mingle and settle, dinner, cake/coffee/tea and then everybody is ready to let go and dance till they are cleaning the tables and folding chairs. This is not the case everywhere.
The event I was providing professional DJ services for was a high school graduation party for an American Punjabi family. The event was at an Indian Restaurant and they followed Indian traditional order of social events. The dancing for events is between the appetizers and the main meal, not after the main meal. I did not know this, I do now!
Again, if not for the willing guests who showed me the way, I am afraid the party would not have been the success it was. I am grateful they took the time to explain to me how this works and what to do. They even shared with me what music to play when!
The lesson learned for me is an old lesson relived: Don’t make ASSUMPTIONS, especially with cultural differences.
Not Having The Correct Music For An Event As Professional 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!
Can’t We Just Use a Playlist? Why a DJ?
Simple: DJs are alive and follow the energy and mood of the crowd- playlists do not know what is happening and cannot adapt. If you want your event to have life and excitement; hire a DJ. If you are just looking for background/ambient music, maybe a playlist is fine.
Determine what you want your event to be like, of course we have no control of circumstances like rain at an outdoor event or airport closings for guests flying in, but we can still know what we would like to happen at our event. If you want people to be dancing and moving around, a DJ may be the way to go. This is especially true if the guest list has diversity of age, background, geography, gender, education, economy or culture. Diversity makes predictability of music more challenging since the playlist may not reflect what all the people want to hear.
Example: A birthday party for a six-year-old girl with only her friends from the neighborhood as guests probably will have a tighter playlist than a wedding with guests from Korea, Ireland, Spain and Germany. The latter I did a few months ago and was amazed at the diversity of the music requested to meet the needs of this culturally diverse group of people celebrating a wedding. Truthfully, not only would a playlist on an iPod have been a failure, even carrying six racks of records back in the days when I still played vinyl would not have prepared me enough to make everybody satisfied the way they were. I needed to have the whole 100GB library to be ready for the different styles and periods of music the crowd requested.
An iPod is perfect for a family dinner where everyone will sit at the table afterwards talking and drinking coffee or maybe a pool party with just a select group of old friends as background music for catching up with each other. If you want people to be actively participating in the event; hire a good DJ and make it an event to remember and worth the effort and expense that went into it!
Professional DJs Working The Room
Probably the most fun activity for a professional DJ is working the room to keep a full and Rockin’ dance floor. It is one thing to just keeping the dance floor full, it is another thing to keep them rockin’! There will always be people who will dance regardless of the quality of the professional DJ or the music. So, using the dance floor’s capacity is not always a true barometer of professional DJ success. When everyone on the floor is having fun, real big fun; that is something to pay attention to. How does a new professional DJ learn how to do this?
Start with paying attention to the folks on the dance floor AND the one’s who are not on the floor. They matter too. Some people are not really dancers. They may be having a great time and loving the tunes but not comfortable being up in front of others. Watch and see how they look and feel. Are they pumped and laughing with their feet and butts shakin’ in place? Good!
Next is to watch those on the dance floor. Are they just going through the motions of dancing or are they really moving? Are they soaked with sweat because they CAN’T get off the dance floor? You can see when it is working by looking into the eyes of those dancing. Are they sparkling and beaming? Are they so engrossed in the music that they forgot there is a world outside of the five-foot area they have taken ownership of? What about the couples and the ‘couples to be’ on the dance floor? Are they so in tune with the beats and rhythms that they do not know there are others on the dance floor? If your answer to all of these is YES! Good!
If the answer is no, what to do? Because at the heart of a good professional DJ is the need to make people want to move so bad they forget their friends, bedtime, job, bills and laundry. First things first, have you been too busy playing what you want to hear and forgot that they are the ones who matter? Have you tried to switch the genre or era of the music? Sometimes we need to shift the music and energy of what is happening to meet the needs of the crowd. This is still true if you are a Club DJ that has been working this same crowd week after week. Folks sometimes need something new to get things moving. Sometimes switching the tempo can be just the thing to get people paying attention again. This applies to slowing it down just a little to give the opportunity to speed it back up again. This can be risky since you may lose those faithful few who are still out there having a good time. By slow, I do not mean a slow dance like Lionel Richie, more in line with most of the old Motown and Philly Soul stuff is fast enough for the dance floor but not slow enough for couples to slow dance to. This stuff can be great for shifting things around. Another great example of this is Barry White. Don’t be afraid to take risks, just make sure they are calculated risks AND not for the sake of you trying to slip in what you want to hear. It is always about the crowd! We can listen to our own stuff on the way home. Finally, a few professional DJ tricks may be just the thing; scratching, looping, strange mixes and segues, etc. It forces people to notice you are there and alive!
There are other skills utilized that will be included in other blogs. For now, remember the music is for them and do not get stuck in what you do and how you do it. Be creative and alive. And most of all, PAY ATTENTION!
Professional DJs Playing Remix after Remix
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.
That is Not The Professional DJ We Booked!
It is your wedding day and you have been getting ready for this day since you first met each other. Everything is perfect; flowers, ceremony, photographer, table-setting, dress, tux, family arrived safe, just the way you planned it! It is time to enter the reception hall for the first time as husband and wife with all your friends and family waiting excitedly. You enter the room to cheers and glasses tapping and you see some guy standing behind the professional DJ equipment wearing a t-shirt and jeans that you have never met before pronouncing your name incorrectly. Who is this guy and what is he doing at our wedding? Where is the professional Wedding DJ we booked?
Funny scene right? Well, this happens more than you think. It has become a sad but somewhat common practice for professional Wedding DJ companies to sell you on one Wedding DJ and have another show up. The professional Wedding DJ that you picked was one you felt comfortable with and shared several phone conversations and emails. You discussed the music, your favorite songs and the ones you didn’t want to hear, order of events, dress code, pronunciation of family members names and all the professional Wedding MC duties till all three of you felt you were on the same page. Now some other guy is here who you have never met before DJing your wedding.
Hint #1: When signing your contract with your professional Wedding DJ, make certain it states which Wedding DJ will be the one providing services at your event. Do not let them choose for you, unless you get to make the final decision. They can pick one out for you but make sure you are comfortable with the one they choose. It is your event, you get to choose. Chances are that a good professional agency will pick out the right Wedding DJ for you but it is still in your best interest to have the final say.
Hint #2: Have direct communication with your Wedding DJ before the event to make sure they have your playlist, special songs, order of events, names of those being announced, proper clothing (don’t laugh) and understand how you want the event to transpire. This is crucial. Even the best professional DJ wants to know before showing up what is expected and needed to perform their work effectively. Sure, we can improvise and do when necessary, but having a plan is helpful for all involved and limits misunderstandings at your event.
Hint #3: It is your event! You may have as much or as little input into your professional DJ service as you wish. Again, it is your event!
Remember, it is your event! This is your mantra: It is MY event!
