BEAT SWEATS

There’s no right or wrong way. Everyone has a voice and a style their own. Ultimately, DJing any sort of music is about manipulating the inherent energy, the ebb and flow, in each production, and knowing the how and the when. Know your tracks. Know your voice. And know the audience aka read the crowd.

Mix inspired, meaning you can’t just say “I want to mix deep house”. There are no solid lines demarcating genres of music–not just EDM, but all music. Artists of all genres influence and inspire each other to create new music. A good DJ is an inspired artist and seeks to inspire the audience, just the same. They are there to share their music and knowledge, but ultimately their soul. Capitalism likes nicely defined genres so its easier to package and market, yet the artist should never seek the easily defined.

Not that we care what other people think, but this is why people make fun of a lot of DJs nowadays…

Back in the good ol’ days, the DJ was just one aspect of the party. DJ booths were often off in the corner or to the side so the DJ could just be a silent observer (doing his job reading the crowd). People wouldn’t even recognize a lot of those DJs if you passed them on the street. There were no elevated platforms or stages.

I’ve heard ridiculous things from younger DJs like “I HATE HIP HOP”. Hip-hop and DJ history and culture are intimately tied together. (yet they aren’t one and the same, obviously, since there are DJs of all sorts of genres) The ironic thing about that hip-hop crowd those DJs didn’t really play for is that a hip-hop crowd actually knows how to dance and not just all face the stage jumping up and down, drugged out, waiting only for drops. DJing used to be about grooves and flow, which is why a lot of old school DJs put a lot of emphasis on beatmatching and programming, and they aren’t wrong to do so. The party was about the guests having a good time. A lot of DJs now are just trying to fulfill some egotistical fantasy of playing to a huge crowd with pyrotechnics and lasers, the crowd of groupies. They think the party is all about them. Even some of the DJs that have supposedly made it and play to huge crowds–tens of thousands–I’ve heard play some of the flattest sets, sets with no flow to them. Maybe at that point it doesn’t even matter. But my point is that DJ culture has been perverted and corrupted. Let’s get back to what DJing is all about–rocking the party by ANY means necessary. Maybe you rocked one party and everyone loved it, but if you can’t adapt and fix a dead crowd you probably aren’t a good DJ. You can rock on an iphone or 1200s, 4 channels or 2, sync or no sync–just rock the f’in party.

That all being said, yes I am a house DJ, but you have to learn the history of your craft and you have to get in tune with the mission statement of ALL DJs–rocking the party by ANY means necessary. Until people are paying money specifically to see you, then you are at the mercy of the dancefloor/audience.

Holiday pay in the U.S., like most industries is usually double. So 2x. If you’re not a big name or don’t have a guaranteed and proven following, then you don’t really have leverage to negotiate off expected attendance or ticket sales.

If anything negotiate for something like a free tab or bottles for you and group of your close friends.

+1 Vintage.

Bars, especially depending on the type of bar, are tricky. To start, you’re probably the only DJ that night, so you have to be cognizant of the mood of every part of the night. You want to think of your gig as multiple sets based on time of the night. Second, most people don’t specifically go to a bar to dance and if they do it might be coincidental because they hear a specific tune they just can’t resist. But generally if people want to dance, they go to a club or a place more DJ/music focused. Which is why Vintage’s advice was spot on: the best advice is to control the energy of the night and to determine the natural “drink breaks” yourself. Unless you’re a big act, the bar/club isn’t making money off your music (aka selling tickets or charging a big cover just to get in). They need to sell drinks, so it’s important to dictate the ebb and flow on the micro level (your mini sets) and macro level (the entire night). When you play a big track, ride that energy with lesser tracks (but still good) until you see the crowd is just asking for a reason to come back to the floor or if they just need another boost, and then play another huge track.

My tip is not to force the issue because you can kill the whole night. A bar is a meeting place for friends often times. What you want to do to is keep the people there by making sure they dig the mood and are having fun–enough that they tell their friends who are out on the town to come to your spot and not the other way around! I think we all know this from experience from the other side of the booth. How many times have we left a place to go to another “cooler” or “more fun” spot to be with our friends?

Depending where you are, he could get gigs at parties hosted by promoters who normally throw parties at bars and clubs, but just aren’t necessarily at the bars and clubs. Small festivals and shows happen at certain venues and are put on by a lot of the same promoters. And depending on the scene, certain bars/bar owners DGAF about what’s legal and would hire an under-aged DJ, if it meant the bar made money.

If he’s just starting out, I’d recommend he build a name by taking small gigs at schools, private events, and even house parties, if just to get experience playing to a crowd and to build a buzz. At the end of the day, a lot of bar/club owners only care about their bottomline, regardless of the talent behind the decks. I’ve seen DJs at major clubs get tampons thrown at them for being so bad, yet if they brought in a healthy following, it doesn’t even matter.