The chicken-and-egg situation of the the supremacy of the DJ or the attendee sits right up there with the world's most confusing subjects such as death, religion, women and the highest grade of maths. No audience - no party, no money. No DJ - no party, nothing to spend on. What part does each side have to play to guarantee a good night out?
I put out a tweet asking what fucks it up on both ends, to see the reactions. I can speak for DJs but not for attendees, so here we go.
Top 5 suggestions DJs should take?
Basically, don't skip some essential verses on songs. The verses that make up the meat of the songs. It would feel pretty awful for one of your favorite songs to come on and you don't get to hear the best verse on it.
People reaalllyyy want to hear their favorite verses over and over, and essentially, let songs breathe. Sometimes DJs switch songs too fast without letting the crowd enjoy them. That song you just skipped 5 seconds in because its a routine, may be what would have warmed them up for the rest of your set. With keeping the song tempo, my rule of thumb is keeping it +5 - 8, depending on where I'm playing. Higher tempos usually work better for outdoor and spacious settings because the sound waves travel differently. Outside of that, I don't mind the tempos being altered if its a certain mix you're trying to execute.
This may have been the best list I got. Point 2 can get tricks quickly. Some attendees arrive already lit and want to have the party 2 hrs before the main party arrives. You drop your party bangers 2 hours before things get active and when you're supposed to be active, you've already used up your set and have to do something else. I personally hate playing songs twice in one night, and anytime I hear the same song or realize a set pattern, that's my cue to leave.
Some sects of the Ghanaian audience has grown tired of hearing DJ Khaled's 'All I Do Is Win'... a feel good, victory song. A global hit, a song Obama walked out to, the song T-Pain closed out his Verzuz battle against Lil Jon with. Its okay to be tired of hearing a song but damn, put some respect on the banger.
Las las....
Now what would typically grind a DJs gears.... The customer isn't always right, and attendees need to understand this.
The most recent funniest DJ take I've seen is on one DJs really hate; song requests.
Nothing wrong with suggesting a song here and there but please let us do our job. Let's get into our groove first and then we'll see what works when we're going at it. The place isn't for you, and even if it was yours, we doubt you'd want your music flowing in off patterns just because you want it that way. You'll be ruining it for everyone else.
One thing more annoying than requests is requesting the wrong song at the wrong time and place. The fact that your favorite playlist has you jumping genres or BPMs and it works well for you doesn't mean it'll work well when being played out. A DJ could be on a hip-hop or dancehall vibe and then a (very persistent and impatient) request would come for a different genre, way out of the BPM range, or from a set you've previously done already. You calmly tell them their song wouldn't work for what you're doing, or it would come on later on during the event, and all of a sudden you're the worst DJ in the world. Requests are necessarily a bad thing. Your request could just not be right for the moment.
In very recent memory at 'The Blueprint' - a specific themed night to honor and celebrate Jay-Z, I got a request for some Fireboy DML. I asked madam if she knew what was going on that night. She affirmed that she knew and still wanted her out of range request. Ugh.. the worst.
Then there's the serial requester. You put in a request for a song, and luckily it worked. I played your song. Yayyy. Can we leave it there, please? Don't come back and show me a playlist. We are not friends. I only played one song you suggested. Thank you.
Ahh another one of my favorites; attendees holding your skills hostage to one song or artiste. I'm not sure what to say to this because what ever you do, if someone wants to reduce all the hours you've put into developing your craft to just 3 minutes, 15 seconds of one single song, you can keep what ever you want in your head, na mo agyimi dodo.
Charge your phones for the night out, or bring your power banks out, if you don't think you can charge your phone wherever you are. The DJ booth is not a charging station, please.
You may get lucky with a kind DJ but please, it dey bore.
In summary, DJs - let the song rock. Attendees - Leave the DJ alone and let them do their work. They have a job to do.
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