Mixed results
Well, my gig on Friday went OK.
Not great, but OK.
The problem is this: not everyone has escaped being poisoned by MTV. Many of these unfortunate victims were in the crowd on Friday night. Actually, they made up the vast majority. These are also the type of folks who will not dance to songs that they don't know.
MTV: Robbing impressionable youth
of adventurous tastes for almost 25 years.
So my plans to spin lots of tasty techno, house, and other danciness kind of fell by the wayside, for MTV does not play techno, house, and other danciness (at least of the kind I'd brought with me and hoped to spin).
MTV plays hiphop. Lots of hiphop. Oh, an apparently some reggaeton.
Not a fan of reggaeton, so I don't own any. And as for the hiphop that gets played on MTV... again, not a big fan.
Luckily, the Zoppas had provided me with several discs of stuff they wanted played, so I managed to keep select chunks of the crowd satisfied from time to time. Another tricky thing about DJing to a bunch of folks like this is that everybody has different tastes. I won't say "varied" because that would imply they liked more than one type of music. Not so the case here. I say "different" because everybody liked different stuff exclusively. Throw on the hiphop, the reggaeton people sit down (although this makes no sense to me, as reggaeton sounds to me like a simple variation of hiphop).
Likewise the hiphop folk with reggaeton.
These folks couldn't even agree about 80s, which most people seem to love. I think my short 80s set got the best reaction, but I feel cheap every time I do it. One can only play "I Melt With You" so many times before coming to the realization that your set is treading water.
I was also constantly bombarded with requests. At one point there were six people in the booth with me, all asking for different stuff. With the begging coming fast and furious, it was extremely difficult to establish a groove. "Yes, I will play some Missy, but I'm in the middle of a No Doubt, pseudo-rock set. Give me ten minutes." These appeals failed to make an impact and it got to the point where I was switching vibes almost every other song.
In the end, however, the Zoppas seemed happy, which, given that it was their birthday, was the most import thing. They were even kind enough to pay me, so I must not have fallen on my face too badly. However, I did leave the evening with a very pronounced feeling of disappointment, as I'd planned the night's musical execution, but didn't get to execute my plan.
In short, I need to rent a place and throw my own party. It will be understood that dancing will be mandatory and that all kinds of dance music, from techno to house to hiphop to drum and bass to breakcore to trance and all matter of other butt moving tunes, will be played.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even throw in some reggaeton.
Dusted:
The Dustmite - Assassin of Memories
(the return of the dark hop)
The Dustmite - Remix + Rarities
(DMs tunes twisted and shifted)
The Dustmite - Dub Sessions V.1
(deep, dark dub)
Various - Intelligent Freaks Mix '05
(the Dustmite mixes the evil)
Not great, but OK.
The problem is this: not everyone has escaped being poisoned by MTV. Many of these unfortunate victims were in the crowd on Friday night. Actually, they made up the vast majority. These are also the type of folks who will not dance to songs that they don't know.
of adventurous tastes for almost 25 years.
So my plans to spin lots of tasty techno, house, and other danciness kind of fell by the wayside, for MTV does not play techno, house, and other danciness (at least of the kind I'd brought with me and hoped to spin).
MTV plays hiphop. Lots of hiphop. Oh, an apparently some reggaeton.
Not a fan of reggaeton, so I don't own any. And as for the hiphop that gets played on MTV... again, not a big fan.
Luckily, the Zoppas had provided me with several discs of stuff they wanted played, so I managed to keep select chunks of the crowd satisfied from time to time. Another tricky thing about DJing to a bunch of folks like this is that everybody has different tastes. I won't say "varied" because that would imply they liked more than one type of music. Not so the case here. I say "different" because everybody liked different stuff exclusively. Throw on the hiphop, the reggaeton people sit down (although this makes no sense to me, as reggaeton sounds to me like a simple variation of hiphop).
Likewise the hiphop folk with reggaeton.
These folks couldn't even agree about 80s, which most people seem to love. I think my short 80s set got the best reaction, but I feel cheap every time I do it. One can only play "I Melt With You" so many times before coming to the realization that your set is treading water.
I was also constantly bombarded with requests. At one point there were six people in the booth with me, all asking for different stuff. With the begging coming fast and furious, it was extremely difficult to establish a groove. "Yes, I will play some Missy, but I'm in the middle of a No Doubt, pseudo-rock set. Give me ten minutes." These appeals failed to make an impact and it got to the point where I was switching vibes almost every other song.
In the end, however, the Zoppas seemed happy, which, given that it was their birthday, was the most import thing. They were even kind enough to pay me, so I must not have fallen on my face too badly. However, I did leave the evening with a very pronounced feeling of disappointment, as I'd planned the night's musical execution, but didn't get to execute my plan.
In short, I need to rent a place and throw my own party. It will be understood that dancing will be mandatory and that all kinds of dance music, from techno to house to hiphop to drum and bass to breakcore to trance and all matter of other butt moving tunes, will be played.
Who knows? Maybe I'll even throw in some reggaeton.
Dusted:
The Dustmite - Assassin of Memories
(the return of the dark hop)
The Dustmite - Remix + Rarities
(DMs tunes twisted and shifted)
The Dustmite - Dub Sessions V.1
(deep, dark dub)
Various - Intelligent Freaks Mix '05
(the Dustmite mixes the evil)
posted by Ben at 10:12 AM
1 Comments:
yes! a DJ abstract party. with a guest DJ once in awhile, right? [g]
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