aaaand we're back

Welcome back! 🙂 I recently have just come back to the forums after a many weeks of on-and-off. I hope you had a great vacation!

Anyways I’ve never thought of mixing rock music because to me it just doesnt seem like a genre many DJ’s would mix. I like rock music and all and wouldn’t mind attempting to mixing it aswell. I mainly think like this because I havn’t really been exposed to many Rock DJ’s as I wouldn’t think Rock would be popular to be spinning in the clubbing scene. :S

I’d love to here your rock mix once your finished! 🙂
I wish you the best with your situations 🙂

I think dj’s these day avoid rock mixing as it is (in my mind) unmixable because the bpms vary so wildly. unless you do the old school radio style mixing on the fade or stab finish. (OMG days of the continuous loopcart with fade or stab written on them).

Welcome back 🙂

I’ve done some rock sets now and it’s great fun! To begin with, what kind of rock do you have in mind? Rock classics, indie, post-punk, softer, harder?

Most rock sets i do are “designed” for a specific public, since in my area people who are into stuff like Arcade Fire, The Killers, Muse, Editors and so on couldn’t care less about Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Motörhead, Deep Purple and others; and of course, probably people that are into Slipknot, System Of A Down, Devildriver or Marilyn Manson are another different tribe;

So my first advise would be to make sure that you understand the mind of the people there; rock fans (I am definitely one) tend to be tolerant until a point, but they only will really enjoy the music if you are spinning tunes from the bands that they know the lyrics inside out, went several times to seem them live, bought the t-shirts and so on. Also (remember I can only comment based on my own reality and environment) i would advise you not to try to blend too much different styles in a 3 or 4 hours gig; if you do, probably most people will get to enjoy several songs, but also probably most people will not enjoy the night as a whole; so choose and commit, and then build a set as dynamic and intense as you can.

On mixing, forget the “latest Rihanna hit at 128 BPM in A flat over 2 and a half minutes” followed by pitch pitch pitch “latest J-LO hit at 129 BPM in E flat over 2 and half minutes” followed by some flanger effect and so on. Rock fans want to ear the music they love, and they couldn’t care less about if it’s mixed or not. For a quick example, do you know the Rage Against The Machine anthem “Killing In The Name”? The thing about that tune is the last 6 notes (2 groups of 3, i think it’s called triplets?); it’s out of question for a fan not to ear them because the DJ changed the music; it would just ruin the vibe of the music. The usual way of mixing doesn’t apply here, one cannot just trim away pieces of the music, if they are meaningful for the fans; Muse didn’t composed “Hysteria” so that the last minute is just some basic rhythm to facilitate mixing; and that last riff IS important, and Muse fans DO want to ear it. I always have this in mind, I think it really helps.

So i guess the fun thing here is to find a way to combine/blend/mix tunes without removing any significant part, and yet having fun while doing it. Most times in my rock sets i spent hours and hours looking for tunes that somehow work well together; it’s not a matter of Key or BPM, it’s a matter of musical affinity; try this for example: spin The Killers “Somebody told me” followed by The Hives “Tick Tick Boom”. Nevermind the BPM, just place cue marks so that you can start the second song in the exact moment, just about when the Killers one is finishing. Of course this is just my opinion, but i do think that it works well. After Tick Tick Boom, try to use “Rock and roll debaser” (Oasis vs Pixies Mashup), for example. Once again, I like it. With practice, you will not need the cue marks anymore, but it’s a great help in the beggining, since they speed up the memorizing process.

Of course there are a ton of rock tunes waiting to be mixed; for example, try the +-80 BPM range: spin Empty Room By Arcade Fire, a bit before the fade out of the music at the end beatmatch and start 2012 by Gossip (crossfade into it, and just let the previous tune fade out and stop; then, when 2012 comes to an abrupt end, start Boycott Everything by Bonaparte, once again beatmatched for better effect. This are all just suggestions, based on stuff I did before, and people around liked it.

Now if you have a crowd that are not into this kind of more recent, hyped bands, but yet prefer older stuff, you may always use tunes that mix well; Try for instance to mix Walk This Way By Aerosmith/Run DMC with Butterfly by Crazy Town with Sure Shot by Beastie Boys With Body movin’ (Fatboy Slim remix of Beastie Boys). After, maybe Looser by Beck or Give It Away Now By Red Hot Chili Peppers? All this tunes mix really well, so well that you can do live mashups of the tunes. And if you spent your time studying the natural compatibility between songs and marking cue points, you can do some really cool and creative stuff.

Another thing is that you can successfully blend rock with electronic music (even very danceable tunes) depending on the tunes you choose; It’s not that hard to mix different styles (both old and new stuff) like The Bloody Beetroots, Waxdolls, The Whip, Pixies, Dead Rock Machine, all that ultra cool Madchester anthems (love them!), Chicks On Speed, The Wombats, old Placebo stuff, Two Door Cinema, really old Sonic Youth, Trash Fashion and so on…. I’ll bet that with these kind of music you can at any time drop “I Like the Way” By The BodyRockers and most people will honestly enjoy it. Have you ever seen a floor where half the people are dancing and the other half are almost head banging? That’s just an amazing thing to watch!

In the meanwhile, I of course got carried away with this and ended up with a a giant post, sorry 🙂 Anyway, if i can in any way help you with your rock set, just let me know, i’ll be more than happy to help 🙂

Fluxdeep, post: 6710 wrote: Welcome back 🙂

I’ve done some rock sets now and it’s great fun! To begin with, what kind of rock do you have in mind? Rock classics, indie, post-punk, softer, harder?

Most rock sets i do are “designed” for a specific public, since in my area people who are into stuff like Arcade Fire, The Killers, Muse, Editors and so on couldn’t care less about Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Motörhead, Deep Purple and others; and of course, probably people that are into Slipknot, System Of A Down, Devildriver or Marilyn Manson are another different tribe;

So my first advise would be to make sure that you understand the mind of the people there; rock fans (I am definitely one) tend to be tolerant until a point, but they only will really enjoy the music if you are spinning tunes from the bands that they know the lyrics inside out, went several times to seem them live, bought the t-shirts and so on. Also (remember I can only comment based on my own reality and environment) i would advise you not to try to blend too much different styles in a 3 or 4 hours gig; if you do, probably most people will get to enjoy several songs, but also probably most people will not enjoy the night as a whole; so choose and commit, and then build a set as dynamic and intense as you can.

On mixing, forget the “latest Rihanna hit at 128 BPM in A flat over 2 and a half minutes” followed by pitch pitch pitch “latest J-LO hit at 129 BPM in E flat over 2 and half minutes” followed by some flanger effect and so on. Rock fans want to ear the music they love, and they couldn’t care less about if it’s mixed or not. For a quick example, do you know the Rage Against The Machine anthem “Killing In The Name”? The thing about that tune is the last 6 notes (2 groups of 3, i think it’s called triplets?); it’s out of question for a fan not to ear them because the DJ changed the music; it would just ruin the vibe of the music. The usual way of mixing doesn’t apply here, one cannot just trim away pieces of the music, if they are meaningful for the fans; Muse didn’t composed “Hysteria” so that the last minute is just some basic rhythm to facilitate mixing; and that last riff IS important, and Muse fans DO want to ear it. I always have this in mind, I think it really helps.

So i guess the fun thing here is to find a way to combine/blend/mix tunes without removing any significant part, and yet having fun while doing it. Most times in my rock sets i spent hours and hours looking for tunes that somehow work well together; it’s not a matter of Key or BPM, it’s a matter of musical affinity; try this for example: spin The Killers “Somebody told me” followed by The Hives “Tick Tick Boom”. Nevermind the BPM, just place cue marks so that you can start the second song in the exact moment, just about when the Killers one is finishing. Of course this is just my opinion, but i do think that it works well. After Tick Tick Boom, try to use “Rock and roll debaser” (Oasis vs Pixies Mashup), for example. Once again, I like it. With practice, you will not need the cue marks anymore, but it’s a great help in the beggining, since they speed up the memorizing process.

Of course there are a ton of rock tunes waiting to be mixed; for example, try the +-80 BPM range: spin Empty Room By Arcade Fire, a bit before the fade out of the music at the end beatmatch and start 2012 by Gossip (crossfade into it, and just let the previous tune fade out and stop; then, when 2012 comes to an abrupt end, start Boycott Everything by Bonaparte, once again beatmatched for better effect. This are all just suggestions, based on stuff I did before, and people around liked it.

Now if you have a crowd that are not into this kind of more recent, hyped bands, but yet prefer older stuff, you may always use tunes that mix well; Try for instance to mix Walk This Way By Aerosmith/Run DMC with Butterfly by Crazy Town with Sure Shot by Beastie Boys With Body movin’ (Fatboy Slim remix of Beastie Boys). After, maybe Looser by Beck or Give It Away Now By Red Hot Chili Peppers? All this tunes mix really well, so well that you can do live mashups of the tunes. And if you spent your time studying the natural compatibility between songs and marking cue points, you can do some really cool and creative stuff.

Another thing is that you can successfully blend rock with electronic music (even very danceable tunes) depending on the tunes you choose; It’s not that hard to mix different styles (both old and new stuff) like The Bloody Beetroots, Waxdolls, The Whip, Pixies, Dead Rock Machine, all that ultra cool Madchester anthems (love them!), Chicks On Speed, The Wombats, old Placebo stuff, Two Door Cinema, really old Sonic Youth, Trash Fashion and so on…. I’ll bet that with these kind of music you can at any time drop “I Like the Way” By The BodyRockers and most people will honestly enjoy it. Have you ever seen a floor where half the people are dancing and the other half are almost head banging? That’s just an amazing thing to watch!

In the meanwhile, I of course got carried away with this and ended up with a a giant post, sorry 🙂 Anyway, if i can in any way help you with your rock set, just let me know, i’ll be more than happy to help 🙂

This is Great Writing; however I have to take Exeption to your Belief (or Opinion) that Bands such as Black Sabbath; Led Zepplin; and Deep Purple should be Dismissed;
You are talking about Bands that appeared after the 1980’s began;
Are you not Aware of the Plethora of Pubs that are Packed all over the Country (UK) Every Night of the Week with Bands playing Music from the 70’s;
Admittedly we are talking about DJ’ing here; but my Uncles and Aunts are out Every Week now their Children have grown up; and are Re-living their Youth through the Music that is Dear to their Heart;
When Mike (Original OP) mentioned the words ‘Rock Music’ I Understood him to Mean ‘Rock Music’; as Described in the Following Article from WIKI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music
I didn’t think he was talking about Indie/Mainstream/Contemporary/Metal; etc; which seems to me to be Subjects that you are Touching On;
If you Feel that DJ’ing is for people ‘Under’ the Age of 50 and 60 then you are Dismissing a Large % of The Market

Hey don’t get me wrong, i don’t dismiss any band; and i also don’t know much about the dynamic of UK, USA, etc pubs/bars, since I’m Portuguese (that’s why my English sounds so weird lol) and I have never traveled much; what i do know is that here in Portugal, if I DJ only to people under 35, i am dismissing at best 5% of the market, so it’s not really an issue for me. Funny thing is I’m 37 (so i’m also a big Grunge fan). I guess that’s just a cultural thing, since I find brilliant the idea of elder folks going out and enjoy themselves in a bar or pub; why not? But in Portugal that is very rare. In a typical bar/pub, most people above 35 are divorced (in that case, the music they expect is 80’s pop and some Brazilian stuff) so when they find someone, they stop showing up again.
Mind that UK is culturally a much more development country than Portugal; i have a pony tail for almost 20 years now (yeah, grunge!), and in the first 5 or 6 years, there wasn’t a single day without someone picking on me because of my hair, because in those years it was not supposed for a men to have long hair. Pathetic.

And guys, please don’t take this as a bitter or ironic comment because it’s really not, but in every DJ forum that i have read, every time that someone states a strong preference for recent music/gear, there is always 1 or 2 g brief lessons in history of music on the way; i just don’t see how does a preference means directly ignorance about old school stuff; just because one is not a bit interested in spinning “Sparks”, that means that he’s not aware of the importance of The Who? On the other hand, just because a DJ spins mostly 70’s/80’s that means that he’s unaware of Muse, or The Killers, or Adele? It just doesn’t make sense.

On rock definition, well…. Emma, i must ask you to forgive me on this one, but i think that inserting a link to Wikipedia to define rock is a bit too much condescending. It would not be nice for me to link to Wikipedia’s article on “Pump Up The Jam” if i caught someone talking mainly about 2011 dance music. Anyway, if you check that article, you will find Indie, Metal and so on mentioned as rock sub-genres, and that’s’ exactly my point: rock is BIG. It’s big, it’s very diverse, and most people that likes some variants may or may not enjoy others. Once again, i can only speak based on what i know; around here usually it works (with all the possible exceptions) that way.

Hello Emma 🙂

I also must apologize if I sounded offended or anything, I assure you that’s not the case; i just didn’t agree with a detail you said (for the reasons i expressed), but that’s fine, truth is we don’t have to agree on everything every time. So I assure you that it’s all good, honest 🙂
Also i was amazed to see than i can actually fool people about my country of origin, i still think that my written english is too much weird not to suggest it’s not my first language; it’s funny because i often end up saying something that it’s not what i meant to say but i’m just not aware of the right way of saying it. I guess that to communicate is a bit like DJing, details counts a lot 🙂

That’s why i always write so much, to try to make sure that i am being clear and that in my process of translation i’m not screwing things up (happened before).

Also i may add that what you’ve said UK bars/pubs was really interesting to me, over the weekend i commented with some friends about that…. we just don’t see that happening here, and it’s a shame we don’t. That alone would bring much more diversity to the music being played, it would be great to spin stuff like Peter Tosh, Man At Work or Kid Creole and having people coming to say “hey! I have that vinyl back in my house” 🙂

So please take also my apologies and keep giving all us your views and opinions, they do help 🙂