Would You Consider This DJing? Put It On Playlist and Leave.

DJ Psychotrance, post: 30736, member: 3792 wrote: Well alot of mobile dj’s cannot beatmatch if their life depended on it, so just running a playlist and walking away suits them as it leaves time to chat on phone and other things, now i can accept this kind of dj’ing if it’s top 40, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music being played, but when they play EDM music and do not make an attempt to beatmatch then i really do question whether they are a proper dj who can beatmatch and phrasematch. I started off dj’ing as a hobby playing trance, happy hardcore and other EDM genres and learned to beatmatch and phrasematch, then i started doing mobile gigs and when i do my mobile gigs i never move from my laptop and controller as i use traktor and always have to load the next track…..i do my best to mix or blend 60’s, 70’s and any other non EDM music, but when i do play some EDM i sure as hell show off my mixing skills to show my audience that i am a proper dj who can mix tracks and not just do easy things like blending and cutting or even worse using an automated playlist………mobile dj’s who just play a playlist should in my opinion not be paid as much as us dj’s who can mix properly and put on a good show for their customers.
I really don’t care if a dj has spent thousands of pounds on an awesome sound system and light show, if he or she can’t beatmatch and phrasematch then in my eyes they are not a pro dj….letting a laptop play through a playlist is not dj’ing it’s exactly what it is…..PLAYING music from an automated PLAYLIST.

I totally agree with you that putting on a playlist and then walking away, not putting in the slightest effort for the rest of the evening is really bad style and worthy of a jukebox, but not of a DJ.
But i’m always baffled by how much more importance you edm-guys tend to award to beatmatching and how little is talked about a much more important issue, the one that DJing, regardless of the genres you’re spinning, is truly about. Of course you’ve already understood my point: It’s all about the music itself.

Beatmatching is only one of many tools that helps you to program and present your music more effectively and creatively. It’s pretty essential in some genres and ridiculously unimportant or even contraproductive and inappropriate for others.
I can only agree with Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster when they say in their handbook on DJing that beatmatching is a rather boring and dumb (albeit difficult and skillful) procedure to go through and a rather uninteresting topic to talk about, just as if they want to get it out of the way and get to the more fun parts.
And you can be sure: there are many of HipHop-DJs looking down on the EDM-folk just because you don’t scratch like crazy all the time, which is just as stupid as a position.

I always read those post as if some of you make a black-and-white distinction between those who do (beatmatch) and those who don’t. The beatmatching DJ is an anmbassador of the true craft, an honorable fighter for exquisite taste and for the good of the scene. The non-beatmatching “so-called“ DJ is a complete fraud with no passion whatsoever for what he does, and who only wants to rip off people for his worthless services at wedding receptions and other boring events.

But the world is not that black and white. Although i really don’t like the music played on such occasions, the typical wedding DJ has incredible abilities when it comes to animating and entertaining a crowd. They have an exceptional knowledge on all genres of music that ever gained wide popularity and thus could appeal to certain parts of the audience. And they have a great feel for their crowd, their moods and their needs. Because of these skills, 99% of all poeple there won’t give a cr*p about if they can beatmatch or not.

Now let’s take a look at underground culture ok? My point is that it’s a lot bigger than many of you think.
There are venues and events where they play mainly alternative & indie stuff, northern soul, rare grooves, walls of experimental white noise, obscure old garage rock 7”s or even shellac records.
Thing is, the overwhelming majority of these DJs don’t beatmach, but still the audience is smart enough to tell a guy who bought a couple of northen soul compilations and thinks he can pull it off now apart from someone who was breathing these sounds all of his life.
And also the indie crowds tend to be pretty sophisticated and demanding. They can smell from a distance of some kilometres if that guy’s music is his life or if he’s just replicating the billboard alternative charts.

So please, stop worrying so much about beatmatching, guys. People will notice if you’ve got what it takes (and that may or may not include beatmatching) in your particular genre of music anyway. And there’s no need to be afraid of those who don’t, because they won’t take away any of your precious status.

And to get back to the “set up playlist and walk away“- DJs: If people still danced all night like DJ Stone Crazy told us, then they must at least have got something right. If they would consider putting a little more effort into their craft, they still could become DJs worthy of that title.

If you go to a bar plug in a laptop or ipod and press play and leave not making any edits to you play list during the night. No I would not call you a DJ. your just a person who’s lending the bar your laptop/ipod (Music colection) for the night.
But if you are in the booth making changes to that playlist and maybe adding in some requests you are a DJ.
Are you a good DJ then? I or other DJ’s might not think so but your still a DJ.

I’ve had a bartender asking me once if I could lend him my hard disk for him to leave it on shuffle… He didn’t realize that the atmosphere was due to me building funk then rock then dance music, he thought having my music collection on random play would do the trick. It’s about building, knowing your crowd, and no playlist made in advance can improvise on the crowd present in the bar, that’s no DJ to me…without even considering beatmatching or not.