Anyone see these "DJ Rules"?

I’ve stated it all over.  My only concern is what happens when the $10,000-spending high roller demands poppy mainstream EDM?

Give in?  Or let that money walk out the door?

A big chunk of the problem in many LV venues that kicked underground sounding headliners off is they valued the high-rollers over the floor…and in many cases the spending in the booths will be more than the whole floor going to the bar for cocktails.

It’s all business and money…although I hope these guys set a new standard by not caving.

I deeply agree on how a DJ should be facilitating an experience…which is why I grow frustrated at how much the “human jukebox” element has taken over.  When I started, a good DJ was one who played both mainstream and underground in ways that built a beautiful night for all.  The club kept an air of coolness, everyone was happy, and the party vibe grew to the point where folks didn’t request too much simply because the vibe carried them.

In my experiences, when I see DJs or promoters try to do some “underground” event and yet end up with a room full of bros and trixies screaming for mainstream, it shows they did not promote well.  They just went for whoever was available as opposed to working hard to target the right people they want in their event.

And whats up with the #1 rule? no hip hop (i guess kind of understandable since ya know hip hop birth and grows in underground *cough), no dub-step or trap ? huh ? why not ? its not like those two dominating the err the top 40 pop-chart per se ?

I think these rules were meant as a kind of “joke” in a way.  If  I remember reading correctly, they are not hard set by those rules but use them as a guideline for the kind of experience they want to have.  Regarding @djirizki and the Hip  Hop rule,  the guy who is heading up this club wanted to differentiate from other after hours spots in LV such as Body English, which plays A LOT of Hip Hop and some house.

This is of course music snobbery, but I take it with a grain of salt.  The underground has superstars too, and I doubt you will see them ban Plastikman or Carl Cox records, even though those guys draw similar size crowds albeit with a different audience.

Hmm.. In my experience management rarely know what they are doing. They are normally business people who know accounting but rarely know music very well

In any case… Even though I don’t normally play hiphop or dupstep, I wouldn’t accept a gig in a place like that. It’s fine if you have a theme, or if you are a specific kind of place like a rock club, but the DJ decides the tracks. He’s the expert. The bouncer takes care of the crowd control and the management handles the money. That way everybody is doing what they are good at

Best regards
Klaus

Now…to answer your question…if I was in a club playing more “underground” (and was booked for that), but the owner or promoter came over and asked me to mainstream it up to keep the VIPs in, then I’d look for a happy balance.  In my book as a DJ you should have a backup plan, because I’ve only ran into too many occasions where I was booked to be underground, but ended up with a mainstream crowd.

Thank you Sir for replying the questions in such detailed manner, now I can happily slapped this statement to a young aspiring egoistic idealism DJ’s lol

Now I have friends, but like me, they’re all older, married, and many have children.  They just didn’t have the time, endurance, finances, or desire to go to the clubs

Ow man, we floating the same boat, all of my friends is like that, they talked about going fishing, or go bowling on the weekend, zzz, when i brought up, “Hey man, im DJ ing tonite at this club come and see me ???” they replies “Im too old for that” or “Aint you too old to be doing that ??”, the one that ticks me the most is Hey I’m askin you to come to support me as a friend ya know and i tought YOUse my friends, I bet if I’m in some play at the local theater you come and see me, ow nooooo BUT not when I’m A DJ ! This concludes me to search for a new circle of friends whos much younger or at least share the same passionate like I.

thus when I had some amateur promoters say “you gotta bring heads” when they inquire about me doing guest spots, I told them to truth and declined.  I simply tell them I had no pull like that…which they respected me for being honest, since many would lie and take the spot.

Exactly how it is, when i first getting gigs, I’m like promote everywhere, I messaged all of my buddies heyyyy come and see me… it turns out noone cares and noone comes to my gigs. When a club asked me to “brings heads”, I backed out quit, I turned to other Event Organizer, and just tell them to deal with the club owners,  so if I do play in the gigs at the club now its because that other Event Organizer asked me to be in their DJ’s line-up, so all I gotta do just come in and DJ, and maybe just invite a few friends of mine who i knew would come, so I dont have to worry about “bring heads” commitment rest completely in my shoulder, been doin this like almost 3 years now (lol)

I never really imagined that I can play anywhere else but in my local hometown, but this year, it’s when I start getting invitation to play outside my local city (gettin pay for it err well not much but hey, plus a plane ticket and hotels and stuff), hopefully it start paying off all my effort this year.