I play a lot of house parties. It’s all I play out for these days. I feel your pain (though I don’t play the big room thing; that’s a separate kind of pain in my mind…but to each their own). People can get annoying when they are trying to get you to change your mode up by requesting odd things at odd times. All DJs have to learn to deal with this but at a house party it is a different animal altogether.
First; you’re not playing a club or rave. A good house party DJ needs to remember that. Your job is to rock the party, not show out for your genre of choice. You weren’t booked to play for a group of people who,for the majority, know what to expect musically before they even arrive. You’re playing for a group of friends and acquaintances who all want to have a good time. This is why that YouTube thing you described is ubiquitous. Everyone wants something different and everyone is okay with that. It’s a social contract. “We’re all together and we all want to hear something different. Let’s take turns.”
That being said, if someone asks you to DJ one of these parties they obviously want to take a turn away from that and get a strong vibe going. That’s your cue. Build a strong vibe. Choose wisely when setting up your folders or crates or whatever. Take the music you like and want to play, but try to fit it with what you know everyone else likes to shift through when messing about with YouTube prior. Find songs in your silo that include the elements. Find some remixes of The Smiths if you have to, I’m sure they are out there.
All DJs have to know exactly what to play next. That’s the skill, the technical part is a prerequisite to beginning to develop that skill. At a house party you have an advantage over other DJs though; you already know most of the people there and know what they like. Me? I play a lot of house and hip hop and bmore stuff when I play a house party because I know everyone gets a bit of what they want. I know my people. If you’re annoyed by people asking you to play obscure stuff then keep everyone happy enough that they don’t keep bugging you.
And if it’s just one or two people, and everyone else is happy? Keep on keeping on, and welcome to playing in front of people. That’s just how it goes almost every time. Last time I played out the whole kitchen and living room was an impromptu dancefloor, everyone is going off to some bangin’ baltimore type stuff, and there’s still this one girl who keeps asking me to play Green Day. It got to the point where I weighed my options; do I want to put up with this all night vs. what’s going to go wrong if I play that right now? Also; do I have an edit? I did not. But everyone likes Longview. In it went, and it was great. I woudn’t have had that great dancefloor moment if I didn’t play her request.
All I’m saying is, at a house party more than most other places, you have to trust the party. You should learn to see what they want before they come ask you for it. If you want to rock that party you have to make everyone happy. Trust the party, they’ll tell you what to do. More even than at a club or rave, you have to put your ego aside and do your job because no one in there came to see you; they’d have gone to the party anyway if you weren’t playing it so what can *you* bring to the party to make it better?
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