How Do You 'Actually' Feel When Your Work Is Criticised ?

Depends on how it is criticized.. if the criticism is justified, spot on and reasonable, I am “actually” thankful and happy. That kind of stuff drives me to improve my technique and correct my mistakes. On the other hand if the criticism is just poo-slinging, I actually kill the person in my head and then go home and mix some angry electro music. But yeah, I mostly “actually” have positive reactions to criticism.

Ahh – i think you miss understand, Emma, i was using the word “Criticism” in its literal sense, which can mean good or bad.. positive critiscism is good, negative bad if you get what i mean!
People often mistake the word criticism to mean only the bad side, a fault of the media i guess?
Certainly no bashing or offence intended here..
And to reinforce my earlier post, i’ll only accept bad criticism if it is Valid, not just someone saying ” That Sucks”

@Fxn-L – When something tells you “Dude; that Sucked Ass”; your Response is to just Accept it and say; “Oh; what I just did SUCKED”;
Well; Why Did It Suck; did the Person Tell You Why; do they have the Authority Of Technique and Skill to Say That ?
What Did You Think Of It Yourself ?

(trial run of the quote button, hopefully it works)

I think I over-simplified my reply:

More often then not if I get a response like that, I will definitely ask them to elaborate. I’m not one to just take things at face value. Like I’ve said a few times before, DJing is not my profession; I work in the medical field. At work, I can’t just accept things at face value…I need to completely understand things or else people might get hurt. Likewise with DJing, I can’t allow just a simple “You suck” to slip by…I would investigate why they said that.

As far as having the technique and skill to judge like that, I wouldn’t necessarily say that technique and skill is a prerequisite to giving criticism– both the crowd and the DJ are consumer of music. Granted DJs are more active in their listening, I still think the layman has enough experience of listening to music to be able to give some kind of feedback. It’s up to the recipient of that feedback to do with it whatever they will.

And as far as how I feel about feedback like that? Just like I said in the above post, as long as they’ve got an opinion then I don’t really see any problem in it. People are entitled to their opinions, yknow? So it’s up to me to receive it in whatever way I choose and develop a game plan (or stick to the current one) right there. I played out at an EDM event (if you can call it that) as the opening DJ a while back. I made poor song choices and emptied the room. Honestly, I think that’s worse than someone walking up to my face and telling me that I’m sucking. Because if there’s no one around then how can I delve into the feedback beyond “You suck”? There’s no one there to ask why! I would’ve much preferred someone to tell me “you’re playing too fast” or “we want X type of music” or whatever. Because of my nerves and inexperience, I really didn’t know what to do. So I just kept with what I was doing and everyone came back later after the next DJ started his set. So if I could CHOOSE what kind of feedback to receive, I would always prefer 100% brutal honesty versus a nonverbal response to peacing out and coming back whenever the next DJ is on.

So if I could CHOOSE what kind of feedback to receive, I would always prefer 100% brutal honesty versus a nonverbal response to peacing out and coming back whenever the next DJ is on.

The emptying of dancefloors will ALWAYS happen from time time, dont take it to heart, just keep going..

I think i have mentioned this on here before, a few year back my mates ran a night in Liverpool – Hazydays
It was always a certain flavour of choons and one night it was arranged for Graham Park (Yeah THE Graham Park ) to guest DJ, and he EMPTIED the downstairs room! If it can happen to superstar big names, it can sure happen to us!
I’ll not elaborate why i think he emptied the room, last time a few on these boards were baying for my blood!

It happens more then you realise especially at nights with more then one room like Hazydays at the Zanzibar did, it happened when we did a reunion/ birthday bash there last April, there was some amazing talent playing in both rooms and people just couldnt be in the both places at once..
If you was a member here when i uploaded a mix from that night for Emma, that was a mate of mine (To be fair all but 2 of the DJ’s that night were friends of ours ) and in my opinion he played the set of the night… To an almost empty room of around 10 or 15 of us.
Unfortunately at the same time another big name was playing downstairs at the time.. Scott or DJ Rhythm – and it aint often he comes out on the lash these days, never mind plays!
I did pop me head down there at one point and Scott was absolutely smashing it with an Electro / Hacienda set so it was no wonder it was full in that room- i hit it at just the right time as he was playing a track from one of the lesser known Madchester / Hacienda era.. Northside – Shall we Take a trip 😀

[media=youtube]9AShsOgwCG0[/media]

It’s many venues or situations it’s okay to intentionally thin the herd on the dance floor once in a while. If you want to severely shift gears or let your overheated people have a bit of a break, throw on something that you really want to play but aren’t sure how well it will be received. If it’s successful, great, now you know it’s a viable track. If a bunch of people slough off, no big deal—let people get a drink, have a smoke, and reset. Bring them back with something you know will win.