Playing stuff the crowd doesn't know?

As a DJ you need to be able to judge what will work with your crowd.

Don’t base your selections on what you think they might ‘know’, base your selections on what you think they might like.

There will always be songs that people don’t know. In fact., every song in history started out as something that people didn’t know or hadn’t heard of. So don’t let that discourage you.

Also when you frame the question like the way you are now, you are passing judgment on your crowd and that isn’t exactly fair. For example, I think Armin Van Burrin is actually pretty mainstream, He is consistently voted in the top 5 DJs in the world, so he inst exactly underground. So if I was in your crowd I would still think you were playing too much mainstream and probably tune out or go somewhere else.

The point being, people don’t only like what they already know, they like what makes them feel good! You just have to try and learn what that is, and the only way to do that is by taking chances and observing the results.

And please…for the love of all that is Holy….don’t simply play the podcast. If you want to play the songs then buy and play the actual songs. There’s nothing more embarrassing than zoning out to some awesome beats only to hear from the bar speakers “YOU ARE IN THE STATE OF TRANCE WITH ARMIN VAN BUUREN”. It is the one for sure way to never be taken again seriously even if you were responsible for 95% of the rest of the set.

Hi folks,

My question is some what on similar lines…
I am conducting a gig in September … one of my first Gig.. The crowd will not be more than 10 people…
however I want to make a good impression majorly for myself…. The challenge is I am more well versed with EDM, and the crowd I am expecting do listen to EDM however they have more liking for Rock/Heavy Metal music
Few of the artist/band that they like are
Nirvana, Korn, Sepultura, Slip Knot, Iron Maiden, Skrillex, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Liquid Tension Experiment, Joe Sat,
These are few that they like in terms of no EDM…

Please suggest me what kind of line up should I have so that I can satisfy them if not full atleast some what..
Any kind of suggestion is helpful

(Apologies if this was too lengthy, just that I want to be sure I have explained my issue.)

PS: I do not have a rig of mine, I will be using DELL Laptop , VDJ Home (free), and a Home theater..

The bar I usual DJ at has a whole range of crowds. Some just want the commercail music everyone knows and the radio plays all day, some want real vintage music and others want music they don’t know but are really loud. I try to combine it in my sets to keep everybody happy and often I put on a real bass poundin track that nobody knows it gets the crowd still banging and I get positive feedback. Be careful though: if nobody digs it, switch back. However you can then try another to the general public unknown track.

try to introduce that stuff slowly to the crowd, a good way is using mashups/remixes of popular “pop”songs

The two best tips I can give:

1) Play a few mainstream tunes, then toss in an unknown tune. Make sure it’s something that works with the set. So you’re not playing “Call Me Maybe” and then drop everything down into some deep progressive house. Look for tunes that would work with what the crowd wants and experiment. Don’t worry when a girl comes dashing up immediately to ask for pop music. Just play the one tune and then go back to the familiars.

2) Use drunkenness to your favor. You are playing a whole night, and the last two hours is when people are sloshed, play more unknown stuff. When they’re drunk and in a good mood, they won’t get all nitpicky.

Unless you know for a fact that people will hate it my advice is to have faith in your own taste. If you really really love something, maybe play some tracks people know to get them dancing but then play the set you want and read the crowd as you go, if you’re losing people then adjust it. The one time I tried to guess what the crowd would like and play that rather than tunes I love it was a total disaster.