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Tips for DJing a top 40 club

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  • June 22, 2011 at 4:34 pm #36
    Phil Morse
    Keymaster

    I’d say you can start playing reasonably cool stuff (remixes, mashups, electro/indie pop crossovers etc) but that as the night develops you need to start pounding those radio hits more and more.

    June 22, 2011 at 5:33 pm #40
    DjSpekz
    Member

    I think playing top 40 is not as hard as other kinds of music. My main reason is because most songs are on the same range of BPM (126-130) making it easier to mix and blend together. Also as Phil said you can play remixes of the songs. there is a lot of mixes now where they mix top 40s with house, dubstep and other club music which might make you a bit more comfortable.

    June 22, 2011 at 5:46 pm #43
    DJ GRE
    Member

    Yeah, definitely agree with the points above – remixes and mashups are usually a big hit. Right now a Michael Meds remix of Bruno Mars’ grenade is a huge hit with the ladies in my area, and from there I can usually indulge my house/electro house fix for at least a little bit ;). But top 40 isn’t too hard to mix and the crowd doesn’t particularly care about ‘mixing’ – not to say don’t mix but if they’re a bit rough I’ve found most people in this crowd aren’t paying attention, they’re just waiting for the next melody they recognize!

    June 22, 2011 at 5:46 pm #44
    Matt Challands
    Participant

    What is indeed true is that recently, since electro and house went mainstream (thanks Guetta and chums) top 40 does indeed consist largely of tracks at around 126-130BPM. A piece of cake. I just have to practice mixing them beforehand.
    I guess I can play some remixes of Britney and friends.

    What is true is that top 40 DJing has never interested me in the slightest. It’s the direct route to easy pleasing and I’ve always preferred it to be more challenging. Still, I’m not complaining if people dance and I still get to play in my regular joints too..

    June 23, 2011 at 11:21 am #108
    colmg12@hotmail.co.uk
    Participant

    95% of my career has been playing mainstream clubs and I can assure you there is a skill involved because alot of DJ’s lose the crowd very easily by getting complacent and just bangin on any tune from a list they have probably printed out at random. I personally have got loads of satisfaction out of dropping a few mini-sets of quality throughout the night. Watch the smiles on the faces when you drop a couple of motown classics…….or the pure surprise when you drop a few drum ‘n’ bass tunesbetween Kelis & Girls Aloud lol.

    You can still get a buzz and be inventive in these out of the ordinary gigs mate 😉

    June 23, 2011 at 3:54 pm #118
    DJ GRE
    Member

    I agree… there is a way to really play top 40 inventively… and a way to bomb it completely. A DJ in my area only spins pretty much straight pop and top 40 and does an amazing job of it – girls go nuts (and therefore the guys do too). He also is pretty creative with using videos to the point where you can just sit and watch the video mixes he has put together.

    June 23, 2011 at 5:04 pm #148
    Phil Morse
    Keymaster

    Living Legend Colm G, post: 97 wrote: 95% of my career has been playing mainstream clubs and I can assure you there is a skill involved because alot of DJ’s lose the crowd very easily by getting complacent and just bangin on any tune from a list they have probably printed out at random. I personally have got loads of satisfaction out of dropping a few mini-sets of quality throughout the night. Watch the smiles on the faces when you drop a couple of motown classics…….or the pure surprise when you drop a few drum ‘n’ bass tunesbetween Kelis & Girls Aloud lol.

    You can still get a buzz and be inventive in these out of the ordinary gigs mate 😉

    Agreed. DJing doesn’t suddenly become easy just because you’re appealing to the mass market.

    June 23, 2011 at 9:04 pm #189
    D-Jam
    Participant

    I used to work as a webmaster for an entertainment company here in Chicago. They’ve opened many bars and a few clubs that all pretty much play Top 40. I didn’t really DJ in any of them, but I did learn how they operate.

    Practically all of their DJs play like they’re mobile/wedding DJs. Many times they’re not even beatmatching, but slamming in tunes and using announcements like they’re on the radio. What they play is generally popular stuff, but done in 15-20 minute sets. So they would do 15-20 min of dance music, then 15-20 minutes of pop, R&B, and rap music that appealed to white folks. Sometimes they would drop in some 80s or rock anthem if they know the crowd will go nuts to it.

    The trick I think is to still treat things like if you were playing an underground night. Open up the night with slower tempo stuff of yesteryear to entertain people who come in and get their first and second round. At some point, get into faster-tempo dance music…crowd favorites. Get people on the floor. From there do the “shifts” like I mentioned, and keep it going until last call. At last call, bring it back down to start driving people out.

    Use remixes and mashups as well. Most people only latch on to the familiar parts so utilize it.

    June 24, 2011 at 10:10 am #248
    jezalenko
    Member

    Unfortunatly if I want to get a gig in my home city, I have to play Top 40 otherwise I am guaranteed not to be booked again!

    As my love is for electro house, I find it works well by playing electro Top 40 remixes. Here you get the best of both worlds – you can DJ properly and keep the tempo flowing, while pleasing the crowd with the stuff they know.

    June 24, 2011 at 1:03 pm #272
    jorn
    Member

    Pay more attention to *what* you are playing vs. *how.* It’s very easy for us DDJs to get “geeked out” on getting the mix just right, but you’re better off with a lame segue between two tracks the audience likes in lieu of you dropping the perfect mix of songs they could care less about.

    Gigs are about the audience. Your job is to make them happy. 🙂

    June 24, 2011 at 2:12 pm #302
    dj Architekt
    Member

    Top 40 pays my way in Djing, lol But I Agree there is an art to it. Any one can play song after song, but capturing your crowd and then slipping in some non chart stuff and seeing them go crazy is a great feeling…

    June 26, 2011 at 3:04 am #690
    John
    Participant

    Try to play a few Top40 then slip in something more your style. See how the crowd reacts. Keep trying this if you can keep em dancing while trying to keep your sanity from playing the same old top40 spoon fed music. It’s the only way I can DJ any Top40 night. I play to them but I also try to broaden there palates a little bit.

    June 29, 2011 at 5:23 am #1000584
    mr_john
    Member

    im a fan of sneaking in the old hits, like dropping let me clear my throat, jump around, walk it out, etc. in addition to the top 40 stuff. Helps break up the monotony for me. In my experience there’s always some people in the crowd who like EDM. And even more who don’t know they do. Personally I’d go with something popular yet obscure enough. (idk about your area but around here the edm scene doesn’t overlap into the top 40s.) So even ghosts n stuff would be unknown to some in a top 40 club.
    And even if you play something that absolutely no one in the place has ever heard, as long as you don’t stray too far from the chart very often I bet you’ll get away with it.

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