Reason808

Creatively, I find downtempo and breaks fun to mix because the variety of the rhythms and styles makes it harder, but also pushes you to come up with interesting blends. You have to wrestle with it a bit.
However, I like the opposite effect with house. 4 on the floor just flows together like butter. It’s enjoyable to just cruise through mixes with ease, and the ease factor lets me get into the music in a different way that’s still creative with a bit more heart.

Think of the poor groom who’s stuck with her for the rest of his life! You got away from her and got paid for it. He’ll need an expensive divorce. Nobody can win against a control freak that bad.

Now things are clearer: I think Hazma21’s formula of leading with songs that everybody dances to followed by songs that most of the people dance to is really good advice.

It also sounds like you’re asking a different question from your OP. More like “How can I DJ for a conservative crowd?”

im afraid people wont enjoy themselves until i play those radio hits…

I don’t know your crowd, but your instincts are probably right. Good mixing and song selection will let you stretch beyond radio hits somewhat but not completely. Mixing radio hits with good taste can be done, but it could be frustrating for you.

Yeah “music about books” just came to mind as a stupid example. 😮 It could be “dogs” or songs with “Maria” in the title or anything. However, lots of people will try to arrange music like this! Usually its not somebody who wants to be club DJ, but a brother-in-law putting together an iTunes playlist for a BBQ party, or a really bad college radio DJ who got a 3am Tuesday night slot, or something like that.

Hey, I wrote my last post in a bit of a hurry and now thought of a few other things:

There is a version of “music about books mixing” that DJs with good beatmixing skills can fall into. Blending on a musical detail that doesn’t matter. For example, mixing two songs together because they have the same synth sound, or blending two hi-hat patterns together for an interesting 3rd rhythm. It’s really cool in the moment, but doesn’t really help the overall flow of energy. Sometimes this can be amazing, but many times it can be a trap, especially when you want to show off your new beatmixing skills. Somewhere in my apartment is cassette of me ‘brilliantly’ mixing Nile Rodgers guitar riffs off of each other. It bombed in the club.

Another thing to think of with song order is planning transitions from song to song and planning transitions from song set to song set (usually groups of 3-4). In film editing this is the difference between cutting from shot to shot and from scene to scene. Once I got more experience DJing, I started thinking in terms of song “scenes” – keeping in mind songs I’d play 3-4 mixes later. Sometimes the audience reaction forces you to change your what ‘scene’ you were planning next. But that’s the fun of it.

If you really want to learn proper sequencing and song order, be a wedding DJ. Seriously. 45-90 minute sets in a ‘cool’ nightclub are not the way to learn the elusive art of song selection. You need a place where you can spin for several hours non-stop. And if you have to win over a crowd that doesn’t share your tastes in music, so much the better. A top 40 club or pub would also do. Even if the crowd are a bunch of sheep, learning to how to steer your flock is a good skill to have.

When I DJed at NYC underground clubs, people would always compliment me on my flow and sequencing. It came from years of sweating it out in “lame” clubs playing commercial hits. Funny thing is, in retrospect, I miss those DJ moments where the crowd went wild for a corny old hit as much as the “cool” clubs I spun at. Getting the crowd to move is fun no matter where you’re doing it.

Easy question to ask, hard to answer. But I’ll try – just hang with me if my examples don’t seem relevant to club DJing at first.

Let’s start with an example of what NOT to do. I see a lot of DJ’s organize songs around a theme that makes no musical sense at all like “songs about books.” Their set jumps from heavy metal to hip-hop, to electro and god knows what else. The DJ thinks he’s being clever. The crowd wonders why in the hell they’re listening to a bunch of random music.

So you need to make sure your music style doesn’t jump around like that, too. You can still sequence your music around a theme, just make sure the theme flows together in a musical way. The song you play should progress somehow from the previous song.

Let’s use a classic Motown song: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. Even though it isn’t a dance song, its a pop song with a lot of energy and a positive vibe. If I was playing this song early in the evening, I can progress in a lot of ways from it. I could continue playing Soul classics. I could switch to other genres from that era, like classic Beatles tracks. If the crowd responds to it (bobbing their heads, looking at me with a smile, coming up to the DJ booth for a request) It tells me I could transition into a mid-tempo dance song, like Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean.

So from that one song I can start three possible sets: 1) Soul Classics that could lead into Disco and/or R&B set. 2) 60’s Pop that could lead into a Rock and/or New Wave set. 3) Mid-Tempo Dance tracks that could lead to a Club Bangers set. All these are the “right order of songs” you’re asking about. Part of that is reading the crowd, but the other part is just understanding different ways to branch off from other tracks. I’m using mainstream examples here, but the principle would work just as well if you were dealing with all the different flavors of electro.

Another big part to getting the right order of songs is being able to build anticipation and surprise. Usually there is a big hit song in every genre that you can build your order of songs towards (or away from). So if everybody wants to hear lady gaga’s new song, you’ll have more success if you tease the crowd playing similar songs to that Gaga hit for a while. Once you have the crowd going with the big hit, you can branch off into other areas, just like you did with my previous motown example. The energy level of your dancefloor and music might change, but the process of ordering your songs is largely the same.

Sometimes the crowd likes to be surprised. So instead of a gradual build up you make a sudden shift. Many times as a DJ I would frustrate the crowd that wanted to dance by stretching out a mid-tempo set and then slamming on a dance banger to start my peak set off with a bang. Other times I would do this organically. That’s where experience helps.

Of course flawless beatmixing gives you ways to be even more creative with your builds and drops. But without good song selection sequencing, you’ll just have a version of “songs about books” with an auto-sync button.

Hope this helps.