don't be afraid to play tracks that are 2-3 yrs old, even at primetime

I'd just sit down and discuss it with management, especially if you're the long termer there- you know the crowd.

i play few older tracks, ie bulletproof, no speak americano, party rock anthem, day-n-nite etc. im gunna go through my stuff more,


ive been there over a year n half now. seen over 7 managers. one owner wants tracks like kick out the epic, one wants kesha die young. after reading my post and going over it, i may just stick with mainstream dance even as borring as it gets. I always try to introduce new tracks and just get zero love from my crowd, then plays on the radio, bam...everyone wants it.. and even the bartenders ask me if i have that "new" track. it sucks but it is what it is.

I usually throw together crates of older/more obscure/songs I just feel like playing before a job so I have a quick reference of something a little more varied that might work with all the top 40 stuff, without having to scroll through every single crate I have to find an obscure gem mid-set.
Just a simple way to keep some slightly different tracks in easy reach, so you're more likely to use them.

Dope im gunna do that, to help me wiht the mental notes. i take the train in to work so im gunna throw a bunch of tracks from my "Mainstream dance" folder on my iphone to find those lost gems.
i tend to use the same tracks when it comes to top 40, mostly because its planted in my head from it being so popular and overly requested. I dont want to be that playlist dj. I wasnt seen as a playlist dj, since i had more of an open format with different genres to work with, new rules and restrictions are no fun

i think for sure, play older tracks that were top 40 onces...and you have plenty... if it made it to the top 40 people will know it and love you for it.. you can save the new hot tracks for later int he night... tons of top 40s jams that people will enjoy. look at it this way you can miz and match the tunes... say take the top 40s from 90's 00' and now that is say 40x20= 800


800 top 40 jams that most likely people will know by heart since for the most part a lot of those songs are still played today.... Problem solved you can keep it interesting by rotating and perhaps throwing some remixes of those songs. this will keep you from getting bored and keep management happy plus it will take a while for you to burn through those 800 b4 they get Boring for you.... and you won't ever have the need to play the same song twice.

+10

I never ran into this exact issue myself. But doing that helped lots to fill out long DJ shifts where the crowd is picky.

There is a lot of "EDM" songs that were never top-40 hits (in the US), but got enough widespread club/mixshow play that even most of a fairly clueless crowd should know them.

Kid Cudi "Pursuit of Happiness" (Steve Aoki remix), Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Heads Will Roll" (A-Trak remix) and Benny Benassi "Cinema" are three that come immediately to mind.

There's also a thousand house-tempo remixes/mash ups of every new hip-hop track within about 10 minutes of them being released.

You might have to dig a little to find the ones that don't suck, but they're out there to find.

BIG hip-hop tracks, obviously... Not everything!

I could easily play an entire open-format night at 128bpm if I wanted. (Although I don't want.)

I cant really see what the problem is

I play primarily Top40/EDM clubs and bars. And yes, you get too far from stuff played on the radio and you clear the dance floor. Here's what I do. Granted I am not 100% successful, really depends on the venue.

I tend to throw in the newer songs with Top40 stuff. I look at the crowd and as soon as I see the floor thin out, I mix out of it with a known hit song. Always have it at the ready, be it Baby Got Back, In Da Club, Wild Ones, etc. People love old skool hip hop so that is always good. I also try out new stuff during the last hour. People are too drunk or really unaware of what they are dancing to at the moment.

+1
The drunk people don't care, they just keep dancing. People in the know think you're amazing for playing it and you build some credibility and a following.

I play pursuit of happiness and it works, heads will roll is hit or miss, same with cinema



Thats the only way i can get away with playing it, ie million voices vs all gold everything, but i video dj and those dont come out that frequently, i have a "Hip-Hop EDM" crate, but my hip-hop heads give me this look of WTF is this...


Old skool hip-hop always works, feels like im playing the same shit, ie baby got back etc. I try new stuff right before peak hours which is usually around 11:30 to 2, at 2 security manager and general manager wants me to play "wack shit" to get the people out, crazy part is that we dont close till 3am, thats one hour of me looking like an idiot of "WTF is this djing playing" i go with slow jams usually so i dont get too many pissed off people, ie I Swear, 4 seasons of loneliness, i even do disco stuff to give a cool vibe, but thats not wack enough for the security manager, its too upbeat.



I came to the fact that im bitching to much, it is what it is. If want a pay check and want to please somewhat "everyone" including staff, its gotta be mainstream dance all night, with a touch other classics from other genres. I like to bring out new tracks, etc, so i dont feel like a playlist DJ/only play what everyone else plays.
With new management and new rules, and all these people hovering over me to change this, do this and that, play this, blah blah blah, its just been pissing me off. A few months before I could just do my thing, but things change and shit rearranges. but it is what it is. this thread can be closed, but everyone else's 2 cents cant hurt.....damn sorry for an extremely long post...angry DJ rant

I notice I am doing a lot more corporate run bars lately and yes, its much like having a day job where everything is regulated. Corporate run bars are the only ones that pay a DJs worth these days. Clubs run by promoters where 4-6 DJs are booked per night getting paid $50 are not where its at for experienced DJs. So for the most part its an either or situation. Conform, play the hits and make a living, or play what you like and be broke.

^^^ meant to type: "free to $50 a night...."

I need a open format gig I like the problems your having cause to me there is no problem. I pray for the day when I can get gig where I dont have to play too much hood hiphop.

Cisco bro I will drive to hooboken and help you with music, programming and the managers just cut me in. I love open format I fuking thrive in that shit. My problem is that Im black no one wants to book a black open format DJ for fear of me playing to much hiphop. Just stereotypes

Anyways you really want help open format is my thing 100% fuck it steal my set and try it on your crowd let me know how it works.

About being a open format DJ I have found that managers want you to keep a upbeat vibe, you have to earn their trust so when you dip into some old skool hiphop they trust you not to turn their club into fukin ratchet city. Its all about building trust play the fucking top 40 tracks and learn how to mix creatively so your not bored. Use acapellas in top 40 sets mash that shit up its open format those are the gigs I love. Listen to more DJ AM, Z trip, Jazzy Jeff. Play some moombahton and trap house remixes play some nu disco and funky sounding shit thats danceable. Great open format DJs really now how to mix there way between genres without missing a beat.

Watch my video get these songs and create a vibe where everyone wants to party. God I want your gig

Watchwww.youtube.com

Make people sing Cisco hit them with certified hits from 60s,70s,80s,90s and beyond.

I still drop Jackie Wilson's Higher and people regardless of age sing that shit at the top of their lungs. Play some swing music drunk people dont care they just want to have fun.

DJ Remy USA, nice mix bro!! You would do well at bars here in N Dallas area!!

Thong song?

the last DJ was black, he got canned, because he was using pre-mixes and was chillen more than DJing. He was the "Playlist DJ" or "DJ Playlist" bar backs knew what he was playing next. And there are plenty of Black DJs in hoboken.

Anyways, at the end of the day im just being bitter. I have no problem DJing open format, ive been there over year and half, three if you include the days id sub for another DJ, and about three months ago there just has been way too many changes. It first started with one owner only wanting Hard Electro house, he wanted to turn this bar into Pacha or any big club with headliner EDM DJs. Then another owner, Owner B, walks in and asks WTF are you playing, my response, Owner A wants me to play this.

There is just too much miscommunication, and everyone, including the managers, security managers and bartenders want to hear this and that. At the end of the day im still an employee, and have to listen to those higher than me, you are right about earning their trust, i just have to find where to start earning it again. I got heat for playing Rihanna's Pour it up, that was a house remix. Im going to start earning their trust all over again by playing mainstream dance from various years.

It just sucks when you have a privilege play open format sets, then one day, bam... sorry you can only play hard electro house. They are trying to get rid of the hood, so they stopped selling certain drinks, they did a stricter dress code, this all stemmed from a fight, that wasnt even that group of people

By "sucks" do you mean awesome cause that would be my wetdream

You need to sit down with THE manager and tell him you're getting too much input from too many directions. Ask the management team to meet and come to a consensus, then let you know the FINAL verdict. It seems that right now every "manager" thinks he has some kind of say in what and how you play.

the problem with that is that people, or the people i see, dont want the remix at 128.

i think what people are missing is that its not a song issue, its an issue with the tempo that people want to dance at. 'dance' music was always an uptempo thing, but thats not the case anymore imo.

just wanted to say again.. remy's mix is dope!!

Alright, it's Jammy Jam 2013 time...

thanks guys but the vid was more to show Cisco that there are tons of open format party jams that almost everyone will love. Some of the music is cheesy but thats what makes it fun sometimes.

Whos hosting this year?

Hmm...

Me lol

This guy has a lot of space in his studio to host:
Watchwww.youtube.com

ive been doing a gig for 6 years and i get this all the time. i see what you are saying and its always the owners/mgmt that want the music not the crowd. I quit trying to rationalize and just do what they want. i would actually ramp up the crappy music you dont wanna play and the stuff mgmt requests. if it works great, then at least know what that your crowd doesnt like it. if it doesnt, which in general it doesnt, the mgmt will come back and tell you either keep doing it, or stop. hopefully they say stop and play some hip hop.

i rationalize with mgmt like this, i have a job if people keep coming and you make money, im not doing this for artistic reasons, because i wouldnt play any of this music at all. if you are good with making less money or making some of the crowd not come back, then thats fine too. I actually had one place say that, so i went with alot less rap, and the place is about 20-40 people lighter, but i think the crowd is better suited for the owners aka more non black people. however, i feel like it is racist and i do love to play all the slow banging southern rap(jeezy/ross/2chainz), especially when the crowd is really getting into it(which they do everytime i play it), but the way i see it, its their club, its their money to make, and im just doing a job. playing songs that are stale, bangers from 1-4 years ago isnt my answer because im already old and i dont wanna look like that dj that is outta touch. id rather play 90s biggie and pac than crunk/party breaks/throw some d's era stuff, than people look at me like, oh that dude hasnt dl'ed tracks in 2-3 years.

*if it works great, then at least know what that your crowd doesnt like it

should be does like it.

Remy those vids you have are ill, i gotta say your extremely versed in your tracks and have your cue points, serato, etc down. in your videos are those thought out set or just freestyle? you make some of the cats on master of the mix look bad. I personally like the style of dj spindbad.
do you spin in NYC on sunday-wednesday ill have to check you out. im across the river.

also like i was saying, the issue isnt open format, like i first thought. Its too many managers of x and y, and owners hovering over me saying play this and that, dont do this and that, etc. I'd like to sit down with management and owners and get exactly down what they want, so there is no miscommunications of where the direction they want to go in. Maybe its when the hood that shows up, and they blame me because they are gettin buck wild standing on tables, because of the music im playing. They even go buck wild when I play the fresh prince of belair theme song, to apache, to blurred lines, levels. Norah Jones isnt going to flex with my crowd unless they want to hurt their bottom line.

Mr. Goodkat, you got down exactly what im trying to say. Im going to stick to a safe genre that almost all managers, owners *should be fine with, mainstream dance. if it works great, if it doesn't i can just hope they ask me to be open to all genres.

inevitably what you are dealing with is what i call the 'vocal minority'(dj's use this one because it explains the situation perfectly). There are gonna be 10% of people having terrible day/life/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc and they arent going to like what you are doing even if you played everyone of their favorite songs in a row mixed perfectly.

they are the ones that complain to mgmt. You have to remind them that you are not aiming at that 10%, you are aiming at the other 90%.

If a guy comes in and spends 2-10k and says hey i want hip hop/edm/polka you are happy to oblige, but if its a guy that spends his 20-100$ like everyone else and is upset because you played a rap song or 2 then they have to take that into account, but to realize everyone else is having a great time.

i told my guys, look, to some people 10 minutes of a certain type of music be it edm/country/hip hop is going to feel like 2 hours of hell, however you can go back thru the your history (so key ssl, thank you) and show how long you exactly played whatever it was. in my case, i was playing like 10 minute sets of the slower stuff, but maybe mixing and dropping 5-10 songs so it seemed like alot more. they agreed with what i was saying, they'res really no refutation if you nite is successful, but i changed and its working. i feel like i can always go back to hip hop in the clutch and i do, later in the evening. it just sucks, because the local pro athletes are really easing up on my nite, and going to other clubs, but again, thats on the club, those guys dont tip worth a shi* anyway.

Cisco Im down in D.C but NYC is a second home so I will shoot up to NY for a gig in heartbeat plus my girl is from NY so she never minds the trip ya know.

My sets are repeats from old sets that went over well. I have been playing that set for a few years now which is why I can do it blind folded as well as all my other youtube videos but they all were freestyles at some point just cleaned up bit for the video.

Man its just music get lots of it of all types start jamming and shut your managers the f$ck up but everyone else is right site down and talk to the manager and find out really what they want.

Hey Man,

Your not alone. Iv been in this exact situation I held a residency for 4 years where the same thing occurred.

I gotta tell you there is no easy fix man, one thing to remember is that when DJing in a club its our job to please the crowd, as sad as that maybe its what they want that we have to play. One thing you might find maybe help you from going insane will be to focus on the performance aspect of your set. I found the if you can get your crowd to believe in you as a DJ or the character you create they may start to follow the music you play rather then dictate it.

Ill give you an example. A few weeks back I was lucky enough to head to Coachella. It was sick! But what I soon noticed was that while the crowd responded to certain song choices the effect the interaction between crowd and performer had was far more evident. So get on the mic, get the crowd interacting with you, get them involved in the show and install a vested interest in them.

Over the Summer here in New Zealand, I started to get on the mic alot more, what I found was surprising. They loved it! They would jump when I said so, they would put their hands up on command. Dont get me wrong, it wasnt easy. I had to learn how to talk to them right so do your homework learn from MC's and other performers and eventually once the crowd starts to follow you they will also follow your song selection, then eventually what you says goes and you can start to express yourself more.

Heres how I work obscure songs into my set.

Frist hour 5-7 mainstream EDM or top 40 tracks to 1 song of my choice.

Second hour 3-5 mainstream tracks to 2 songs of my choice.

Third Hour. a 50/50 mix of mainsteam and more obscure songs.

Final Hour what ever I want.

And throughout the set dropping in randomly old school hip hop bangers and cheesy shit!

From my travels and the clubs iv played in this seems to work.

Yeah Remy's cold

I read most of the thread and I am in the same boat... no hip hop... but the definition of hip hop changes on a nightly basis.. The new request from the owner is an export of the playlist nightly. .. any thoughts on how to address this? I feel like what tracks and versions I play have some sort of intellectual rights. .. or am I just wrong?

tell him to GTFOHWTS

Technically your right you dont HAVE to show him anything....then again he dosent HAVE to let you come back either

Simple as that i'm afraid.

They're either about to micromanage you or get rid of you.

Yup, thats what it sounds like. One of the guys who taught me how to dj told me a story about a club he worked for that did this. The club had a policy that the programming was to be some thing like 3 hip hop songs, 3 pop songs, 1 or 2 dance tracks rinse and repeat and the owner made them keep a log sheet of every track played to go over at the end of the night to make sure they were following policy.....i dont know if i woulda stuck around for that one

With that exact formula? I can tell you right now that I would've walked away without a second thought if that was their demand. There's no creativity with that, and you might as well stay at 128BPM (not to mention that their definition of hip hop would probably shift night by night).

If the Gig means something to you then comply with the managements wishes, if not go HAM play what you you want then quit!

Best advice iv seen on this forum

Agree!

And best of all would be if customers loved your set and asked management to get back that awesome DJ that played the other night. LOL

+100

HA... I know i posted this in the other thread...

but im 90% sure he is talking about the same room that handed me this on Friday 5 seconds after walking through the door. (as a traveling guest DJ)

i129.photobucket.com

Both are in Hoboken and sounds like the SAME M-O
(then again I hear thats MOST of Hoboken)

^LMAO!!

I live in hoboken and would love to know what spot handed you that.. i'm dyin here haha

Nah, managers who are that picky could care less what the crowd wants

i'm also 99% sure its not the same as the op's spot being that i know his spot

1republik

haha not the same but that is hilarious

@joshua carl.. how long ago was this (youre getting that flyer form mgmt)

*from

Friday.
I'm friends with the residents and the people who book it, they usually put in Manhattan, but my boy just moved over there, so we decided that was the move for Friday.

He walked in with me, and was 10x more flabbergasted than I was...
I have seen, and overcome this before
Just never in "writting"

Most places have no problem being racist behind closed doors protected by anonninimity ...
Writting something like this down?

Either extreme balls, or extreme stupidity.
I'd wager a bit of both.

It would take a lot to not just write 'fuck off' and walk out on that. Amazing.

Oh believe me, if it wasn't my friends spot and I had personally arranged the gig.

But I bit down and gave the old college try, for the sake of my friend who has the account.
The, as I refer to it now, "radio disney" set went well.
But so zzzzzzzzzzz....

It's your typical case of someone running a room the way they want to.
The music wasn't the only WTF thing that went on that night.

Do tell.

This literally made me upset, apparently this person isn't a friend if they are giving you these types of gigs. I'm no sell out or chump friend or not I'd tell this person to seriously go f themselves and peace out. I'm sure your friend would understand.

I hope you got paid handsomely for that performance there buddy.... I have to admit ... I have done such gigs and all could tell myself is how much I was making for putting up with this crap.

Nm nh

those are nights you get paid for managing your patience....

Whereas i dont like the list i dont see how it can be considered racist, the letter says to not cater to one race and clearly makes all possible attemts to shit on every genre ensuring noone has a good time across the board.

That's true....
I didn't mention the comments that came with it.

I guess it was a "read between the lines thing"....

I suppose if someone just found this, they really would be hard pressed to find anything racist, against any one particular race.

But after being there for 45 minutes it was obvious what they were trying to across, and tht other dj who plays there often was full of classic racist owner stories for me after he saw the print-out

Ya i have no douts about that, if hes that picky about the music i can only imagine how picky he is about the crowds

Not to derail this thread any more than I have, I have string opinions about open format how carelessly people throw that term around.
Which makes guys who truly play open format sets seem that's it's just "standard dj" fodder to be open format.

Example.
If you play popular dance/remixes and lets just say some Hiphop, maybe a touch of trap/twerk (more than likely a remix) you are not playing an open format set.
You are playing Top 40 or Pop music. (Popular)
Radio.

This isn't a bad thing.
But for the people coming out watching you play Clarity and then Versace...
It's zedd a too 40 dance/EDM radio track
And migos and drake, radio.

So (pardon the reference) BLURREDLINES are everywhere.
Someone books you to play open format and you think, you are REALLY gonna bust the musical spectrum with some knowledge of your music, integrity of your programming and the ability to get a few "Ooohh shit!" Reactions when u busy out some wild live magic using sly and the family stone or something.

So after your Cheerios have been pissed in and your playing Roar, Royals & we can't stop you say to yourself...
HOW DID I END UP HERE?
Who was the wizard who said this was open format?
It's a phrase that's both general, and terribly specific depending on who says it.

My other qualm comes straight from experience.
Owners
My battle with owners is well documented, lol.
But when they say they want EVERYTHING, but them freak out when you drop Big Pimpin, or crazy bitch or scatman

Obviously you have to exercise some common sense. You don't need to go in on the totally obscure, Insane clown posse Vs Sven Vath.
But what a lot of them actually mean, is play everything cheesy, and non threatening, and certainly no hiphop that's a bit hard (for his taste)

I went on to explain THATS exactly what makes it open format though.
Making some of these tracks work together.
And being entertaining with it.
You can't say "play everything"
Then repeal some of the most popular genres!

Now that cheat sheet for a bar DJ was kray kray I would walk out, at their interpretation of what moves a crowd sounds like a forever 21 clothing store type of gig...I woulda threw that BS at them and bounce!

the part that really had me cracking up was when the note said "Dj's, no scratching" lol... Did you really have to go through the whole night without doing even one faderless baby scratch? lol