Lo these many years I have spent in various clubs and bars in the boroughs of New York City, Manhattan in particular. As a resident of the state of New Jersey, rarely is my opinion "relevant" to a New Yorker, and Manhattanites in particular. Now, as a DJ I realize there are DJs who are actual DJ's in the more "professional" sense of the word (those who make their entire living at it), and also DJs who are paid for their progressive taste in music (kinda like if I was paid to do my radio show).
For some time, I held New York DJ's to somewhat mythical standards, and generally the ones I heard were pretty top-notch. Perhaps I have become jaded with the passage of time, or possibly wiser, and I'm just not as naieve as I used to be, or maybe I just go to the wrong places, but when did DJ's in New York start sucking so badly?
Are there too many venues and not enough DJ's? Too many venues hiring the wrong DJ's? Has the Laptop and the MP3 begat an overly amateurish and inbred class of DJ? Surely the latter would favor trust-fund kids with lots of free time and disposable income, and without the need of a gig as a means of survival, they can DJ at below-market rates. Maybe I shouldn't expect much from a guy sitting in the corner with his laptop, looking disinterested in his surroundings. Maybe the lack of "cabaret licenses" has wiped out many of the better, smaller dance clubs. Whatever the case, a great little venue like the one I visited Saturday night for an 80s dance party deserves better than the DJs who would only rank as the 15th best in Somerset County (meaning they would rank somewhere in the lower 900's in Manhattan).
Apparently, just being able to press play on a cd player or mp3 interface on a laptop will net you a downtown DJ gig these days. Who needs to mix! Or learn to EQ! Or learn a little beat-matching! How about a crossfade? Naah! A good rule of thumb as a dj: when a cute girl asks you to play "Situation" by Yaz, on freakin' 80s night, YOU PLAY IT!!! (also, you don't need to play the Smiths twice and the Cure twice... WE GOT IT. There's already a "goth/industrial" dance party downstairs!)
I'm wondering if non-dj's even notice shit like people not mixing songs or the EQ being out of whack. Maybe we're just trying too hard. All I wanted was to hear "Situation".
4 comments:
Never again are you to go to an 80s night without telling me about it first.
Also, my iTunes "Party Shuffle" function challenges you to a wheels-of-steel showdown. You better watchout for its KA KA KA KILLA KROSSSFADDDDDEEE.
i'm confused... were you the cute girl who asked to hear "situation"?
I'm as confused as Don on this one...but apparently we are both less confused than milky him(her?)self
I enlisted the help of my date (obviously I only date cute girls) to relay my song request to the DJ... as a DJ myself, I have never denied the request of a beautiful young thang, I figured this guy is smart enough to do the same, I was wrong...
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