Is it possible to enjoy DJing music you dislike?

[Hollis]

Seriously, say you moderately disliked or were indifferent to drum n bass, or techno, could you still enjoy DJing it. My understanding from watching several YouTube videos about "beginning DJing" is that there's a range of skills and aspects to it separate from the music?

 

[RevolutionSound]

Depends on how much you were getting paid I think

 

[marshall]

No direct experience, but wouldn’t you have to be a bit obsessed with your chosen genre to really be any good, to be authentic, respected, and bring new stuff to the table. Or to the dance floor, or wherever?

 

[Callie]

Are you planning on doing some gigs Hollis ?

I think you would likely improve your skills playing different bpms and perhaps if you were getting paid to play it might be tolerable.

 

[8ball]

No direct experience, but wouldn’t you have to be a bit obsessed with your chosen genre to really be any good, to be authentic, respected, and bring new stuff to the table. Or to the dance floor, or wherever?

Maybe, but not to just play some records.

 

[Hollis]

Are you planning on doing some gigs Hollis ?

I think you would likely improve your skills playing different bpms and perhaps if you were getting paid to play it might be tolerable.

I was figuring it might make a good 'retirement hobby'.. But then I put on a 3 hour mix of techno music in bed one night, and had to press the stop button after 90 minutes, couldn't take any more of it..

 

[rutabowa]

99% of the bits of "djing" that aren't to do with being into the music (ie things like beat matching) can be learnt in couple of hours, or just done automatically now.... so it would get v boring pretty quickly.

 

[skyscraper101]

I DJ'd music I disliked for years. The enjoyable part was being able to throw in a few curveball bangers in amongst the generic mainstream stuff people expected, and then have people appreciate it and ask me what it was.

 

[hitmouse]

I assumed this was going to be about already being a DJ and being asked to play a night outside your normal tastes. If this is about not being a DJ at all and wanting to become one, could you not find a genre you do like and DJ that?

 

[Spandex]

There's different kinds of DJing, obviously.

If you DJ a specific sound, and you play a night with other DJs who play that sound to a crowd of people who've come specifically to listen/dance/lay on the floor in a K-hole to that sound, then I suppose you could do it if you weren't into it, and you might enjoy the social aspect and the experience of controlling the dancefloor or whatever. But the best DJs will be into whatever they're into, will be looking for new and amazing tunes to play, will know the scene inside out, will have the experience of how to put a set together, know what works when and what'll kill the dancefloor. That'll all be much harder to do if you don't really care about the music.

If you're playing to a random crowd, however, you'll probably have to play stuff you're not into, as those crowds often just want to hear tunes they know. People coming up to the DJ booth asking 'you got any Kylie?, 'my girlfriend really wants to hear the Kaiser Chiefs, can you play them next?'' The skill there is reading the room and playing what'll work for that crowd, maybe throwing a few tunes for you in and hoping it doesn't clear the room.

When I was DJing (parties, backrooms of pubs, just for fun and mostly to friends and their wider crowd) I always struggled with playing for the crowd. I had a load of new tunes that I thought were AWESOME and I wanted to share. But then I'd end up with about six people locked in loving every moment while everyone else fucked off. My mate always played the most obvious shit (You've Got the Love, etc) and had the dancefloor heaving.

 

[Indeliblelink]

techno music in bed

I think this where you went wrong.

 

[skyscraper101]

People coming up to the DJ booth asking 'you got any Kylie?, 'my girlfriend really wants to hear the Kaiser Chiefs, can you play them next?'' The skill there is reading the room and playing what'll work for that crowd, maybe throwing a few tunes for you in and hoping it doesn't clear the room.

Yeah that is where the skills of diplomacy and DJing meet.

Nothing worse than all your hard work and skill to get a dancefloor heaving suddenly being kyboshed by some persistent individual with their request for something completely inappropriate.

I could probably write a book of the excuses and delay tactics I’ve used here

 

[Hollis]

99% of the bits of "djing" that aren't to do with being into the music (ie things like beat matching) can be learnt in couple of hours, or just done automatically now.... so it would get v boring pretty quickly.

Oh i thought it was a bit more demanding than that!

I mean if I was going to turn myself into a 80s 'wheels of steel' mobile disco man, then I don't think it would hold any interest for me - other than liking some of the music.

I kind of thought puttting together a techno or 'dance music' set, beat matching and err, other stuff.. made it kind of intrinically interesting in its own right..

 

[story]

.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I’m not all that keen on house music but I have a few records and it is fun to muck about and try and mix them.

Ditto garage.

also yer scratch DJs using snippets of Beethoven probably aren’t massive classical heads.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Same with those dancehall double albums with 20 vocal cuts of the same riddim.

Generally I liked the music but not all the vocals. Still fun to mix them in and out though.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Anyway the only way to find out if it’s fun for you is to do it Hollis

 

[Spandex]

Oh i thought it was a bit more demanding than that!

I mean if I was going to turn myself into a 80s 'wheels of steel' mobile disco man, then I don't think it would hold any interest for me - other than liking some of the music.

I kind of thought puttting together a techno or 'dance music' set, beat matching and err, other stuff.. made it kind of intrinically interesting in its own right..

The biggest part of live DJing is putting on a performance to entertain a crowd. People are there to have a good time and you're using music to help them do that, same as if you were doing stand up comedy or magic tricks.

I always find the nuts and bolts fiddling with knobs and sliders and counting beats totally secondary to choosing what tunes to play when. Some people care about and are wowed by technical wizardry, and it can add to the music as you play two (three, four if you're some super-DJ) tunes at once, screw about with FX, pull off a sudden jump cut that works against the odds, or whatever else to create something new. And you need to be proficient enough at that not to embarass yourself. But if you aren't matching the mood of the room with what you play, if you don't play the right tunes at the right time in the right order, whatever that is, people are going to think you're shit and fuck off somewhere else.