When you decide it’s time for a night of dancing, you must first choose a suitable venue for such an occasion. You don’t always know what type of music you will be moving your body to later in the evening. While you usually have a rough idea in your mind and you may already have some suggestions for the DJ to play, your brain cannot comprehend the sounds that await your arrival on the dance floor.
It’s the DJ’s job to figure these future sounds out, not yours! The DJ is the mastermind behind the dance floor and the creator of rhythm with a responsibility of organizing and arranging a creative mixture of tunes that shall flow through both ears of each person inside that room. It’s his or her job to establish an atmosphere that will move you to the melodies and bass lines.
The DJ must carefully select songs with vocals familiar to you, ones that encourage your mind to sing with excitement.
Whether you are the person who is looking to dance or the DJ looking to make people dance, each venue is different and has its own set of predetermined guidelines of the type and genre of music to be played throughout the evening. DJs and people will more often than not search out a venue that is playing their style of music. Each venue is typically only going to be playing one or maybe two types of music, thus limiting the possibilities of discovering any other new innovative forms of music. However, there are a small handful of locations designed around an “open format” which dabble in all genres of music. These venues are ones expecting very inconsistent ranges in demographic age groups. When venues expect their customers to be ranging in age, the DJ must incorporate a wider selection of different genres into his or her performance.
As time passes, new trends always emerge in music. Different age groups are accustomed to more diverse genres than the typical Top 40 radio hits. A DJ must then expand the boundaries of what they are used to playing and dive into older, more classical tunes, mixed with newer hits and creative twists. The science behind being an outstanding musician and an amazing DJ is to step out common boundaries and discover new ways of blending a mix of new and old songs together. By doing so, the DJ will be appealing to all age groups.
For example, if you are into electronic dance music and decide to visit a venue focusing primarily on hip-hop, you may be intrigued by how many good songs within the genre there were that you didn’t already know you liked.
Brett Bohl
