On Djing...

I’m fairly sure exoticising Europe /Europeans is not a thing!

I can speak to certain communities I was involved in in the 90s where "weird European" / exotic tone was used as a shield for borderline white supremecist views that were normalized through their "weirdness." Also (again, at least in America) non-mainline European cultures, especially nations that were in Eastern Europe and extra-especially Jewish music, were often rendered as exotic in the media I encountered.

Getting slightly off topic for the thread so I'll just leave this, but Paul Farmer wrote about this in the 90s, about how acknowledgment of suffering is reduced in people defined as distant and other. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027362

And more recently, Amanda Skocic wrote about how Eastern European women in the film industry were seen as "off-White" https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ghr/article/view/20161

Not all of Europe is Northern/Eastern Europe

I have a real issue with Americans imposing this stuff on us Europeans. It’s more USA cultural imperialism imo,
similar to that I have encountered with Americans trying to police language that is deeply embedded In my culture. We Europeans are very, very comfortable using Euro as a descriptor, and I say this as an avowed anti-white supremacist.

I respectfully agree to disagree on this issue. Not really a conversation for this thread, or board.

Well, you brought it up and I’d respectfully disagree and feel pretty strongly about non Europeans imposing their views on us. I can’t really see how it is not a form of cultural imperialism or at the very least cultural superiority and I am so, so tired of it.

As someone who's entire life exists in the shadow of eliminationism and colonization, I genuinely and respectfully disagree. I attempted to say "in America" several times, and questioned my interpretations because I wasn't sure but clearly that didn't ring true in my words. I apologize for offending you, but not for my sentiment. Can we, as I have suggested, let the thread proceed?

Yes. And I do understand your perspective now though, so apologise for any upset but do also continue to respectfully disagree about the use of Euro, also the name of a currency used by 350 million people.

Sorry, there goes my pedantry again! ;-)

map warned us

^^^

the circle of life, hakuna matata

3. The big pop sound, 1984 and on the cheesier stuff, aiming for the charts. There's a little bit of crossover with the electro stuff but a lot of it I find pretty terrible, and for a lot of people, this is THE italo sound. And I know italo fans and DJs who play as much of this stuff as the other two. I don't. Maybe a song or two makes it.

i've been playing "tarzan boy" lately for some reason. kind of want it to have a tik tok moment or something. i doubt very many young people in the us today have ever heard any of the charting italo tunes? drake or whoever isn't flipping them lol. everyone has moved on to the 90s.

My interpretation of the euro-disco thing was that it initially had a bit of a derogatory/gatekeeping aspect since Disco was American and now these Europeans were trying it too (Boney M etc), what do they know etc, but the quantity and quality increased so quickly that this take quickly disappeared, so what was left of the term was mainly a shorthand for “expensive import vinyl” and the odd silly accent.

This is just my interpretation, I don’t think I’ve heard “euro-disco” used as a derogatory term in decades.

you caught my boney m joke, impeccable dj cred

The discussion above could use its own thread really. It's largely agreed that tags like "world music" are reductive, but then people start reaching for other terms like "global" or "outernational" when they want to talk about non-Western, especially non-US/Northern European music, which kind of mean the same thing really

incursions in eurobient

euro as a descriptor is too broad and therefore irrelevant to my purposes (except when i'm trying to disparage huge swaths of people.) i usually make up genres to organize music for mixing, e.g. rude chuggers, moody cruisers, party goofers, mean disco, nice disco, etc. those may be offensive to peoples rude, moody, mean, or nice but fuck em!

mine are like "cunty" "love" and "heartbreak"

and of course the well-known genre "we are out at the club AND IT'S THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!"

Mine are:

Groovers
Ravers
Terrufnek

That last one is a portmanteau of the names of two nights I play, but is all somewhere in the dancehall/soca/Afrobeats/related area.
Groovers is anything from 90s hip hop to funk and soul.
Ravers is what it says on the tin - dance music, basically.

Those are the three genres

free jazz dj - you have to listen to the songs i didn’t play

I like all these personalized naming conventions. I tend to think of tracks as having particular types of personalities or moods, but I don't generally put specific words to them, it's somewhat nebulous for me, maybe more like playing with a bunch of paints or a big box of crayons and trying to work out what shades complement or offset each other.

my rekordbox playlists are broken up into different "genres" some of which are very obvious and not controversial. Like House Chicago. House Acid. Techno US. Techno Europe. Some are kinda grouped together, like Electro Freestyle. Club and Old School. DJ Minimal Synth Beat which is minimal synth, new beat, some more industrial new wave. Then I have more personal things like DJ NJ, which is like, Talking Heads, Liquid Liquid, Coati Mundi, Material. Or DJ Boogie which is boogie but also sorta proto house, early 80s club stuff.

Then there's DJ Balearic, which for me is balearic but also Cosmic and Loft classics. I actually put that into one giant playlist on spotify for listening pleasure and kept adding and adding:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bv9Fa4IfStJNwZW282yjb?si=77d1a3c868634c36

There is also DJ Euro (no offense intended) which grew out of my physical shelves, where there's even a fair amount of what is ostensibly italo, but italo was overflowing. Euro foldeer includes Azoto (really italo, but disco-y), Bagarre, Bamboo, Black Devil, Cerrone, Chilly, Don Ray, Donna Summer, Gino Soccio, Moroder, Hott City, Kongas, Martin Circus, Rinder and Lewis etc.

Some things can go in multiple playlists, or get broken up based on era. For instance, Vivien Vee's "Give Me a Break" is in euro, because sonically it's euro-disco to me. But Vivien Vee's "Blue Disease" goes in Italo.

I usually purchase tracks for specific mixes, so most of the tracks I have are in the playlists for those mixes. I tend to give the mixes evocative names, which helps me remember what the general blend of tracks are in each one. So it's not exactly genres but I know that I'll find particular songs in particular mixes and that they will be grouped with other songs that match up well in terms of mood and BPM.

Then there's DJ Balearic, which for me is balearic but also Cosmic and Loft classics. I actually put that into one giant playlist on spotify for listening pleasure and kept adding and adding:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bv9Fa4IfStJNwZW282yjb?si=77d1a3c868634c36

amazing playlist

thanks

my actual main rekordbox playlists are Pop, House, Retro, Tech and New Stuff (I do a new New Stuff playlist every 4-6 months or so). Then I have a bunch of playlists left over from projects, usually prep for specific events, that I never really revisit but am too lazy to delete (why delete anything anyway?). This is about as utilitarian as possible for me based on my current gigs, and even then sometimes I flub my cataloging a little (i HATE cataloging). otoh at this point i never skip adding cue points and actually enjoy it. not letting energy flatline too much has become a big deal for me. that means no endless lead-ins / lead-outs unless the track makes it worth it (rare).

The more experiences I have the more I realize that for me it is almost always a bad idea to latch onto a specific sequence of songs in advance of a gig. 1) i literally never know what i need to play until i get there, AND from each 3 minute chunk to the next and 2) that on-the-fly discovery process really lights me up and that energy makes a big difference for me and the partiers.

Cue points are very important to me for avoiding dead space and having cleaner transitions. I really hate sets that have endless breaks and build ups every 30 seconds. I just want to keep the beat going and only pause occasionally if possible. Instead of using them as start points, I'm increasingly using cues to flag the part in the first track where I'd want to start up the next track so that they can overlap for a while before cutting over to the new one at the correct point.

I'm probably too attached to the idea of playing a very specific planned out set any time I have a gig, but that's the advantage of always playing to tiny or nonexistent crowds.

i usually make a playlist for a specific event as like a "plan a" road map to get to a handful of key tracks i know i want to play, otherwise i'll forget the stuff i was really excited about and go off in a totally different direction. i always deviate from it, but then i can go back to it if i sense myself starting to get a little aimless

i tend to plan out the first hour or so of my sets as i’m kind of building momentum and then once there’s a bit of a crowd going it’s a little more anything goes. don’t like to overly plan my sets in advance either, but i also don’t like to have too much material to choose from in the moment either (thankful that USBs can only hold so much on them lol). if I were playing to actual dance floors more regularly i would probably approach this differently

my rekordbox library is a completely unorganized mess lol

I used to plan out sets when I was a wedding DJ. Just a rough outline that had chunks that made sense to me, like thinking about the couple's requests and seeing how to get from one to the other while mixing it up with the hits and my standards. I was happy to ignore it, but it was a great crutch.

i would definitely use playlists if i needed to sketch out programming in an unfamiliar situation. it helps a lot in a wedding situation where people will give you time markers and a few tracks they want you to play. on the other hand i got asked to play a disco night for pride last year, i had each hour more or less playlisted, and halfway through the night i got yelled at by some asshole manager for playing the wrong thing, the implication that i needed to play a totally different genre. think i related the story upthread. most of that (programming) is kind of in my head for my weeklies but could use some tuning up and filling out tbh. like i have maybe 4 or 5 "places" i like to go over 4 hours. the sunday gig is so sparsely attended that i do a lot more winging it. when i get asked to play on a friday at my second place i go something like "big current pop numbers" then "pop/club" then "tech house" then "fast stuff" then "oldish favs" and then the last hour of the night is reggaeton and hip hop, both of which i have really limited selections of.

my area has a lot of latin patrons and clubbers and i've had to build up a half-decent selection of latin language club songs at the risk of coming across as pandering and clueless, but it's been really helpful overall. i like bad bunny a lot. wish i knew spanish tbqf.

yeah i did a lot of stressing out about track order/selection and mood/vibe at the wedding i played two months ago. i erred on the side of the songs/genres the grooms mentioned when we discussed it in advance, and threw in a few of my own choices which went down well enough

xp Bomba Estereo yo!! so good

back in 2008/2009 or so when I spent 2 seasons as a "hip" wedding DJ, part of this crew https://www.74events.com/ (though back then there were only 3 of us, now it's a whole roster of NYC DJs, even some WFMU folk) I made two mixes to introduce myself to the owner, so this was before I did any weddings for anybody that wasn't a friend of mine. After joining up with them and experiencing actual weddings you could definitely remove most of this stuff and replace it with Journey and Pitbull (this was 2008), but here were my "trial" playlists:

Dan Selzer – Cocktail Compilation

1. Beach Boys – God Only Knows
2. The Searchers – When You Walk in the Room
3. Bobbie Gentry – You’ve Made Me So Very Happy
4. Gene Clark – Because of You
5. Todd Rundgren – Hello, It’s Me
6. Brenton Woods – Gimme a Little Sign
7. Etta James – At Last
8. The Flamingoes – I Only Have Eyes For You
9. Paul McCartney – Maybe I’m Amazed
10. The Rolling Stones – She Smiled Sweetly
11. Roxy Music – More Than This
12. Little Anthony and the Imperials – Goin’ Out of My Head
13. Darlene Love – Today I Met The Boy I’m Gonna Marry
14. Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions – So In Love
15. Chris Montez – Call Me
16. The Everly Brothers – Till I Kissed You
17. Wanda Jackson – Funnel of Love
18. The Vogues – You’re The One
19. The Zombies – This Will Be Our Year
20. Syd Barrett – Love Song
21. David Bowie – Soul Love
22. Big Star – Thirteen
23. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
24. Blondie – Dreaming
25. Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place

Dan Selzer – Wedding Mix
1. George McRae – Rock Your Baby
2. Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue
3. David Bowie – Golden Years
4. The Jacksons – Dance and Shout (Shake Your Body)
5. Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing
6. Archie Bell & The Drells – Tighten Up
7. Tommy Roe – Sweet Pea
8. Neil Diamond – Cherry, Cherry
9. Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy
10. The Clash – Rock the Casbah (Mustapha Dance)
11. Punkin’ Machine – I Need You Tonight
12. Prince – Kiss
13. Chic – Good Times
14. Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
15. ABC – The Look of Love
16. Altered Images – I Could Be Happy
17. Animotion – Obession
18. Human League – (Keep Feeling) Fascination
19. Bobby O – I’m So Hot For You
20. Exposé – Point of No Return
21. Debbie Deb – When I Hear Music
22. West Street Mob – Break Dance (Electric Boogie)
23. De La Soul – A Roller Skatin’ Jam Named “Saturdays”
24. Steely Dan – Peg
25. Slick Rick – Mona Lisa
26. Yaz – Situation
27. Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
28. New Order – Temptation
29. Donna Summer – I Feel Love
30. Joe Jackson – Stepping Out

A lot of those were still staples of mine, but obviously mixed in with the requests and the hits of the era. People came to Gary (founder of 74 Events) because they were looking for "hip" "brooklyn" wedding DJs. They didn't want some cheesy DJ with props playing all the typical stuff. We'd meet with the couples and they'd explain how they wanted a cool DJ who'd play cool music. Then they'd send us their requests playlist and it would start with Black Eyed Peas. The flipside was half the time I just felt relieved to know that playing Lady Gaga would get the floor going, because no matter how much the couple liked The Pixies, it was going to keep grandma on the dancefloor. Still I tried to deliver and remember at least one wedding where only the couple and their best friend danced to Vampire Weekend A-Punk and all of their relatives cleared the floor. They had a blast though and that's all that mattered.

I can write a book about my experiences as a wedding DJ, how I related to it, what I learned, etc, but some of it's painful to visit.

The second to last wedding I DJ'd, my friend asked me AND our friend James Mulry to DJ. I'd only ever done weddings by myself which was it's own hassle. This wedding they made really good requests, I think we opened with Loose Joints' Tell You Today and everybody danced and it was a blast...and even with a good crowd, many of whom were friends, and a good partner, I was still an anxious wreck and decided...this is not for me. After that wedding I sold my speakers and wireless mic to James and never DJ'd a wedding again.

Until a few months later when my ex-girlfriend got married and called me and said "you can do one more". I borrowed my speakers back from James and did that wedding. I slipped in The Doors Peace Frog which blew a few minds but Deniece Williams' Let's Hear it for the Boy was the smash.

A few years later I hired James to DJ my wedding, at the same venue that we DJ'd together at (The Metropolitan Building in Long Island City) and yes, he ended the night with Joe Jackson's Stepping Out.

I actually have the playlists from James for my wedding, which were obviously heavily directed by myself.

DJ James Mulry
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4/12/2014 - Dan Nicole
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Prelude
Steve Reich - Reich: Pulse - Sections I-X - Pulse

Processional
Woody Guthrie’s Hesitating Beauty - Performed by Lawrence Kim

Recessional
The Pretenders - Message Of Love

Cocktail Hour
the Knife - Heartbeats
Blondie - Dreaming
The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
The Searchers - When You Walk In The Room
The Clean - Anything Could Happen
Neko Case - This Tornado Loves You
David Bowie - Be My Wife
Sparks - When I'm With You
Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move
Brenton Wood - Give Me Some Kind Of Sign Girl
Kirsty MacColl - They Don't Know
Yazoo - Only You
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
Lou Christie - I'm Gonna Make You Mine
Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music - More Than This
Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra - Sand
The Left Banke - And Suddenly
The Modern Folk Quartet - This Could Be the Night
Gerry & The Pacemakers - How Do You Do It
The Vogues - You're The One
Richard Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Slapp Happy - Blue Flower
Ike & Tina Turner - It's Gonna Work Out Fine
Nina Simone - Feeling Good
Emitt Rhodes - With My Face On The Floor

First Dance Set
The Supremes - You Can't Hurry Love
Thurston Harris - Little Bitty Pretty One
Jackie Wilson - Higher And Higher
The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle Dub
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
JJ Jackson - But It's Alright
Tommy Roe - Sweet Pea
Len Barry - 1-2-3
Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons - Beggin'
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Shirley & Lee - Let The Good Times Roll
Solomon Burke - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Shirley Ellis - The Clapping Song

Dinner
Syd Barrett - Love Song
Caetano Veloso - Lost In The Paradise
Bob Lind - Elusive Butterfly
Bobbie Gentry - You've Made Me So Very Happy
Bert Jansch - Tell Me What Is True Love
Gene Clark - Because of You
Fleetwood Mac - Albatross
Big Star - Thirteen
Lou Reed - Satellite Of Love
The Kinks - Strangers
The Everly Brothers - ('til) I Kissed You
Chris Montez - Call Me
Van Morrison - Crazy Love
The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses
Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash - Girl from the North Country
Jackie Wilson - I Get The Sweetest Feeling
Buffalo Springfield - Sit Down I Think I Love You
Scott Walker - Duchess
Paul McCartney - Maybe I’m Amazed
The Gist - This Is Love
James & Bobby Purify - I'm Your Puppet
Grover Washington Jr & Bill Withers - Just The Two Of Us
Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner [DNA Remix]

First Dance
Nico - I'll Keep It With Mine

Parent Dance
Jim Croce - Time In A Bottle

Dancing
Punkin' Machine - I Need You Tonight
The Jacksons - Shake your body (Down To The Ground)
Rick James - Give It to Me Baby
De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"
Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
Freeez - I.O.U.
Yazoo - Situation (U.S.12" Mix)
Bobby O - I'm So Hot 4 You
ABC - The Look of Love, Part 1
Madonna - Into The Groove
Expose - Point Of No Return
Company B - Fascinated (Extended Mix)
Mgmt - Kids
Hall & Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Banbarra - Shack Up (full version)
The Doors - Peace Frog
Kool & The Gang - Hollywood Swinging
Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
The Human League - (Keep Feeling) Fascination (Extended Version)
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed
New Order - Temptation [7" Version]
Ladytron - Playgirl
Donna Summer - Our Love
Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round (12")
Stacey Q - Two Of Hearts (long version)
Azoto - Anytime Or Place
Sean Paul - Temperature
Liquid Liquid - Optimo
Konk - Your Life (Konk Mix)
Quando Quango - Love Tempo (Mark Kamins Mix)
Loose Joints - Tell You (Today) (Original 12'' Vocal)
The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With The Night
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
The Strokes - Last Night
The Cure - Close To Me
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
Neil Diamond - Cherry Cherry
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark
Modern English - I Melt With You
Mo-dettes - White Mice
Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere [Lp Version]
Pineapples featuring Douglas Roop - Come On Closer (Club Mix)
Joe Jackson - Stepping Out (@ -7%)

The Clapping Song I got hip to thanks to Optimo!

in a "one of those things is not like the other" is the fact that both Nicole and I love Sean Paul's Temperature AND, we actually heard it played at...that's right...Optimo. I think Stirmonster you said it was a favor for a friend? Maybe later on I would've suggested more classic dancehall stuff to mix it in with but at the time, we just wanted that, and a few of my friends were like huh?

tbf temperature rules and needs no excuses tho

what is mia paper planes if not classic dancehall

lol i had “temperature” on my playlist for my friend’s wedding but didn’t get to play it. it rules!

i didn’t ask our dj for his actual playlist after our wedding and now i’m wishing i had - despite my going over the musical selections with him before the ceremony, i remember maybe five or six songs i danced to because the whole night was such a whirlwind. our first dance was the ‘twin peaks’ theme abruptly cutting into “jump” by the pointer sisters, parent dance was “can’t help falling in love”, cake cutting song was “strange powers” by the magnetic fields.

booming posts dan

very relatabe

haha relatable... it's early here

there's so much pressure at a wedding, people want it to be perfect, I guess it depends on your temper how you handle it, me I get quite nervous and really attentive - which is good, but stressful

otoh people really give it their all, the highs can be incredible

best wedding dj experience I had chosen Cat People (OST version with the long slow open) as my opening track and bride and bridesmaids were on the floor along with all the guests, all age groups really, and during the opening esp the older guests are dancing slow and close as if it's a slow jam, then just a second before the big break/drop bride throws the flowers into the crowd as Bowie screams "WITH GAS-O-LIIINE!!!" and it's mayhem on the dance floor, crowd goes WILD

can't say I had planned for anything like that to happen, luckiest moment of my dj career

I think Stirmonster you said it was a favor for a friend?

that night it was but it's something i played regularly. in fact i still do! i usually start with Sizzla's Run Out Pon Dem (same riddim) and then cut back and forth between that and Temperature.

I remember you being surprised to hear it. I'm happy to admit to being a BIG Sean Paul fan.

The Clapping Song goes off every time. i have never seen it not work though i'm sure there are some moody fuks who are dissing it, but then i'm never playing for them.

lots of tracks at your wedding were played at my wedding - there can't be that many weddings where both Sand amd White Mice get played! i had a friend play my weding whose wedding i had previously Played at. i think we were both the only people in town who could have pulled off playing at each other's wedding. weddings can be the hardest and worst gigs ever but i loved playing his and he was fantastic at mine.

Loose Joints - Tell You (Today) (Original 12'' Vocal)

I was just in H&M (I think for the first time ever) and this was playing. Maybe that’s fairly normal but it blew my mind a little bit.

I can't imagine that's normal! Wonderful times if it is.

my wedding foray was a time when I was freelancing part-time in the day job (print production) and refusing to take a full-time job because I still insisting on leaving time to work on my record label and later start my own printing business. Then I thought hey, maybe I can DJ weddings once a week for a few hours on a saturday and make a bunch of money. First it wasn't that much money, especially when I realized it wasn't just that saturday. I spent so much time during the week planning things, organizing music, preparing scripts etc. I also thought I'd just be hired to be a DJ and not have to get on the mic and the couples didn't want somebody always on the mic being cheesy, but I still had to make introductions while playing music and I hated that. Ladies and gentleman, we'd love to welcome the bride's parents! (cue James Brown I Feel Good).

Mostly though there was just this anxiety. I get anxious DJing any normal event though it comes and goes depending on how often I've DJd and what the situation is. Certainly there were plenty of times where I went into parties in bars/clubs/lofts etc with some degree of confidence. But weddings introduced this whole other thing. Gary from 74 Events knew I had a car so he always booked me for the events that required driving. Long Island. Staten Island Beach. Sandy Hook on the Jersey Shore. And I'd just be so worried that I'd be an hour into the drive and think "oh my god I forgot a crucial cable and now the wedding's going to be ruined".

My wife started to go out on friday nights because she couldn't handle being in the house with me, my anxious energy was so toxic! Saturday morning before having to leave I'd just put on Nick Drake and close my eyes and drink tea. I thought about being some kind of consultant after, I felt like I learned so much and had this great library and knew what to do but I just couldn't handle it any more. It's weird to work hard to try to become an expert in something and then move to a different career.

that's pretty anxious!!

i am very good at talking people who want me to DJ their wedding out of it, as 9 times out of 10 i know that what they think they want is just not what they will want on the day when the reality of the situation kicks in. there is almost no gig worse than a really tough wedding.