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Soul Good Top 10 (November 2004) | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Hot Potatos (none / 0) (#17)
by crispian on Sun Dec 5th, 2004 at 01:00:19 PM CST
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That's a really interesting point Jon. I've seen many, many tunes which Bill has really enjoyed and rinsed knowing that at some point these tunes are going to hit big. It's enjoyable to me to see a crowd's reaction to a tune which has that appeal, but they don't yet know what it is.

My personal opinion is that once these tunes hit, you shouldn't play them anymore. Once every DJ knows that they work, there's just no point. All you're going to end up doing is rinsing someone out, or getting rinsed yourself. Like last night, someone played 'Flashdance' right before Bill's set. Then the next guy dropped it straight afterwards. Now should the second guy have been hanging around two hours before his set to make sure nobody played his tunes? Probably not. But should he have been able to guess that someone's already played one of the biggest tunes?

In my opinion there's two areas of focus for DJs in terms of picking tunes - concentrating on what's big now and watching what's coming in next and getting prepared. In reality every DJ has elements of both, and it's up to you to work out what your own ratio is. Just don't be surprised when you drop 'The BOMB record'(tm) and get a strange reaction from the crowd - they may have just heard it an hour ago.

[ Parent ]

Top Choons of 2004 (none / 0) (#18)
by bill fragos on Sun Dec 5th, 2004 at 03:49:46 PM CST
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By the way, this is probably a good opportunity to let you know that soon on SoulGood there's going to be a top 30 or so choons of 2004 special. I am sure "Lola's Theme" will be in there, as will "Flashdance". There'll be a post soon giving more details.

As for playing choons that have become "popular" my attitude is if you actually still like playing that track and the crowd will enjoy it then play it. The concern for me is when one doesn't really enjoy the track but plays it anyway as it is a surebet to get a reaction.

The following quote cited in the SoulGood April 2004 chart may assist and is on point:
"For every cheesy commercial DJ who's happy to play what the record pluggers send him, who charts records he doesn't like just so he stays on the mailing list, who plays records he hates because everyone else is playing them, and who has no problem with a club giving him 'guidelines' on what and what not to play, there's another DJ who loves music, who searches out and buys records rather than just playing promotional freebies, who develops his own style, who throws his own parties, who generates his own following, who creates new music".

--Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History Of The Disc Jockey by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (Grove Press New York) pg 408

Oh and I'm still waiting for DB to withdraw his rebuttal that people are beyond salvation.... From my experiences with people I don't believe it to be true at all. I am happy to explain why, but I don't think it is necessary in light of my above posts.

[ Parent ]

Aye and Nay and Yay. (none / 0) (#19)
by Ben James on Sun Dec 5th, 2004 at 04:09:02 PM CST
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Aye : As I said earlier I agree, people are not beyond salvation. From what I can gather Bill had listeners asking for it...leading to Soul Generation.

Nay : As for the quote from Last Night A DJ Saved My Life re: the two different DJs contrasted in the quote - do you think for every of the former kind of DJ theres equal numbers of the latter? I would have thought there's quite a few more of the former DJs and less of the latter DJs.

Yay : "As for playing choons that have become "popular" my attitude is if you actually still like playing that track and the crowd will enjoy it then play it."

I like that comment and attitude, and I don't think you can really fault this point.

Thoughts?

Ben James.

[ Parent ]

QUITE (none / 0) (#20)
by Jon Whiley on Sun Dec 5th, 2004 at 08:45:32 PM CST
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Yes I think people can be 'helped', I prefer to describe it as showing them what they don't know they already like, or giving them another format that they can relate to more easily.

The quote from 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life' (wow, someone else has this?!) I think aims to illustrate the two forms of DJ, as opposed to suggesting a 50/50 split. That said, I agree, there must be far more of the former. If only for the fact that there is a much larger audience to satisfy (or make money from, says the cynic in me). After all, 'popular' music is just that.

JW

[ Parent ]

Soul Good Top 10 (November 2004) | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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