SwingDJs

where do you draw the line between playing great music and what the scene wants?

The music I play is the intersection of what I consider good music and what the audience will dance to.

Pretty simple, I will no play music I do not like and I will not play anything I don't believe the audience will dance to.

I think the scene always wants great music, it's just that different people have different ideas about what constitutes great music.

Great music can mean:
- technical mastery of instruments
- catchy melody
- really clear beats
- great dynamics
- clear recordings
- vocals you can sing along to
- emotionally powerful
- compositionally sophisticated
- nice pulse
etc

Personally I start with the type of music that most makes me want to move, and then make concessions towards what I know other people particularly enjoy, without compromising to the extent of playing music I would not want to move to.

Agree on both counts. These days, I take fewer gig's where I have to compromise. I am very grateful that after starting the first Lindy dance in Philly and then giving it to someone else I am now the house DJ at a new dance that I didn't have to start.

On the other hand, the other weekly dance has gone more and more vintage/bal because of who shows up, so it was a nice change getting to play completely different music for those guys. As a DJ, I don't consider it that much of a compromise since I like listening to music I wouldn't want to dance to.

Greg Avakian wrote:As a DJ, I don't consider it that much of a compromise since I like listening to music I wouldn't want to dance to.

Excellent point, and my thoughts, exactly. Moreover, if I played only the music *I* wanted for dancing, I would get bored much more easily. Indeed, I consciously AVOID playing my favorite songs so as to not ruin a song by overplaying it.

Come to think of it, I NEVER play songs that I dislike. I don't even carry them: in part so I can simply decline a request for "Zoot Suit Riot" because "Oh, darn, I forgot it at home." But I frequently play songs that I don't consider my favorite, ideal dancing music. And many times doing so helps develop (push) my own preferences.

The point is, though, that my musical tastes are (and my library is) broad enough to encompass tens of thousands of songs, including vintage swing era big band, vintage jump blues, mainstream jazz (50s-60s small group), "groove" jazz, electric blues, modern blues, modern Big Band, Neo Swing (yes, most definitely, there IS good Neo Swing out there), Westie Soul, Funk, Rock, and even Country. I suspect that variety is more than enough to fill an hour or two time slot from almost any vantage point. To answer the original question, if I don't have exactly the crap that "they want," I can come close enough with music that I do enjoy.