why does everyone hate "wade in the water?"

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Roy · #91 Post by **Roy** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:19 pm

Doberman wrote:I've NEVER heard anyone complain about "Wade in the Water," "Nighttrain," or any of the other popular songs that you seem to harp about. All I've ever seen when I (or any of the other DJ's in town) plays these songs, is a dance floor packed full of people. I've also never seen (other than a very select uptight anal few who complain about everything) people walking around complaining about a song for 10 minutes afterwards.

If you're playing to a small handful of people who disdain the "popular" songs on some sorta misguided principle, you're definately playing to the wrong people. If you're building your sets hoping that somebody will ask you to DJ a big event or invite you to an out-of-town exchange, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

Play what the majority of the crowd wants to dance to. Challenge them with some new and esoteric stuff in the set. Keep to your own vibe. And screw the handful of complainers.

I've certainly heard a lot of complaints about Wade in the Water.

I think Nighttrain is an intersting case, because most dancers still like that song, but a certain unnamed organizer walked up to me after playing a Duke Ellington version and said "don't you know we hate that song". When he said "we" I am assuming him and his close friends and since that group makes decisions on who DJ's I stopped playing it. I by no means meant to imply that was a poor choice in all occasions but it is when a certain crowd is in the house whether you know or like to admit it or not.

Roy · #92 Post by **Roy** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:22 pm

Doberman wrote: I've also never seen (other than a very select uptight anal few who complain about everything) people walking around complaining about a song for 10 minutes afterwards.

i have only seen it once, but man were people pissed. Many people not just a few. It was early in the after hours night at hot house On the Friday night of WCLX2.

Doberman · #93 Post by **Doberman** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:25 pm

As I pretty much said, when you've got 2 or 3 (maybe) people complaining about "Wade in the Water" and 60 people on the dance floor while it's playing ... I'll keep playing it. No matter who those 2 or 3 are.

Doberman · #94 Post by **Doberman** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:29 pm

Roy wrote:
Doberman wrote: I've also never seen (other than a very select uptight anal few who complain about everything) people walking around complaining about a song for 10 minutes afterwards.

i have only seen it once, but man were people pissed. Many people not just a few. It was early in the after hours night at hot house On the Friday night of WCLX2.

Heh. Did people even dance that night? All I remember was the booze that we snuck in.

Screw 'em. Late night at an exchange is exactly where you can get away with playing weird crap or stuff like "Mambo #5" that everyone will LOVE to hear because they're being ironic.

Roy · #95 Post by **Roy** » Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:39 pm

I DJ to make people happy. I am exceedingly disturbed by the fact that certain organizers/promoters pay more attention to themselves and their friends being happy and this takes precedence over the entire dance floor being happy. This happens both locally in Chicago and at some exchanges.

It really bothers me when DJ's play to other DJ's or promoters/organizers and not the overall crowd. This is easy to distinguish when entire set styles change when certain other people are at the same place. There has been an occasion where somenoe is in the house has given me an idea for a set or a forgotten song, sometimes if I know someone loves a certain song I will play it, but I would not have entire evenings based on certain people being in the house while ignoring the core of the crowd.

This has really bohtered me and the past couple of weeks I actually was in the mind set to play only to the decision makers, but I have now gone back and realized my old way of playing to the core crowd first it the best way to do things.

thecheeta · #96 Post by **thecheeta** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 2:30 pm

JesseMiner wrote:This past weekend at the NYLHO, Rayned and I played "Lucas With The Lid Off" to end the Invitational Jack and Jill all-skate, and a few people came up asking what it was!

At KCLX I actually prepared a beat-matched mix of Lucas with the Lid Off and When Buddha Smiles from Fletch Henderson. They aren't far off in BPM's... only about 10 BPMs give or take, so beat-matching was pretty easy. It was a huge hit. In the middle of a bluesy after hours, there was a jam circle with 3 couples. It was great. When it blended from LwtLO to WBS, the whole floor was packed.

And yeah, afterwards, there were definitely people that asked what it was.