Familiar vs. unfamiliar music?

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main_stem
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#31 Post by main_stem » Sat Mar 13, 2004 1:34 pm

djstarr wrote:
I struggle with what is "new" since I'm still a relative beginner as far as DJ'ing and Seattle has people who have danced longer than I have [6 years] and know music really well as well as having a broad range of musical tastes.

I found out last night that my favorite version of 'Sent for you Yesterday' [Count Basie w/Mills Bros.] is owned by at least 2 dj's in Seattle who have DJ'ed a long time -- they just don't play that song anymore - although it was new to me.

And I played Mack the Knife from Ella/Duke Cote D'Azur --- a new CD for me, and a great version of the song; one of my friends comes up into the booth and sings all the solos along with Ella ---- so, ok even though that's the first time I spun it, some people know it. It's a great song however, so I'm going to keep playing it as one of my "new" songs for awhile.

Both those songs you've mentioned have been in my book long before I think most peopel in Seattle were dancing, let alone DJing. Which brings up another topic that the longer you DJ the more likely you are to forget about the music you do have. There have been a number of instances where I've heard a DJ spin a song and when I ask I discover it is something already in my book, just long forgotten. LOL In that case the song becomes new to me again.


-Kevin
"We called it music."
— Eddie Condon

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djstarr
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#32 Post by djstarr » Sat Mar 13, 2004 7:11 pm

yeah - I was so proud of tracking down the Count Basie/Mills Bros. CD and that song is on my top ten list. I missed the first part of Adam's set on Weds and he had left a set list - the first song was "Sent for you Yesterday" - of course, I didn't ask him what version he played since I assumed that he would never have my *special* version. I laughed my ass off when he said both of you guys have it.

lipi
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#33 Post by lipi » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:22 pm

don't mean to revive an old thread, but for archive completeness:

swingtalk.com has a poll going right now on familiar vs. new music. "50/50" and "mostly songs i haven't danced to before" are in the lead with 6/12 and 5/12 votes, respectively.

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Bob the Builder
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#34 Post by Bob the Builder » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:04 pm

This is always an interesting one.
I really love to spin as much unheard music as I can, but as a DJ, who is DJing to the crowd, you are in reality limited by what the dancers on the night want.
Sometimes they are great, and will accept a load of new material, and other times they just want familiar titles.
As much as I would like to play 50% new material, I wouldn’t think I get close to that. Much of the problem is that many of the dancers I spin to are Beginners. Now I know there are other events that if I was DJing at more regularly that I’d get 50% easily.

Brian
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JohnDyer
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#35 Post by JohnDyer » Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:24 am

lipi wrote:don't mean to revive an old thread, but for archive completeness:

swingtalk.com has a poll going right now on familiar vs. new music. "50/50" and "mostly songs i haven't danced to before" are in the lead with 6/12 and 5/12 votes, respectively.
The problem with polls is that you'll get the vocal few representing a much larger group of people. As a whole, I think the more advanced dancers like more new stuff to challenge them, and the beg-int dancers like to hear more familiar songs. Of course you have to compare apples with apples. If you pit an awesome familiar song against a so-so new song, what do you think the outcome would be?
John Dyer, Denver CO

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CafeSavoy
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#36 Post by CafeSavoy » Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:43 am

JohnDyer wrote: The problem with polls is that you'll get the vocal few representing a much larger group of people. As a whole, I think the more advanced dancers like more new stuff to challenge them, and the beg-int dancers like to hear more familiar songs. Of course you have to compare apples with apples. If you pit an awesome familiar song against a so-so new song, what do you think the outcome would be?
Good points. Another major problem with new music is that it's untested. Granted we all have great taste and people should like what we think is good, but sometimes audience reactions vary to new songs. Also songs may sound very different when played at a dance then they do when played over headphones or on home stereos. It would be hard to play all new music and get consistent audience response. BtheB idea of trying to play 50% new is probably more workable. But that's still a lot of songs to acquire and process. And even more so if you are djing weekly. If you are doing one three hour set weekly that means anywhere from 20 to 40 new songs a week.

Also how are we defining new? Is it new to you, new to the audience, new versions of old songs, completely new songs, new to your playlist, new artists, new to the djs in the room, or some other criteria? It's a tougher standard for us since our music covers 80+ years of jazz. Also our perceptions of new might be a little off since we listen to music so much. A song could go from undiscovered to overplayed and only you have heard it. Or you could discover this hot new song and find that it's overplayed in some other part of the country.

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