Complain about my DJing

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Lawrence · #16 Post by **Lawrence** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:08 am

Surreal wrote:Which once again rolls back to the tongue-in-cheek thing. Geez, I was just trying to make a dumb joke. I am the last person anyone should be taking advice from.

No one but you has their tongue in their cheek?

Surreal · #17 Post by **Surreal** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:52 am

Who the heck knows. Message boards aren't exactly the most conducive places for sarcasm (or humour, or emotion, etc etc blah).

Lawrence · #18 Post by **Lawrence** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:27 pm

Surreal wrote:Who the heck knows. Message boards aren't exactly the most conducive places for sarcasm (or humour, or emotion, etc etc blah).

Exactly. I really didn't mean any offense. Just pointing something out.

falty411 · #19 Post by **falty411** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:50 pm

Lawrence wrote:
Surreal wrote:Who the heck knows. Message boards aren't exactly the most conducive places for sarcasm (or humour, or emotion, etc etc blah).
Exactly. Unlike some twig boys who vent their petty frustrations behind the comfort and safety of a keyboard in unsolicited ad hominum, personal attacks, I really didn't mean any offense. Just pointing something out.

First of all if you are going to use Latin, at least spell it right, its ad hominem.

Secondly, if what you are referring to was Freddie's last post, he attacked your advice and not your character, so I fail to see how it is an ad hominem. If you aren't talking about that and simply venting your petty frustrations by using an ad hominem, then I respectfully withdraw my comment.

Toon Town Dave · #20 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:17 pm

Maybe the advice is the character? </joke>

Certainly situations are different. To respond to the serious part in Surreal's reply, it's impossible to keep everyone happy all the time. There will always be certain tunes that certain individuals just hate for whatever their personal reason. Similarly, some people get really attached to their favorite tunes and think those tunes should be played at every dance.

Pandering to those situations means ignoring the many to satisfy the few. In the most extreme situation, consider a Ballroom dancer who doesn't like swing (jazz) music and was only at the Swing dance because there was no Ballroom dance that night? We used to have that situation, pandering to the minority ended up in exactly the scenario you described where everyone is offended equally. Swing dancers stopped coming because the swing music wasn't good enough and the music was never good enough to attract ballroom dancers.

As I always say, my goal is to keep most of the room happy most of the time. It's proven successful for me. If you're playing a swing dance, play good swing music. While I don't like overplaying safe stuff and I try really hard not to, they are safe songs for a reason. Don't go off into left field because you are getting tired of the music. As a DJ and a dancer, you probably hear the stuff way more than those who just dance. Still try new stuff stuff but keep the experimentation to a minimum.

kitkat · #21 Post by **kitkat** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:02 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:consider a Ballroom dancer who doesn't like swing (jazz) music and was only at the Swing dance because there was no Ballroom dance that night? We used to have that situation...Swing dancers stopped coming because the swing music wasn't good enough and the music was never good enough to attract ballroom dancers.

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

Surreal · #22 Post by **Surreal** » Wed May 28, 2008 4:51 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:Similarly, some people get really attached to their favorite tunes and think those tunes should be played at every dance.

I have developed intense hatred for certain songs specifically due to overly "enthusiastic" requests from the same people over and over...

And don't you just hate when dancers demand songs rather than request them? I've even had some mess around with my computer (and change my playlist to put in their favourite) when I get up for a dance. Or some will just glare at the screen scrutinizing the playlist.

Toon Town Dave · #23 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Wed May 28, 2008 8:47 pm

Surreal wrote:I have developed intense hatred for certain songs specifically due to overly "enthusiastic" requests from the same people over and over...

The way I would handle those requests (assuming the music is something I might play anyway) is to be honest and say something like, "maybe another time, I want to give it a break so people don't get tired of it since I already played it last week". It's fair and honest, if someone is that spoiled they won't accept that answer, then I'm fine if they sulk about it. Really it's about putting the needs of the audience over any single individual.

As for the people fiddling with your laptop, I've never heard of that before. Perhaps it's a good reason not to leave a playlist on and go dancing.

Surreal · #24 Post by **Surreal** » Wed May 28, 2008 10:53 pm

Bah, I'm a lazy dj. I admit that. I'll prep for a set and have a bunch of songs set aside that may or may not have some subthemes connecting them, or maybe I just haven't played them in a while. I treat this as my notepad as I shuffle things about, adding (never removing) songs and rearranging as I go, based on how I interpret the floor and varying for tempo, vocals, mood, etc.

I rarely start with a blank list. I do very poorly and my brain freezes up; I can't think "I want something that sounds like XYZ" and come up with a song to match. What I do is scan through my prepped list until something catches my eye and I think "hey, that'll work", or triggers a memory to search for something else. As a song is playing, I generally set the next two and have my one or two dances. Then I'm back at the computer and repeat the process. In the event I get distracted (conversation, girls, etc), then at least there's music in the list to keep going. By the end of my set I've maybe used half of my prepped list and added a few more which didn't get played, which I snip and put into a new list to use for next time.

Regardless of all my ramblings, that still gives no one the right to touch my computer. I've even had people plug in usb drives and try to copy music without asking (and my computer has the rather odd habit of doubling the tempo when anything is plugged into a usb port while it's playing music).

Lawrence · #25 Post by **Lawrence** » Wed May 28, 2008 10:56 pm

[Never mind]

Mr Awesomer · #26 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:05 pm

Over the line buddy.
Drop the personal attacks Lawrence.

Surreal · #27 Post by **Surreal** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:29 pm

I assumed they were just being sarcastic and poking fun at each other...

Lawrence · #28 Post by **Lawrence** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:34 pm

Yes, it was over the line.

Mr Awesomer · #29 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:44 pm

Your post is the only one to outright resort to name calling, hence why I called it out.

Stop it.

Sounds like others have been warned as well by others, so let's just get back to bitching about Swifty's DJing.

#30 Post by **JesseMiner** » Thu May 29, 2008 9:40 am

Reuben, thank you for posting. Fredo, Lawrence and Mike (and others): we are all adults here, so please act like it and keep it civil. I understand that we all can get quite passionate about our love for swinging music, but let's not resort to name calling and personal attacks and please keep the discussions constructive and productive.

Carry on...

And on topic, I have no complaints about Swifty's DJing. He's super, thanks for asking!

Jesse Miner
SwingDJs Administrator