Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

Everything about the swinging music we love to DJ

Moderators: Mr Awesomer, JesseMiner, CafeSavoy

Message
Author
User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#1 Post by trev » Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:53 pm

I love this forum. It's a great place to truly nerd-out on swing music and DJing for dancers - and for those conversations to remain as a valuable archive for others to discover at a later date.

But I feel like it's been a little quiet lately (with the exception of this guy).

From what I can tell, around the world lindy hop is still growing in popularity and new people are discovering the dance and music we love all the time, so where has all the conversation gone?

Is it all on Facebook?
Twitter?
Reddit?
Hey Mr Jesse podcast/feedback
Youtube comments?
Various blogs?

None of those seem particularly dominant. Has it just fragmented so heavily that there's no longer one single strong destination?

Do communities no longer value Swing DJing as a skill or need?

Does easy access to music and music discovery tools online (legal or otherwise) mean that finding music is no longer a problem that needs solving? Do we know everything already?

Apologies for all the questions. I'm missing the community aspect of Swing DJing and would love to see something like this forum become really active again. Would appreciate your thoughts (if anyone is reading this!)

russell
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2003 8:39 pm
Location: Canberra, Australia

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#2 Post by russell » Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:01 pm

A while since I have been here - I had to remember my username. I have not been so active as a lindy hop DJ in recent years due to moving cities and child responsibilities. Doing more WCS and blues DJing. Agreed that discussion is more fragmented between the sources listed. I blame Facebook as the main social interaction :)

lipi
Posts: 789
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:26 pm
Location: menlo park

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#3 Post by lipi » Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:26 am

We can start a flame war. Reuben and Lawrence had some good ones. Want me to engage the guy advertising his CD whom I already annoyed once? He seems game.

User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#4 Post by trev » Thu Jan 29, 2015 5:33 am

lipi wrote:Want me to engage the guy advertising his CD whom I already annoyed once? He seems game.
Worth a try ;)

lipi
Posts: 789
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:26 pm
Location: menlo park

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#5 Post by lipi » Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:28 pm

You're like that friend who is all "yeah, man, I bet you can totally jump from the roof into the pool--it's easy, man, just do it!".

I've referred a bunch of people who expressed interest in DJ'ing to swingdjs.com, but none of them seem to have ended up posting. I think it's not a simple place to navigate. What the hell do you start reading if you're just starting out? Maybe we need some "start here!" hot links? A few newbie FAQ's peppered with links to interesting threads?

User avatar
JesseMiner
Posts: 1034
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2002 5:36 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact:

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#6 Post by JesseMiner » Sat Jan 31, 2015 5:01 pm

Stand-alone discussion boards certainly seem to be a dying breed. I think it's the medium, not the subject matter. From my perspective, it seems like most discussions have shifted to and are scattered across Facebook (and other social media sites?) and are next to impossible to refer back to. I think people like the ease of communicating in that environment, even if the sacrifice is loss of a searchable resource for future reference.

I am personally all ears if any of you have great ideas for how to breathe new life into our wonderful community.

Jesse

User avatar
Jose Tello
Posts: 91
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:38 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#7 Post by Jose Tello » Sat Jan 31, 2015 7:59 pm

I've been wondering the same thing in the past few months. Whether or not interest is dwindling, I mean.
Perhaps the forum can be laid out in a different way? New website with interactive features like artist recommendations? Song of the week? Recent setlists?

I'm just throwing around ideas here. Regardless, it would be nice to have a shinier website :wink:
But I know that involves both time & money.

Anyway, I still lurk semi-frequently.

straycat
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:11 am
Location: Durham, UK

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#8 Post by straycat » Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:17 pm

Tricky.

I've noticed that a few dance-related forums that I've frequented over the years seem a lot less active. I agree with Jesse that FaceBook has taken its toll, even though its discussion facilities are ... pretty dire, imo.

For my own part - I've never been a major contributor, I do lurk still, but the main reason for my absence is time and headspace. Life has just become busier and busier, and it's become difficult right now to keep up with my own collecting, research, blog and so on.

That said, I'd love to see the forum more active again - I just don't have any real concrete ideas on how that can happen - except by getting off my backside a little and contributing more myself :?.

User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#9 Post by trev » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:18 pm

I get that other platforms are getting the share of attention - that makes sense. I see lots of dance clips getting shared and discussions on social issues around dancing on Facebook quite frequently: the discussion happens where the people already are, rather than them choosing to seek out material to read (or watch) from a single location.

I think there is still a place for a dedicated site that serves a niche interest. The challenge is getting an active audience who want prioritise their attention enough to make it a worthwhile destination.

I'll think some more on this.

SiMonster
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:37 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#10 Post by SiMonster » Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:18 am

I haven't been very active in this community before. My main problem is, that I consider myself only half a swing DJ.
I mean: I have a swing music collection (unfortunately I made the mistake to switch to Spotify :shock: ) but I don't have neither the fancy equipment nor the great software to seriously start DJing and I don't really know where to start... :?

User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#11 Post by trev » Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:08 am

SiMonster wrote: but I don't have neither the fancy equipment nor the great software to seriously start DJing and I don't really know where to start... :?
Let me be the first to say that you don't actually need any fancy equipment, just a bit knowledge and enthusiasm for swing music. I have been DJing for 10 years using little more than a laptop and iTunes.

But what you say makes me think that a "beginners' guide" or "FAQ" would be a useful edition.

SiMonster
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:37 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#12 Post by SiMonster » Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:05 am

That would be awesome!

Currently, my biggest issue is, that I switched to Spotify. Here I'm still not able to display BPM and it lacks the modification possibilities I need (comment, rate, tag and so on). Additionally all the music will be gone, once I stop my subscription which kind of keeps me from really investing into it. I really need to change this model, so that i OWN the music...

What also would be great is, to have a tool, where you can pre-listen your songs before playing them. Yes: A Swing DJ should know ALL his tunes, but still: Sometimes you - or at least I - don't...

I subscribed to the Swing DJ Resources newsletter which is great, but IMO is great, if you are already DJing and want to improve...

nonamejiver
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:08 pm

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#13 Post by nonamejiver » Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:19 pm

Build it Trev and they will come. Three keys:

(1) Set up a facebook page everyone may access.
(2) Broaden the base to appeal to DJs and dancers interested in swing music.
(3) Provide interesting content which often elicits input from readers.

How do you achieve #3? There are many ways but I'll focus on one: polling. You're able to embed polls in facebook. Simple example: put up a poll of two versions of a song and ask dancers which one they prefer to dance to. You could also have a meta poll at the same time where you ask DJs to vote on which one they think will win (wait to display results of each poll). You could set up song knock-out tournaments as well in this manner. Not every post you make has to be overlap dancers and DJs. There could be some questions/polls directed exclusively at DJs.

I would have done this years ago but I prefer to remain anonymous and people are just not receptive to this type of endeavor by some guy behind the curtain. I recommend maybe 3 or 4 DJs (US, Europe, Australia represented?) managing the page. It may not be that difficult to generate content if you solicit input from readers similar to Bugs QOD. Of course, this approach is different from anyone being able to create a topic at any time like here.

So when will you have this ready Trev? :wink: ;)

User avatar
trev
Posts: 736
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Perth, Australia

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#14 Post by trev » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:41 pm

You may be right nonamejiver, and it would be easy to set one up, but there seems to be a lot of these kinds of pages and groups already. None of them really have any traction, despite sizeable memberships, and I'm not sure an emphasis on polls is the fix.

Still thinking about this...

SiMonster
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:37 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Where are the swing DJ discussions these days?

#15 Post by SiMonster » Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:50 am

And as you say, trev: There already are loads of similar pages and I joined a few. But I don't read them anymore and - at least for me - it's always the same reason:
Updates happen very irregular and there are a lot of posts who are not really relevant for me.
Speaking from a beginners view, maybe something in Q&A form would be really helpful to me, like:

What hardware do I need, if I want to DJ?
* Notebook
* Cables
* Optional: External audio card

Where can I get music?
* here
* there

How can I manage my library?
* software A
* software B

Locked