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So at my school, and schools around me, there are usually two groups at dances: The group that grinds the whole dance, and the group that actually dances. the Grinding group has complained about there not being enough grinding songs, and the other group has complained about there being too many. My question is: Is there any style of music that can keep both parties happy? Songs that aren't top-40 type music, but also not slow rap.
 
Posté Wed 19 Feb 14 @ 9:59 pm
trap
 
Okay then. Which artists do you like?
 
The one thing I've learned in all these years, is to please the ones that are paying me. I hate to say this because I was a kid, and did not want to hear what my teachers wanted us to hear. This has gone on since the beginning of time. However, as entertainers, we need to focus on one thing, repeat business. These kids are not paying you. The school is. I would consult with the people in charge, because they will be in charge next year, and so on. The kids that you pissed off, will be gone. Now, you can put up a fight, as I do now, even in clubs. However, there is a bottom line, and that is me getting paid, over and over again. I belong to the School Dance Network, and use that to get into schools. Let's face it, the music that is out there is crap. I'm not saying this as a old man, but as a DJ that has played in each of the last 5 decades. Most schools will not tolerate grinding, so that let's me off the hook. I only play clean edits, that the School Dance Network has approved. They listen to all the music for me. I only use ambient, or some You tube stupid stuff, because the videos are disgusting (the same videos I play in clubs). So my advise to you, consult the teachers that are hiring you.
 
actually if you're playing highschools you probably should follow AMAHM's advice.. Trap is more for getting drunk a shaking your ass. They can do that at the after party when the teachers are no longer responsible.
 
The schools in my area are actually really relaxed in regards to to grinding. And specifically for my school, the dances are organized by grades (Sophomores plan Winter ball, Juniors plan Prom, etc etc.) and the person who's hiring the DJ usually says "Try to play less of this, more of this, and play these specific songs, other than that go for whatever". I'm not 100% sure what the procedure is for other shcools.

And the surrounding schools have what I call "grind-fests" (I think you can guess how many people grind at their dances)

So on that note,

Do you have any suggestions regarding trap artists?

I'm looking for artists that produce music somewhat similar to Nicky Romero's Symphonica (BARE Remix), but others are fine as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DSPownjfh0
 
I am sure that there is a trap mix of EVERYTHING. I could literally mix anything at 70bpm or 140 bpm, and be done. Where do you get your music? There are top 10, 20, 30, and up charts everywhere.
 
I don't know enough about trap... I have only been to a couple of club nights where it was playing they were fun nights! Plenty of grinding and dancing due to the wide range of drum patterns used and big drops. I would start at listening to a few mixcloud mixes and get the track listings from there. R.L. Grimes is pretty good though and probably a good place to start.
 
xNS5x wrote :
So at my school, and schools around me, there are usually two groups at dances: The group that grinds the whole dance, and the group that actually dances. the Grinding group has complained about there not being enough grinding songs, and the other group has complained about there being too many. My question is: Is there any style of music that can keep both parties happy? Songs that aren't top-40 type music, but also not slow rap.


You smile at them and tell them they need to go to the bathroom and pop their zits..

Seriously though, its hard to please everyone. The real question is what kinda music does the other group want?

Depending on that type of music you could balance out your night with a simple plan, bounce between the two 30 minutes of hard core people rubbing their junk on each other. And 30 minutes of what ever non rubbing junk music the other group wants. Wear out one group wear out the other and repeat. Probably how I would go about it, Again the big question is what type of music does the non grinding music does the other group want? Are you talking about slow dance for the other group?
 
 
djmike001 wrote :

You smile at them and tell them they need to go to the bathroom and pop their zits..


Okay first of all that comment is completely unnecessary.

djmike001 wrote :

Seriously though, its hard to please everyone. The real question is what kinda music does the other group want?

Depending on that type of music you could balance out your night with a simple plan, bounce between the two 30 minutes of hard core people rubbing their junk on each other. And 30 minutes of what ever non rubbing junk music the other group wants. Wear out one group wear out the other and repeat. Probably how I would go about it, Again the big question is what type of music does the non grinding music does the other group want? Are you talking about slow dance for the other group?


Not slow dance songs. The other group would prefer anything besides slow rap. I personally don't like dancing to a song with some guy bragging his ass off about how many girls he's banged, getting drunk and driving, doing drugs, shooting people, etc.

I guess no dubstep as well. I mean, who knows how to dance to dupstep? Thrashing on the ground is an option, otherwise I don't know.
 
I wouldn't say no dubstep, just don't play the extreme stuff. The same for trap music, There's different types you just have to find that happy medium.

Having never meet or heard you play it kinda sounds like you need to stay in the studio and practice some more. Mixing those styles together isn't hard, in fact they all kinda go together. You just need work on putting them together it sounds like. And by no means am I trying to be disrespectful.
 
beatbreaker1 wrote :
I wouldn't say no dubstep, just don't play the extreme stuff. The same for trap music, There's different types you just have to find that happy medium.

Having never meet or heard you play it kinda sounds like you need to stay in the studio and practice some more. Mixing those styles together isn't hard, in fact they all kinda go together. You just need work on putting them together it sounds like. And by no means am I trying to be disrespectful.


Hm. Good point.

And yeah, I still need a lot of practice XD

Thanks man!
 
xNS5x wrote :
djmike001 wrote :

You smile at them and tell them they need to go to the bathroom and pop their zits..


Okay first of all that comment is completely unnecessary.




What you can't take a joke? And your dealing with High school kids? O.o Oh boy.

Bounce between what the two groups want.

*****I have an idea, you should take a note pad with about 3-10 pens because people like to steal pens. Have them write down their song requests for you. Or write them down yourself, this will give you an idea what this specific crowd wants to hear. It will be helpful for you when you go home and practice and possibly helpful for you in the future. *****

Are you playing the FCC clean edits? If not you might want to so no uber religious parent blows a gasket on you later for subjecting their kid to sin, and all upset because lil suzzie never heard the F word before, and they are crazy upset because she has turrets and won't stop saying the F word all because of music she heard you play at her school event.

While at home practicing find other music that these zip popping kiddos might like based off their requests. (joke HA HA funny not to you though) Before you know it you will be a Pleasing DJ the Zit popping populous at sanctioned school events!

I would follow the money trail if i was you.. Its not about what you like, its about what the client likes who is paying you... So if your client likes the music that talks about banging hoes, capping their brother in the bumm, and drag racing ice cream paint jobed lambos down broadway, and it all falls under the guidelines of the venue your at.. suck it up and play it.

To dance to Dub step you need a tazer to zap yourself with frequently through out the night.

the only helpful part I added to this conversation is probably between the *****
 
djmike001 wrote :

What you can't take a joke? And your dealing with High school kids? O.o Oh boy.


What may seem funny to you may not be to others. I have acne. I don't think it's funny. It's a pain in the face.


djmike001 wrote :


I have an idea, you should take a note pad with about 3-10 pens because people like to steal pens. Have them write down their song requests for you. Or write them down yourself, this will give you an idea what this specific crowd wants to hear. It will be helpful for you when you go home and practice and possibly helpful for you in the future.



The "usual DJ" (the sad thing is, he plays off of Youtube), doesn't take requests. Last dance he did, first hour and a half was top 40's, next hour and a half was slow rap.

Thanks for the advice.

Specifically at my school, there's a definite separation between the grinders/regular dancers. With other schools, the normal dancers are the minority.
 
xNS5x wrote :
djmike001 wrote :

What you can't take a joke? And your dealing with High school kids? O.o Oh boy.


What may seem funny to you may not be to others. I have acne. I don't think it's funny. It's a pain in the face.


djmike001 wrote :


I have an idea, you should take a note pad with about 3-10 pens because people like to steal pens. Have them write down their song requests for you. Or write them down yourself, this will give you an idea what this specific crowd wants to hear. It will be helpful for you when you go home and practice and possibly helpful for you in the future.



The "usual DJ" (the sad thing is, he plays off of Youtube), doesn't take requests. Last dance he did, first hour and a half was top 40's, next hour and a half was slow rap.

Thanks for the advice.

Specifically at my school, there's a definite separation between the grinders/regular dancers. With other schools, the normal dancers are the minority.

Oh well Yes acne can be a problem, I now actually feel bad.

Well taking requests there is a fine line. Just because you take requests doesn't mean you have to take everyone's request, you have to use your judgement for the over all setting of the night. say if someone asked for Evanescene my immortal, I probably would be not likely to play this song, unless there was a darn good reason for something like that and not because some rich kid slipped you a 100.00 bill either.

This is almost how I would proceed with a High School dance, I would treat it as if I was Djing a singles night, I will get to this later.

Now in your case, you have the local radio stations, granted more and more young people are using apps like pandora, the thing is they are still cruizing in their cars listening to the radio most likely. Listening to what has a good beat and what you think is either a grindable and or danceable, this is where a pad of paper will be helpful write down the songs as they come on the radio in your local area. Then use a symbol such as G for grinding and D for danceable. now if you don't know what the song is that is on the radio an app like sound hound can be your friend as well. So keep your smart phone handy. As it seems the radio does less and less telling the world what song they are playing or just played etc.

Not sure where you are in the US but some songs just are not popular depending on where you are at. Say on the east cost something might be a banger there now , but it hasn't really caught on in the mid west yet or west coast yet. So the radio can be a really good tool for you as well.

Second brush up on old school staples, Hate to say it but songs like usher yeah are still recognizable with todays youth, So this doesn't mean play old school songs all night long introduce them occasionally and spareingly in your mix. You could also go above and beyond at you gig find a song like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acwDCINHpgQ Bikers shuffle, that no one might have heard before that has an easy dance moves to it. with a wireless mic you can demonstrate how to do that dance. Inject them with something new and fun, It seems like you have a lot of room to wiggle at your event.

What I meant by singles night is the school dance there are probably single people there that are hooking up, and as well as couples that have been together for a while. So you really can move your crowd on a huge roller coaster of different parts of the night. Say even a few slow dances through out the night for those who have been together for awhile. This is where a mic will be important to your event, so you can be the EMCEE and bring those people to the dance floor for say two slow jams... say something cute like "guys you have all shown your girl you can grind, now show them you can be sweet and gentle with it too" bit..

Lastly when your up doing your DJ thing make sure you appear like you are having the time of your life. Even if you think you are up there looking stupid, it doesn't matter, the crowd feeds off of it. Also, Make sure to find out if the High School dance has a theme to the it or not as well, Most all of the high school dances my school put on back in the day had a theme, that carried the night or a portion of the night at the least. Such as Hawian, office hoes and ceo's, thugs and farmers, etc, wait those might have been house parties with booze. I don't remember those years are a little hazy to me.

Sorry about the acne thing that does truly suck.

 
Every one should take request it always gives you general idea of what the crowd will like. AND yes it will be a mix because all school dances are mixed genres of music. Then it is up to the DJ to sort through the request to see what will work and what will not. I used to use pen and paper, but now i use an old laptop with notepad program that i connect a monitor and a wireless keyboard. The monitor faces me the laptop faces the crowd. If i am on a stage i will use a long VGA cable to connect the monitor to the laptop so the monitor can reach my table and i place the laptop at the edge of the stage. What is the wireless keyboard for well it is so i can delete the curse words which some smart kid thinks he or she writes thinking they are being funny. It also allows me to write back to them if they are not close to me to here what i have to say to them while they are writing. Secondly i ask the name of some of the kids asking for songs so that i may announce this song is for blah blah. That way if it fails i can easily pull out of that song with all the pressure off of me. I usually know when a song will fail so i sometimes save those songs for the last song after i have said good nite thanks for coming then i will play those request real low as they are leaving and i start taking down my lights. As far as grinding goes i don't get much flack from the high school teachers as i do the middle school teachers. So if i get a lot of flack from teachers i start announcing on the mic. Guys you can not grind this is a school event and its not allowed. So making this announcement lets the teachers and chaperones know that the DJ is not condoning this behavior. Then if they are still grinding after the announcement i stop the music then i make the announcement again but i add the chaperones and teachers will be walking through the crowd if your are grinding they will pull you out for the remainder of this dance. Just so you know none of these announcements work. But it puts the kids on teacher watch and it gives the teachers power to know the DJ says i can pull you from the dance floor. i even say things like just think the person your dancing with is your sister. i also tell them you can dance without touching. When they want to grind you can't stop it without just stopping the party. I usually play more pop than grind music when they just won't listen and the teachers can't stop them either. I then announce on the mic that i can't play their song because they won't follow the rules. I sometimes play a minute of a grind song and soon as i see grinding i go right to a pop song. Then i say blame it on that group right there on the left side of the dance floor. I say i will play all the songs you want as long as you don't grind and of course as long as it is clean radio versions. Some songs i won't play at all like. B**** don't kill my vibe. Keep em dancing.
 


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