The eternal playlist conundrum

[Nakatomi]

Somebody once used a car seller as an analogy for this subject. Guy goes into a dealership & wants a mini but the salesman is pushing a range rover. Customer isn't happy - it's not what he wanted. Boo hoo naughty salesman. Right? Yeah but what if the customer wanted a car for towing a hulking great big caravan - would the mini he wanted so much do the job? Hmmmmnope.

As for not winning em all Gary, I know. I won't win em all.

The customer going "we've got to fill all the time available with music we just plucked out of our heads while we're sat at home" just spells out that they don't trust me, they don't have any interest in their guests.. and this isn't good news to me. This particular one talked of their love for 1990s music, particularly dance music. Where was all that in the list they got as far as? Nowhere to be seen.

Is this all people see the DJ as being now? I don't think so - well I hope not anyway - and as I've already said if this is the new way of things I'm gonna find something else to do.

The content of the lists - well, it's anybody's guess really how anything will be received by the crowd but we can make educated guesses most of the time. Whether I like the music or not.. meh.. don't really care much either way - sure it's NICE to play tunes I love & see them take a roof off but mainly I'm in it for people having a good time.

Look at this from another perspective - we don't just stick stuff on & hope for the best. There's method in what we do & how we do it. It's an art form of sorts. Take that away & we aren't even skilled tradesmen anymore & any argument for being worth a high fee goes out the window.

Problem is, people think our job is EASY or that certain numbers of us are LAZY (and in some cases all this is true).

I admire the effort that goes into some of these lists mind - it must certainly take much longer to come up with them than it does to play them. But why spend all that time doing it when you can't even guarantee it'll have the desired effect?! Crazy stuff. Even crazier when you account for the fact you're paying somebody capable of working it out for you instead. Bonkers!

The number of variables involved in putting on any event that could be deemed a success really boils down to this one: THE PEOPLE PRESENT. Leave them out of the equation, second guess them into next week or brazenly cast any notion they're important aside and you're gonna come a cropper.

The "it's my party & I'll cry if I want to" mindset.. yes yes, they say, they pay yada yada... but is it really all for the best? No it isn't. The customer is always right, always until the moment they admit defeat & say okay DJ rip up the playlist & let the guests have what they like. Or everybody leaves the party miserable.

So who's my ideal kind of customer? I think I've met a good few of them for next year already. They don't want anything for their event than a room full of people having a great time. Sure they'd like to include some music that's important to them in one way or another but their main vision is one of a memorable party with all their guests making merry. That IMHO is what this job is about. Not this "there's 5 hours to fill & the list of music we don't like would be the entire Spotify catalogue minus the list we're giving the DJ" business.