LINDY HOP // A mellow 7 PM at Paszcza Lwa [revised 05.01.2020]
Description
Quickstats
Playlist Length
0 days, 4 hours, 55 minutes
Playlist Followers
39
Source
Playlist Last Updated
June 8, 2021
Mood
Mixed Mood
Track Popularity Rating
Deep
Style
Quiet
Average Release Decade
1990s
Main Genre:
Jazz
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
Fellow Spotify DJ and a fellow broke student here, I might go all over the place with tips and answers so please bear with me :P When it comes to DJ-ing bigger dances and events, I think the only nitpick people might have about you DJ-ing with Spotify is that you're not really supporting the artists whose songs your playing. General consensus is that Spotify's revenue for artists is incredibly low, especially if you look at smaller bands or projects (my uni teacher has a one-man project and he was always quite open about Spotify money being almost non-existent). That said, most dancers won't even pay attention to your software: I found it's usually the more seasoned DJ-s that are opposed to Spotify, for the reason above. I dream of a future where I'll be able to afford every Bandcamp album I've been dreaming of for the past few years, but for now, Spotify is what I have and will use. Moving towards Spotify "being manageable" at bigger events and general management of one's library, I wanna give my personal example, but for that we need to establish a little thing: I'm a very instinct-driven lindyhopper. What I mean, is that I don't exactly pay attention to counting in the dance, to making sure I'm in the correct phrases etc. It is all mostly an organic process to me (one that made teaching Lindy quite difficult in the beginning), and it also applies to managing the library. Some time ago I've assembled three main DJ-ing resources, have a look: * https://open.spotify.com/user/11125315850/playlist/0JgbUXzwyTQdxnKmrXc2GS?si=9gJ8nUAXQgWectgRz3ARmg "A mellow 7 P.M. at Paszcza Lwa" is the chill playlist with songs that guarantee a triple step and that are mostly begginer-friendly. Name comes from the socials in Gdańsk having the first hour unofficially dedicated to less advanced dancers: so easier, maybe a bit slower songs, where the newbies would feel more comfortable dancing than with, let's say, the likes of Lindy Hopper's Delight. * https://open.spotify.com/user/11125315850/playlist/2nNctDIt8Wp7wxzKoDC9oA?si=YPZW1D9LRU2n4e2qU7GimA "Not tired enough to sit" goes into the bluesy, drag, generally slow. Easy to notice by the name, this is where the resting songs come from into my sets and if I'm to DJ the closing hours, you'll surely find those numbers playing. * https://open.spotify.com/user/11125315850/playlist/7Lu0nHFGI6i6iW99dPGe0Q?si=OCaiTRcZRay2eVDwqrukBQ "Total killer-dillers", cherry on the cake, has the faster, livelier, more amazing songs, with which you can easily get a party going and which might serve as good setup to tire the dancers a bit and get them to look more favorably at the previous two playlists. Plethora of songs and a mishmash of BPM's. Safe to say some of those songs should rather stay in "A mellow 7 P.M.", but the fame value kept them over here. Think of this playlist in terms of the "always win" concept that, I've heard, Sep Vermeersch propagates. I think you can pick up on the theme that I've got going: absolutely no information about BPM's, just the moods and nothing else. Let's be honest, this is quite a risky way of DJ-ing and I might get met with mixed reactions here, so approach this with due distance. Anyway, the way I keep track of the specifics in the songs is quite simple. I've listened to each and every song on the playlists at least a thousand times, and that's not even a joke (having Spotify running the whole day and getting those playlists on repeat will do that to you). By now, just by looking at the title I can almost always clearly remember how the song goes and if it's going to fit in the current mood. Of course, refreshing the memory is important and has to happen regularly. Now, the matter of preparing for an actual event comes into play. The way I do it will at first sound bad: once I get the DJ-ing schedule (which is super nice to get at least a week or two before the event), I literally prepare pre-set playlists for the parties. If you want to have a look, they'll all public on my profile, you'll know them when you see them. But getting the presets ready is not the end of the job, because the most important part is still to be done. While creating the playlists, I try to keep my sets fresh (i.e. not to repeat songs from previous sets too much, unless they're *really* killer-diller), and to stick with a general vibe of the evening. Usual formula for me is as follows: Thursday, warm-up party, no or barely any really famous songs and generally a chill approach, so that people have strength for the next days. Friday, first major party, pump it up a little bit, but still, the greatest is yet to come, so don't push it. Saturday, major party, *the* time to get the joint jumping, so go all-out on the mood and make sure the floor is full of dancers at all times. Adjust moods accordingly, if you play three super fast songs in a row, let people rest afterwards or you won't have a floor to play for very soon. Sunday is the fun day: I found most DJs start playing the best songs then for some reason, and while I try to play my best on Saturdays, that doesn't mean you or I should start going against the current and play the worst we have on Sundays. There's usually no pressure of competitions, shows etc. left, so everyone's going to be in a better mood. Good to keep some of the bangers for Sundays, to use that new energy well. (Also! If you opt into pre-set playlists, you need to pay very close attention to what other DJ-s are playing on a given evening. Repeating the exact same songs with the same arrangements between days is not a great mistake, but repeating them on the same night is just bad and I feel it makes you look like a lazy DJ even if it happened by accident. As long as you try your best to avoid repetitions, you should be fine--even if they do happen after all.) I touched upon this briefly, but I feel it needs to be said again: pay attention to the dancefloor and adjust what you're playing accordingly. You're playing for the dancers, the dancers are not dancing for you. If they're going to have more fun to a song that's been played a thousand times over everywhere, let them (I don't understand the whole unspoken rule about not playing those, but that's a different topic). If they're tired at 1 A.M. while the party's planned to end at 4 A.M., let them rest with slow songs and maybe they'll respond better to faster songs later. I know it's easy to say for me as someone who lets instinct take the wheel more often than not, but I believe that you can train your instinct with regular practice. Let me know if some things are not clear and need more explanation. I love sharing music and I love talking about music, so I'll gladly answer any questions you might have!
Upvotes
11
Subreddit
SwingDancing
Reddit Username
GeniusTom
Reddit Timestamp
4/17/19 4:10
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