Don't you miss the good old days of music and parties?

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MIXMASTERMACHOM

MIXMASTERMACHOM

Mac Daddy DJ
ODJT Supporter
Oct 16, 2011
17,434
2,842
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I miss the good old days of music. The days when you could just play the music and not worry if it's the clean or dirty version. That was some fun times to be a DJ back then. I remember back then you didn't have to be concerned about where an event was to take and they needed a DJ. That was when you weren't worried about a fight breaking out because of the music and the crowd of people that it would bring to the event.

I remember when you didn't have to worry about going to do an event and having your equipment damaged, a fight breaking out or if someone has a gun ready to start some trouble. I've heard some DJ's considering carrying a gun with them to events just in case for their safety. Real sad times. That's why i'm very selective about doing gigs these days. If i feel that that gig could be trouble or I'm not sure I'll pass that gig up. Let someone else deal with that.

My favorite gigs are when a client is smart enough to have their event in a nice classy venue where you know they had spend a good penny to have it there.
 
dunlopj said:
Jeez, where the heck did you play in your good old days - Detroit?
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No you miss the point. I just remember when there was no such thing as a DJ having to check to see if a version of a song was clean or not.

Personally unless it's a wedding in a nice setting and all they want is today's hip hop and r & b the whole event in most cases I'll make up an excuse as to why we can't do it. I might tell a lie and say we're already booked or give them some ridiculously high quote that I know they won't spend that kind of money and just keep looking elsewhere.
 
Checking for a clean version is not that hard if you music is tagged corect.

Example:

Eminem - Shake That (Radio Edit).mp3
Eminem - Shake That (Explict).mp3

Why lie? Just tell them you don't have that type of music and you don't do those events.
 
I only get "edited" versions, so it's not an issue to tell someone I don't have it. I do find many of today's artists don't have the command of the language, and certainly don't understand subtlety or innuendo. It gets tough playing a rap/r&b piece, only finding either dead space or muffled words every other sentence.
 
Cesar said:
Those were not the Good Old Days those were your inexperienced uninformed days.
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What does experience have to do with if a song has volger language in it or not? When i first started SJing in 81 such a thing was never an issue. Since the time of gangsta rap being introduced that changed the game a lot. Now you have artist (if you want to call them that) that all they see is that style of music is a quick way to get paid and get out their message. Which is usually them cursing all over a song and disrespecting women.

The real sad part was being in a bar one night and all they played on the juke box the whole time i was there was gangsta rap. The women in their i guess thought ir was a badge of honor to be called a bitch or hoe.

I remember when rap music first got started. It was artist having a good time expressing themselves in a posotive way. Not this mess that some want to push out there and are able to get away with it because of the freedom of speech rule we have here in this country.
 
steve149 said:
I only get "edited" versions, so it's not an issue to tell someone I don't have it. I do find many of today's artists don't have the command of the language, and certainly don't understand subtlety or innuendo. It gets tough playing a rap/r&b piece, only finding either dead space or muffled words every other sentence.
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Same here.
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
What does experience have to do with if a song has volger language in it or not? When i first started SJing in 81 such a thing was never an issue. Since the time of gangsta rap being introduced that changed the game a lot. Now you have artist (if you want to call them that) that all they see is that style of music is a quick way to get paid and get out their message. Which is usually them cursing all over a song and disrespecting women.

The real sad part was being in a bar one night and all they played on the juke box the whole time i was there was gangsta rap. The women in their i guess thought ir was a badge of honor to be called a ***** or hoe.

I remember when rap music first got started. It was artist having a good time expressing themselves in a posotive way. Not this mess that some want to push out there and are able to get away with it because of the freedom of speech rule we have here in this country.
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Not all music is like this and this goes on in alot of genres of music. You also have to keep in mind where a person lives - what might be ok on your block may not be ok on someone else's block and vice versa. That's a very important thing that us mobile guys cater too - it's called variety.

You have the option today of obtaining a clean or explicit recording and even if you have both, you again have the option of which to play at a performance.
 
ittigger said:
Not all music is like this and this goes on in alot of genres of music. You also have to keep in mind where a person lives - what might be ok on your block may not be ok on someone else's block and vice versa. That's a very important thing that us mobile guys cater too - it's called variety.

You have the option today of obtaining a clean or explicit recording and even if you have both, you again have the option of which to play at a performance.
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You said a mouth full there. We all have a choice as to what gigs we will do and won't do. I'm just careful today which gigs i do because i know some gigs can mean life or death. We have done some events and bars in the past that we should never have done.

I'm more careful then ever today. If i don't have a good feeling about doing a gig i won't bother.
 
Mixmaster:

I feel your pain my friend. What I was coming up against with today's music is a part of why I am not in the business anymore. Skirting the line became very difficult and locating the innuendo in songs almost a full time job. Add to that the selfishness of clients that just didn't get the fact that the music they wanted might be offensive to others.

Honestly, I still love to DJ. I don't think that will ever get out of my system. In the lodge I have a select group of people that I will DJ for. The young folks in our Junior Elks program is a good example because these young men and ladies not only like the Bubble Gum stuff some of the young kids are into today but also some of the modern rock groups that do have some fairly clean lyrics. They also like classic rock, which always surprises me. I get the occasional request for some of the explicit stuff but that is mostly from the young folks that don't know my rules yet. Regardless, the young folks do hit the dance floor and also love to do karaoke.
 
Well... fussing over explicit lyrics was never an issue for us. We were spinning the raw version of Strokin' to pretty much any audience that didn't cater to under-16s or blue-haired church ladies.

What I missed about this biz (before we retired) was peoples' willingness to party and pay for it. Even those low-budget VFW and campground dances paid. Not a lot but they were consistent every year. The folks came ready to dance, drink and have a good time. And have a good time they did. They'd come in with coolers... all kindsa beer and liquor. They'd dance all night long.

Many a night I played for hours on a back deck or under a tent out in the yard. If they wanted it to go over, somebody always had a wad of cash to part with.

Then came the "keg laws", the DIU checkpoint crackdowns, no smoking legislation and the economy went down the toilet. The cost of gas went through the roof. The food and drink costs skyrocketed. People quit going out. Getting folks to come to a dance or party became like pulling teeth.

No one wants to pay for it anymore. They've got money for anything else, it seems... but want a DJ company's services for free. If they're willing to pay at all it's what we were charging middle school dances 18 years ago.

Yeah, I miss those nights. Eventually, the economy will pick back up and DJing will be fun again. :)
 
Fred Wright said:
Well... fussing over explicit lyrics was never an issue for us. We were spinning the raw version of Strokin' to pretty much any audience that didn't cater to under-16s or blue-haired church ladies.

What I missed about this biz (before we retired) was peoples' willingness to party and pay for it. Even those low-budget VFW and campground dances paid. Not a lot but they were consistent every year. The folks came ready to dance, drink and have a good time. And have a good time they did. They'd come in with coolers... all kindsa beer and liquor. They'd dance all night long.

Many a night I played for hours on a back deck or under a tent out in the yard. If they wanted it to go over, somebody always had a wad of cash to part with.

Then came the "keg laws", the DIU checkpoint crackdowns, no smoking legislation and the economy went down the toilet. The cost of gas went through the roof. The food and drink costs skyrocketed. People quit going out. Getting folks to come to a dance or party became like pulling teeth.

No one wants to pay for it anymore. They've got money for anything else, it seems... but want a DJ company's services for free. If they're willing to pay at all it's what we were charging middle school dances 18 years ago.

Yeah, I miss those nights. Eventually, the economy will pick back up and DJing will be fun again. :)
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You're partly right. What i find is people will come out. The hard part is getting the people in their late 30's on up to come out. They usually are scared to go somewhere for fear of what might happen. Just this past week i beleive the news reported 2 guys leaving a bar/club getting shot with one of them getting killed.

You can find people willing to spend some good money for a DJ. You just need to know where to find such clients. Not everybody wants a really cheap DJ. You just need to know who they are, where to advertise and how to sell your services to that client.
 
Fights will break out anywhere. Here's an example: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/0...es-three-injured-suspects-on-loose-75418.html

The lodge in the article is in a pretty good area so this is not expected. What the story that came down indicated that the lodge hosted what is called in these parts a "ghetto" party. It basically was a rave with tickets being sold.

First of all, it against the various liquor board regs for an outside organization to sell tickets to enter a rented private hall. This particular lodge got a hefty fine and a liquor license suspension for a period.

Regardless, as much as we hate to go there, when running a facility like this you have to be careful of the clientele you rent to. You have to learn to look for the telltale signs.

These kinds of parties have happened in fire halls and some other facilities around my lodge's area and it is a difficult thing to prevent.
 
What i do when it comes to private gigs i like to know who are the people that are having it, the music they want and where the event is to take place. If i feel it might not be a safe event for us to do i'll pass. When it comes to bars if i were to play in a bar, i first would need to go there to check out the place. See who they are allowing to come in the place and do they have security. I won't do what my partner used to do. He would find a bar that said they need a DJ and rush there to make him some money.

I told him to lave a place alone. This is after the first [place i saw him play at where i first met him. The last night he was there they had a big bar fight. He said it lasted for 10 minutes. One person got thrown on the other side of the bar. The bartneder got his nose broken with a chair. By the time i get there the police were inside. The manager blamed the fight on the DJ. The police knew the deal. It was all those young people that weren't even old enough to be in the bar drinking. They've seen enough of that type of thing happen.

He goes to another bar no more then 3 blocks away on the same street. I told hm to leave that place alonr. He wouldn't listen to me. The first night he was to get paid $200.00 and the manager said he didn't make enough money to pay him anything. He goes there again and this time he does get paid $75.00 eventually but it was a big disaster. Someone bust out the window to the van i had at that time. I left to clean that up and when i get back the police had the crime scene tape up blocking off the whole intersection. I found out later on when i finally got to see my partner that what happened some guys got into an argument with one of the guys in the bar. They left the bar and came back in the bar 5 minures later and shot the guy in the back of the head while he was on the dance floor and ran back out of the bar.

It took almost a week for us to get the gear out of the bar and after that he started to listen to me and trust that i know what i'm doing. Sad but true story.
 
Finding a client who's willing to pay more than $50.00 per in Lower, Slower Delaware these days is like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, my friends. We went upscale years ago and were doing well until the economy went to pot.

I tried the bar thing back in the mid-90s. One-shot deals, pay wasn't worth the expense and too much micromanaging. One summer of bar gigs was enough for me.

Fights, I've seen my share of 'em. Used to hope and pray me and my rig would survive more than one night. Had a couple of drunks rolling around, punching each other knock over my mirror ball stand and squash the ball all to hell.

Told many an apologetic bride as I was loading out the old adage "If a fight breaks out at the wedding reception, you know the marriage is gonna last." :D

Well, time passes and we grow older. I got too damn old for that nonsense. Gimme a break - I could expect it at a middle school dance. Not at a wedding. Jacked the price up and most of that stuff was gone.

Yeah, the under 30s will come out. But I stopped marketing to kids long before we retired. ;)
 
As far as todays music, if you are a professional dj you need to suscribe to a service that supplys clean edited songs, period. Now as far as missing the good old days of music, I am 50 and feel that I grew up in a great era for music. Real music with great song structure and great lyrics and songs that had meaning and were played by great bands or studio muscians backing fantastic singers. The great thing about music of the 60's and 70's was that if you listened to the radio for an hour or two, you heard so much variety. Everything from pop to blues to rock to country to the seminal california sound to motown to southern rock to the memphis sound to bubblegum to glam to hard rock to disco to... it was such a melting pot of styles and a radio station was not pigion holed into playing just one genre of music. And dj's had thier own personalities and made it fun to listen to them. They were as important as the music was. When Dick Clark died recently, I saw it as the death of an era that unfortunately we will never see again. But it all started with the "music". I feel sad for the generations that have come after me who will never know the rich vital history of music and will never care to learn and appreciate it.
 
We just finished on Friday doing a 25th wedding anniversary. I knew the person who contacted me about doing the event. I've known her for 15-20 years. We used to work together. I knew the place where the event was to take place. A very nice catering hall. So i knew this gig was going to be fun and safe. These are the types of gigs that i like. It's in a nice place where i know most of the people who were going to be there were going o be dressed to impress. Besides that they have a security guard outside giving you directions on where to go. An upscale classy place. A plce where you know you're going to spend more then $500.00 to rent the hall out. These are the types of places and events i recently like to accept for a gig. No drama or headaches other then if we have equipment isssues.
 
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