DECISIONS: DJ technical skills or music selection?
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DECISIONS: DJ technical skills or music selection?

I’d like to pose a hypothetical question, one that might challenge some of your opinions about DJing. It’s non-scientific, but if you answer honestly, it may well help to shed some light on how we DJs feel about our craft and what’s important to us.

I was on the only forum I visit — digitalvertigo.co.uk — where a question about beatmatching bounced around my head for a while and turned into something I thought I’d ask the DJWORX community.

Here’s the situation — it’s your best friend’s birthday and they want to go out and partaay. Sadly they live in a one-horse two-club town. In one club, the DJ plays spins those tunes you love, but does it so badly that you could cry. In the other club is a DJ that redefines mixing into an orgasmic art form, but the music selection makes your brain hurt.

You have no choice – you have to go to one of the clubs. Your friend doesn’t care and leaves the choice entirely up to you. But which one do you pick?

For the purposes of this survey into your inner most feelings about DJing, you must pick one response. Feel free to expand on your reasoning though — that’s rather the whole point. But choose you must.

So please fill in this ever-so simple poll and let’s get some comments about the choice you made.

[poll id=”4″]

 

Mark Settle
The Old Owner
I was the editor around these parts for the first two decades of the DJWORX journey. I’m on a creative journey at The Worxlab, and drop in occasionally here. Expect the odd article from me every now and again.
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55 Comments

  1. What if.. I am in that one horse two club town.. but there is neither? and.. both of them are apathetic dicks about giving you the shittiest of opening slots for no pay, and you know.. without a fucking doubt in the world.. that you could out mix either one of them.. If I’m being honest here.. anyone in town.. what if? I am in that one horse two club town and the answer is.. You start promoting. It’s funny how nobody battles these days.. and not one person ever has decided to take me up on a challenge.. fisticuffs sure.. But nobody wants to battle that trans woman on the decks that knows her own worth. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry.. When posed questions like this.. I can do nothing but spit my truth. I’m sure you understand. :)

  2. If it’s up to me, I’ll ALWAYS prefer skillz, but when I go out with my non DJ friends I see they really don’t care of how the music is mixed, they care only what music is playing. Which is pity. That’s why I still don’t have a DJ for my wedding, which is next month?!

    1. “I’ll ALWAYS prefer skillz”
      So you’ll dance (or listen) to any old garbage as long as it’s mixed properly?

      IMO it’s easy to spot the true music fans here, as I think that’s how the best DJs start out. They’re music fans first and foremost, and become DJs because of that.

      At many of my gigs I go from track to track without a single beatmix, and nobody complains. The music selection is far more important.

      1. It depends entirely on genre. Yeah.. I would prefer skills over track selection.. If they have skills and they are playing mediocre house music.. I’d rather hear that.. than A lot of good Drum & Bass I could mix better being continually trainwrecked..

        Nobody complains.. because they are punters.. We complain.. We are DJs.. you shouldn’t confuse complacency for approval.. punters don’t really know better most of the time.. and Yeah.. I can transition without beatmatching too.. There are cuts.. textural transitions.. a whole range of blends depending on genre.. Lots of people can.. it’s not particularly special.

      2. “So you’ll dance (or listen) to any old garbage as long as it’s mixed properly?” – I prefer old garbage ;) But unfortunately I don’t go to clubs to listen (or dance) to any music, because I feel like I’m at work. I go there to meet friends, and every bad mix kills me. That doesn’t count events with star DJs or ones I like. I’m talking about regular friday night with local DJ.

        “IMO it’s easy to spot the true music fans here, as I think that’s how the best DJs start out. They’re music fans first and foremost, and become DJs because of that.” – I listen good music (IMO) at home, because nobody knows my taste better than me :)

  5. I actually set up that poll on DV so glad to have provided some inspiration! I didn’t give an answer there so I’ll give an answer here – I’d say that context is the key. Good skills can elevate mediocre tune selection to make it something worth listening to and bad mixing can stifle the enjoyment of listening to good music. I’d much rather some didn’t bother to mix and blend and just put out good tune after good tune without worrying about mixing.

    But the most important skill I’d argue is programming or knowing what is the right tune to play at the right time. You don’t need to be able to mix to do that but it’s still clearly a skill to make the music you’re playing flow, even if it’s not mixed per se.

    But if I’m pushed for an either/or answer, good tunes trump technical skills.

  6. I have to say that this is refreshing to read even at this early stage. DJs can often disappear in their own arses in fits of chin rubbing about gear and skills, and will often judge a DJ on that alone. And after years online, I’ve often felt that it’s as if the music is secondary to ability. It’s so heartening to read that you guys almost unanimously rate good music over everything else.

    1. Music is always primary to me when spinning.. But I don’t have that criteria for going out.. for a wide variety of reasons.. I love music.. I can explore new music at good volumes at home.. My days of discovering good new music while out places is largely over..

    2. I think slip ups during sets add personality to the DJ’s set as long as it is occasional. Also hearing different manner of mixing is cool too even if I don’t necessarily agree with it.

    3. Good music, for sure… I think back to AWOL parties. A lot of the mixing at the time was rough, but the track selections were top shelf.

    4. To be fair Mark we have the age old problem that the only people who tend to comment online are the ones who do the above. its not just DJing its the internet as a whole. Take trip advisor as an example, people tend to go on there to complain so you are more likely to pick up on the negative stuff than positive.

      I think a lot of people like to think they are somehow being cool to strangers on the internet by acting like they are gods gift to DJs.

      Some of my favourite DJs round here just do basic mixes but the track selection is out of this world, and i respect those far more than the beat match merchants (of which i am one of)

  7. The first is the Jamaican style of early SoundSystem days. Te whole dj scene grow from that (and dubwise mixing for the live acts) and get improved in the Bronx (HipHop) and Studio54 and other places (for disco and house music).
    Skill come from the necessity not in the opposite but the necessat competition to keep alive the innovation killed the movement itself when forgot about musicality. It’s ok to live in a ghetto if you choice that (talking about musicians who doesn’t care about their repercusion more than their artform) but then don’t argue about money and fame of Cake throwers. We let it happen and “keep’n it real” mantra make it even worse since adds more gap between the crowd and the musician.

    My2c.

  8. Easy choice: the club with the good music.

    The DJ would have to actively try ruining the music before mixing skills becomes an issue. I suspect that having iTunes play good selection of music on random on iTunes would probably do a passable job for 95% of average club patrons.

  9. one thing i learned a long time ago is that the crowd forgets what happened 30 seconds ago if the music is good. selection trumps skills everyday. i listen to mixes by some legendary djs, even recent stuff, a lot of the blends are choppy and not smooth at all but the selection is top notch. the crowd doesn’t really care tbh. with the right selection and cueing, you can just slam the tracks without any blends. i’m not advocating bad mixing skills, especially as i’m a fan of long blends, but selection wins every time for me

  10. call me old school, but selection wins ever time, I remember reggae sound systems back in the day with only one turntable and they still rocked it,
    I’d rather listen to a good selection, screw the mixing !

  11. Breaking with the crowd, I would choose the more fluid mixing because that means the flow will be better and I can dance. Perhaps I’ll be introduced to some new music in the process as well I wouldn’t have heard otherwise. For the purposes of the poll, I assumed the poor mixing skills meant “shoes in the dryer” mixes, and/or long blends with vocals on top of other vocals, harmonic discord, etc. which all completely rip me out of the zone, especially if I otherwise really enjoy the songs. If however they were just doing hard cuts, that would be perfectly fine and then I’d choose that club.

  12. I like a clean, harmonic mix with the occasional sprinkle of performance on top – but people dance to music. The most skillful mix won’t save a shitty playlist – but a good playlist might let you get away with shitty mixing.

  14. Skills matter most if it’s a DJ competition or a radio show. Besides a DJ getting overly technical every chance they get is like watching a tv show riddled commercial interruptions.

      2. Usually if the you didn’t notice the transition, then they’re doing their job… I think. Besides the only people who would even notice are other DJ’s and aspiring DJ’s, the rest of crowd doesn’t care and doesn’t want to care unfortunately.

    2. I can dance to 50 Cent or Ellie King if I have to. But bad transitions, dropouts, and stupid air horn samples really kill my groove. I had that exact experience a couple weeks ago at a hotel “club”, and it blew.

    3. i don’t think so , skills matters always .
      Out of red for example , respecting the music structure. The crowd maybe don’t understand if the mix is good or bad , but when the mix is GOOD they will dance with no stop .

  16. I don’t know if its that complex.

    Selection is largely based on personal taste and trends. It’s mostly subjective. For example, I’m never going to be happy in a Country Western bar no matter how “good” the tracks are or how much everybody else there is “feeling it”. DJ 10-Gallon Hat might be killing it with the crowd there but if its not my thing I’m not going to be into it.

    Skills are largely objective. Granted, there are subjective elements but everybody should be able to agree skills are more objectively measurable than selection. This is why DJs judge EACH OTHER largely on skills.

    So, I don’t know if it’s really even a fair question. If somebody subjectively doesn’t like something, it’s really hard to overcome that, regardless of the skills involved. You can have the best EDM selection ever, or have the best EDM mixing skills ever, and it will fail at the Country Western Bar. It’s very hard to compare subjective vs. objective.

    The better question is, if you give two DJs the same tracks, and give them both an hour, will the one with the better skills prevail over the one just playing tracks one after the other, and by how much does the skilled DJ previal? That would be a better indicator of how much skills matter.

    1. I honestly don’t know if the DJ with more DJing skills would win if your talking about a regular crowd… Say the less technical DJ has better social skills and makes the crowd believe their having a good time while the more skilled DJ doesn’t at all engage with the crowd and drops a flawless set.

    2. The same country bar with skilled dj don’t matching crowd feel with the selection vs an spotify playlist made by the crowd itself. To drink or dance it’s easy to be “objective”; to talk about how it mimic a band for a part of hiring a band… but even a band has a “good” selection based on testing songs with the crowd.
      It’s not so difficult to understand the poll results if we use empathy with the crowd instead try to enlight them.

      Another question will be Culture throught music and skill but usually the crowd who demands that come with some homework done ;)

  17. As much as it can pain one’s ego…. I voted great music but car crash mixing. Amazing what a few drinks will do to one’s cares about a dj’s technical form… Or, from a different perspective, just because it’s technically a car crash (say, transitioning from something hard and fast like DnB to something a lot slower like hard trance, or even classic rock) it could always be a few things… Appealing to a wider taste of the audience (we are talking only two bars in one town for this after all), yet keeping a reasonable semblance of flow in order to keep the dance floor going… Or maybe the club/bar only has really REALLY basic gear in the booth and the dj is doing what they can to keep excelling tunes going out the speakers while trying to do creative mixing without any EQ or crossfaders.

  18. I would shoot both & then choose the club with the better Turntables, maybe steal the better Mixer from the other club & tell people there: “Party is over.”

  19. going to a club usually means you want to meet the opposite sex and perhaps flirt.. if i want to hear good quality music then the last thing on my mind is a DJ

  20. You would like to think the car crash mixing wouldnt be that bad anyway, most DJs who don’t use the skilful mixing techniques can at least chop tracks across in the right place etc.. skilful DJs with shit music are just shit DJs.

  21. This discussion is also an interesting perspective on the difference between clubbing in the UK, Europe and America. Reading down the comments gives a good idea on the situations that each of the 3 have to navigate through.

      1. Erm i don’t really know how to explain it, it just seems the scenes are a lot different, from venues to crowds, and also the tolerance of different types of music. i think people in the UK stick to what they like and are not easily swayed.

        1. I’d dispute that. The underground scene is very vibrant in the UK, particularly on the more urban side of music. With genres like grime or UK bass, there’s so much churn in the releases people don’t really have time to get settled into favourites. One thing I’d agree with is that the US clubbing seems to prefer open format sets more than UK club goers.

          1. No that was my point, a lot of people in the UK have a style of music they like and head to those venues to listen to it and avoid others like the plague. Being a DnB/Breaks fan in the North East I’ve had 20 years of people not wanting to go to these nights haha. The scene is vibrant but very clicky.

            On the US, sometimes you get the impression that whilst clubbing is important to punters, being on the pull is equally as important whereas our dance clubs tend to be packed with the serious music fans.

  22. the thing about it, if you have really good taste in music, you probably have good taste in life. that means you arent just going to ‘shoes in the dryer’ mix, most lkely you’ll do short mixes or delay our or just play one song into another. so to me, its not a great contrast. HOWEVER, there are plenty of great technical djs that play shit music or the same tired set time after time.

  23. Technical skills mean nothing to the club crowd. Its all about music selection. Dj’s jumping up and down behind their gear and waving their arms as if they were on the dance floor is what Djaying seems to be about nowadays.

  24. Why not both? Anyone who is playing music in a Dj booth has to know how to beat match and basic EQ. Period. But it is not necessary to be a DMC champion of course. Music selection is the key.

  25. The whole point of going out to a club or late night MUSIC bar is to hear/dance to MUSIC! So as far as I’m concerned GREAT MUSIC wins every time. I just don’t understand why someone would want to spend ANY time in a music venue where the music was crap whether it was perfectly mixed or a total trainwreck.

    Trying to explain to a young DJ why mixing is NOT the most important element of DJing just leaves them looking confused… ‘ but I thought Mixing WAS DJing’. Eh, NO; go spend your time hunting for tunes that you blow you away and you absolutely love (not what you think people think you should play) and THEN start to learn the technical aspect. I remember a long time ago a friends older brother (a then very successful hip-hop DJ) said ‘don’t go out and buy those 5 hip hop tracks you like – only buy the 2 ones you love and buy 3 other non-hip hop tracks that you think are amazing (but wouldn’t DJ with). “But I only play out Hip Hop”: For now young man, for now….. 20 years later all those ‘3 other tracks’ are what has made the young brother one of the most in demand DJs in town.

    It always bugs me that these discussions about DJing and beatmatching only seem to define a DJ as someone who plays ‘dance’ music (in it’s various forms) and dismiss the tens of thousands of DJs who play all other forms of music (soul, funk, original disco, reggae, african, norther soul etc) where beat matching almost never comes into the equation. I know so many amazing DJs that have never mixed a record in their life but get booked to play all over the country due to their record collections.

  26. I think That Great Choice shows a love for more than the CRAFT. It shows a love for the REASON. To be honest as a DJ Im not a Technical Wizzard but growing up in the place that I did and the Period that I grew up in the MUSIC was AMAZING and that is what made me start to Dig and want to play. The hell with everyting else.

  28. A nice selection with good mixes helps a lot . I mean : if you play bombs but without nice mixes you will lose 80% of the effect .
    Most important : music selection , but also really important is a good mix between .

  30. 90% of club goers don’t give a rats tit how technically gifted a DJ is. Unless they are absolutely completely and utterly terrible then no one will ever notice.
    If the music is crap, everyone will notice.