DJ Should You Be Too Anal About Music Genres?

0:00 It's about using colours and blending colours, not painting by numbers

Right guys, first of all I hope you had a good Christmas and may you have a happy new year. We are in the latter part of December 2019 and this video is about painting. It's about using colours and blending colours, not painting by numbers. So first of all let's look at the difference. Painting by numbers, I'm sure you're aware, is when you get a piece, it's old school isn't it, you get a piece of paper with small tiny squares and shapes on it with numbers on and of course the numbers are represented by say certain colours and you colour it in and you end up getting some kind of, I don't know, image. On the other hand, if you don't paint by numbers and you've just got paints, you can do whatever you want.

Add a bit of je ne sais quoi, like they say. So we're going to go into painting by numbers very soon. Now I have here the radio release December 2018 from CDPool and it's got a bunch of radio friendly tracks. Now I am playing this or I am showing you this at the end of December for one big reason. Now apart from CDPool do their other releases, they will also release this as well as a few others. And this is... Radio December 2018. December. Now, something that a few people seem to sort of think is that when it's out at the beginning of the month that's it, you've got to play at the beginning of the month because towards the end of the month it's going to be old and you've got January. Well, that's a load of pants.

Because more often than not, a track will be in the charts for, you know, a good while. It may... some tracks may just jump in the charts and jump straight back out but quite a few will be in the charts for quite a while. So even though this is December 2018, it's very likely that quite a few of the tracks will be in and around the charts maybe January next year, even February. Not only that, but even if they leave the charts you'll still be able to play them. So this is one reason why I'm doing this video on the Radio December now. So what we've got here... First of all... I'll just play a few bits of the tracks. I wouldn't normally play these in my tutorials. This is Pink, A Million Dreams. Then this is track one.

Then track number two we've got Olly Murs, Love Me Again.

3:08 I've been DJing for a really long time

Okay... Sorry, I'm pressing the wrong button there. I do apologise. Sorry. Okay, what else have we got on here? We've got Robin, Tracking About Honey. CNCO... And Megan Trainor. Hey DJ... Let's have a look. What can we play here? Sigrid. Okay, let's just go to track 11. Just random kind of track sort of thingy. Track 11.

Okay. Now again, this one here... Right. I've been DJing for a really long time. Longer than I care to mention. When you hear tracks on the radio, whatever radio station, some of them, or actually most of them now, you go like... Oh God, just turn it off. You know, most of the tracks they play today, in 10 or 20 years time, if you play them, let's say in 10 or 20 years time, the crowd are going to be looking at you as if to say, what is this? Why are you playing it? We don't know what it is. Turn it off. You're a crap DJ. Now on the other hand, this track here, Sucker Punch, okay, is one of those sort of commercial tracks that's quite memorable. And I can... And I can see me playing this, you know, in 10 years time and people, they won't be going,

4:49 There was probably August

Whoa, this is amazing. Whoa, let's just jump on the dance floor. It's one of those tracks where they'll think, well, oh, I sort of remember this and I remember the feeling and it's quite a nice song. It's very catchy. Now that's the key. The catch, it's the hook. Now that's what makes, well, not breaks. That's what actually makes a good track. Okay, so Sucker Punch there. Let's have a look. What else? We've got Sam Fender, The Chainsmokers, Zayn featuring Nicki Minaj. Let's do that one, number 15. Okay, so bearing in mind all of these are the... I'm pretty sure all of these are the radio versions. Okay, so there it is and believe it or not, this is December 2018. Which means that there was probably November. There was probably August.

There will probably be January, February and March of next year. So there it is, right. Now as I said, this video is about painting by numbers. Now I'm gonna play a few tracks from Urban December 2018. On this side, I'm gonna put disc one and on this side, I'm gonna put disc two. So whatever I play, I will of course let you know exactly what tracks I'm playing from which CDs. Now let's have a listen to the styles. Now first of all, Urban, the Urban release from CDPool is of course your Urban style. Your soul, your R&B, bit of funk, bit of two-step, UK garage and the like. Okay, so you're gonna get more... You're definitely gonna get more vocals in these tracks. They're going to be more sort of radio friendly. They're still gonna be clubby

But what you will expect is maybe more of the shorter versions not the extended versions. So let's get a track one which is Cardi B, Money, the explicit version. Okay.

Okay, now what I wanna do now is talk about painting by numbers. Now let's have a listen to that. Now how would you class... Of course, you can't tell me because you can't answer me at the moment but would we class this as hip-hop styley? Okay, now the trouble is with today's music there are so many sub genres and people are saying can you mix house with hip-hop? Can you mix R&B with soul? Can you mix drum and bass with hip-hop? Well, the answer is in a way you sort of can if you keep to one main criteria and to make sure that the tracks flow in key. If they do and you can mix them of course they have to be mixed harmonically which is in key then you don't really have to worry about the BPM so long as you chop them at the correct place

7:12 What's this got to do with the genres I'm going to be playing now?

And you can get those together. Now notice my hands now for the partially sighted I've now got my fingers on each hand intertwined with each other. Now this here if I put my fists next to each other is painting by numbers. On the other hand if I put my hands like that that is more of an artistic way of a flow of paint gradually going from let's say yellow to green instead of a yellow and a green. So what's this got to do with the genres I'm going to be playing now? Well, too many people think that once they get to a sub-genre you can only mix that genre and that's it you can't mix anything else apart from that genre. Well of course that is true in play play say jungle or only once say house music but then again house there are so many

Oh god Jonathan sorry sub-genres of house music that the mind boggles so what you need to do is you need to not be so anal about it's got to be techno it's got to be techno of course if you're in a place that will only allow you to play techno then you'd be an idiot to play funky house on the other hand if you are in a nightclub that want you to play say for example house music you have to think four to the floor one two three four that steady kick which is deep house which is funky house which is soulful house which is techno which is tech house which is afro house which is electro house and so on and so on so long as you stick to that genre you can't go wrong you see this is the problem with a lot of DJs now when they like say soul

They think yeah I've just got to play soul chuck a bit of old school funk in there as well keep it real maybe put some hip hop in there as well you're keeping to that genre of you know so on right so this is Cardi B Money

Okay so let's have a listen now I mean really this is hip hop but it's just like modern day style hip hop that's all you know stop thinking about what's the real sub genre let's pick it all apart and just get really anal sod that it's hip hop there you go right

Again we could class this as a soulful hip hop tune what would you class it as

This one here is Gekko and Not 3S Will Smith Lil Blue remix okay what a bloody mouthful that is my god try saying that ladies and gentlemen check it out this is they just want to hear the tune alright I'm going to skip I'm just going to randomly skip to number six here we go this is Kyla okay Afro House it's got that straight away you could class it as house music two three four it's 122 bpm it's the house bpm anything I again you see anything with that sort of tempo around about from 119 upwards can be classed as house music if it's got two three four six five and so on if it's got a little bit of a slightly below it's more like what we know as New Disco okay okay do the same thing right I've got my eyes see if you notice I've got my eyes closed now

12:19 Just going to randomly press the button I'm not looking

So randomly there we go I'll skip forward so I'm on track 3 now from disc number two which is Okay, what sort of genre would you class this? You have to think about it. Would you class it as some really non-interesting subgenre that's just going to confuse the issue or just class it as like a hip hop tune? That's it. Because again when you're making your folders you've got so many subgenres you're only going to confuse yourself. You know hip hop, house, old school, chocolate drops. See? Sorry, hip hop, house, chocolate drops. Silly me. Right okay so let's do the same thing over here. Just going to randomly press the button I'm not looking. I'm now on track number 10 here which is a track entitled One Night Only and don't forget every single track I played you here including the radio for

December can be seen and found on the CDPool website which there's a link in the description right down there. So go to CDPool.com and there'll be more information on the Urban December 2018 as well as the radio so let's just do one more here this one One Night Only for tonight. Long intro here.

Soul.

Soul music.

It's mellow, it's got that sensual vibe.

Okay so painting by numbers. When you paint by numbers and when you're starting to pigeonhole every single track, you are definitely painting by numbers. On the other hand if you want to be a real artist just go to town with those colours and just use the colours on the canvas as they should be used and this is what's happening here with the music. If you're too anal and you're putting all these tracks exactly where they should be, you're going to confuse yourself and you're not going to enjoy mixing the tracks so just be a little bit more laid back. Like this. See? Like it. Anyway, practice and enjoy and me, I'm not going anywhere. Thank you very much. Oh sorry.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.