WHY Its a Great Time to Be a DJ and Play a Set That's Unique to Other DJ's Around You!

0:00 To you why I honestly think

Right, welcome to the drawing room. This is where my lad does all his wacky design drawings. And I'm now going to explain to you why I honestly think now is a great time to be a dance DJ. Undisputedly a great time. So there's no exact science here what I'm about to show you. There are many other ways you can look at it, but let me get a general idea. So let's imagine here that little sort of area is where dance music started, okay? And then all of a sudden it started to grow. Now you'll notice that the growth in the two lines is a bit like a horn. Well the reason for that is because let's say it started with distance. It started with disco. And then it wasn't just disco, we ended up getting disco, house, new wave and so on.

Pop of course has always been around but just different styles for different generations. Well actually pop is pop for that generation. But let's imagine we class this as day one and then sort of here we have day two, three, and four. Or maybe not day one, two, three, four. Maybe year one, two, three and four. Now what I'm going to do now is I'm going to maybe look at this in greater detail, okay? And this is where I need you to start thinking in many directions. Not just one but forward, back, reverse and so on. So let me take my piece of paper again and let's imagine that is the beginning and then this is dance music and how it's exploded. So this was then and now. Alright, so this is quite important the then and now.

2:43 Modern day tracks coming out

Now maybe you started DJing here or maybe you started DJing possibly here and maybe you started DJing here and maybe you started DJing here. Now you'll notice that the dots of people starting DJing are at different places. Now that's because maybe the DJ who started here started five years ago and they started playing drum and bass. Maybe the DJ started here 15 years ago and that DJ started playing R&B. Maybe this DJ started 14 years ago and started playing house music whereas this one started playing funk only 10 years ago. Now, okay. So really the only way forward is of course that direction. Now a lot of DJs who are into one style will stick to that style and they tend to just look at the modern day tracks coming out

So their angle of view is quite often just forward. That's all it is. It's forward. Now let's just take one style for a second. Let's imagine drum and bass. So let's take our DJ up here who is just into drum and bass. Now, again this isn't an exact date but let's class drum and bass as starting 1990. Okay we had Jungle but let's just call it about 1990. Yet our DJ started maybe 10 years ago and they're looking forward, okay? Now of course if they started recently and they're only looking forward they are going to hopefully be able to get all of the latest tracks but you'll notice that that dot and the way the point is facing is only forward. Yet either side we could class these gaps as all of the tracks this DJ is missing out on.

Even though this DJ is looking forward and getting quite a few songs he or she is still missing out on all of the other tracks. Not only that look at everything behind them as well that they haven't found yet. There is so much to be found in this one style you wouldn't believe it. In fact I would hazard a guess to say that if this DJ, whoever they are decided to never ever buy a new track again and only buy old school they would spend a lifetime digging through and finding all the old school tracks and still not have enough time to find what was released before they started DJing. So take that on board and also take that on board for all of these other DJs. Now dance music as you know or maybe you do or don't has exploded

5:24 This is really important so please take this on board

And the explosion occurred about the early 90s and it's just got bigger and bigger and bigger. But here is the thing this is the key here when dance music started in the 90s if you played anything pre-90s you could tell it was old and because the people who were in the position the age group going to nightclubs in the early 90s were there when the dance music era exploded then they were familiar with the old school tracks also they are and were familiar with the tracks that were released at that time. Now this is really important so please take this on board. As we move forward all of those DJs myself, the likes of the old school DJs and many many more we know what the old school styles are like. We know what the old styles

And sounds are like. Yet modern day DJs now maybe don't know the old school sounds also the people who go to nightclubs now maybe do not know the old school sounds so let's look at another picture and let's say we're looking at house music so this is when house music started let's say mid to September sort of early-ish 80s 1980s and our DJ started playing house music let's say for example the year 2000 there so that's when they started now of course their scope is going to be maybe here because they're going to be looking at whatever they can find modern day music maybe they are looking in sort of the past as well but let's be honest here you are never ever ever going to be able to get every single track and listen to every single track

7:55 People nightclubs, these people

That is released because you don't have the physical time it's a bit like watching YouTube videos you do not have the physical time to watch every single video as it is released because there are so many minutes of video released per minute you do not have the physical time to watch every video and that's exactly the same with music you don't have the physical time to listen to every track while it's released but not only that look at all of this music that has happened in the past that this DJ possibly has not heard yet but on another level and this is where every single modern DJ should be smiling right now if you're watching this video that is exactly the same with people going to nightclubs so that's what you need to know about nightclubs

Because as I said earlier because I grew up with the dance explosion I know what the old school sounds are like I know if I hear a track I can sort of pigeonhole it sort of like mid 90s early 90s 2000s by the sounds of the drums by just how it's produced whereas a lot of people now who go to nightclubs 18 19 and 20 year olds in the year 2000 or there abouts so they weren't even alive when the dance culture exploded so this is the key you can now get away with playing stuff from the beginning of the dance era to these people who are now in nightclubs who are just being educated into dance music which is something completely different that they've never heard before but guess what it was probably made 10 years before they were born it's crazy but these are exciting

Times for DJs so if we go back to this picture I made here there's our drum and bass DJ funk house and so on if you are said DJ and all of these people who are playing music you know the tracks that are coming out like you they know the new stuff that's what they listen to but a lot of them may not know or have listened or know of the tracks that were released 10 and 15 years ago and blowing dance floors away instead of the DJ before you or after you thinking I'm gonna be hip and I'm gonna play everything from the past seven days boring I'm not saying it is boring as in it's crap but why don't you be different all right I hope you like this video see you next time bye bye

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