Sophomoric essay on the importance of selecting music. Artists make the music. The importance of DJs is overblown. Being a DJ is a trade skill, you work clubs for money, your name shouldn't be on the music. Wub Wub pause build.
There is a skill that the best DJs possess, and its more about the build up and drop that became sooooo common in modern EDM. That used to be saved for a part of the set. Then it became part of every song.
First is taste. You have to have good taste. The best club DJs don't just play the popular tracks. They introduce crowds to tracks - and not just the ones they and their friends produced and are debuting. Especially the obscure tracks that are white hot.
Second is a feel for the crowd. Coming into a club gig we used to hang out for a few hrs before and get a feel for what the crowd seems to be up for. Tech house, hard, trance vocal stuff, more funky deep stuff.. these are very different styles and even a decent track in the wrong style suited to the crowd can clear the floor.
Third, the best DJs would take you on a journey. Over a 60 or 90 or 180 minute set, there's a beginning maybe some interesting tracks, and it builds. Maybe about 1/3 into the set the blazing hot tracks start to drop. Then maybe a deeper journey about 2/3 into the set. Finishing with something very special. This is not the same thing as someone standing there playing music.
The best sets are not just a collection of songs. In fact, in small clubs people would often request popular tracks. Not to be entertained. A DJ is not a jukebox.
There are skills involved not just related to producing tracks.
However, I don't think a DJ is un-important. I think of a DJ like a film-editor. Sure, the editor does not do any of the acting, lighting, or cinematography, but they have immense control over how the film is delivered to the audience, and having a good editor is as important as having a good cinematographer or director.
To really control a large crowd in a meaningful way, you can't just throw on a playlist on shuffle, the DJ needs to "edit" the whole set to fit the night.
That said, I feel bad diminishing the work that went into, for example, Laserface[0]. I didn't attend the NY show, but the set was, for me, amazing[1].
[0]: http://laserface.garethemery.com/ [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gb2gmmTjx8
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