As a DJ I love to play for the people, I love giving them what they want and seeing everyone with their hands in the air and smiles on their faces, enjoying a collective dancefloor experience. It is perhaps contradictory then that so often as a DJ I refuse to play what people want. Like most of us DJs (yes even the ones who smile politely and seem to happily do your bidding) I generally resent 95% of requests for music. The other rare 5% tend to get it spot on and I salute you. I’ve been told recently (not by any venue I was playing at thankfully) that this is in fact the wrong attitude to have and that it is my job to play jukebox for any pissed chancer who may want to hear the latest Lady Gaga or Cheryl Cole track…. this person is obviously not rightly in tune to what it is we actually do.
What for example would happen, if somebody happened to wander into Cardiff Arts Institute on a Friday night and finding themselves unhappy with the Future Garage or Dubstep-esque tune I might be playing at the time, asks for their favourite Lady Gaga track? What if I go against my inner instincts and jump on the venue’s internet, download the latest track ‘Fax My Vadge’ or something like that and play it out? I can’t say for certain but I can guess the rest of the club would not be altogether happy with the change in policy.
You see, it’s not even that I don’t like the music, I’m fairly indifferent and ever so occasionally I can even appreciate. Everyone has their guilty pleasures, I have a whole lifetime’s worth. However it’s what these tunes represent, it’s the factory mentality that I’m not conforming to. As a DJ we don’t play for individuals, we play for the crowd to give them the best listening experience possible (and yes generally this involves playing a lot of stuff they don’t know, it is after all our job to listen to lots of music so invariably we tend to know a lot of good stuff you haven’t heard yet) and in Cardiff Arts Institute, in my experience, the majority of the crowd is made up of two types of people. Those who spend their working life in a factory state of mind and use their spare time, if not escaping from it, then at least forgetting about it for a while. This means, to some degree putting aside everything the big society machine tells you to do: the music on the Radio you’re supposed to listen to / buy; the High Street clothes you’re supposed to wear / buy; and the gossip you’re supposed to talk about / buy into. The other type of person we get, are those who have made it their mission to not be a part of that machine in the first place. I salute those people too, because it’s not always an easy thing to step out of.
Some people, infact maybe most people, are stuck in the machine. That’s fine, we all get stuck in it sometimes but then we become bored, restless, aggravated and even angry. It is no coincidence that there are many hundred more fights at the St Marys Street end of town than towards Gwdihw, Buffalo and Cardiff Arts Institute. These are the heart and soul of the city, the energy source, the creative hub. Cardiff is a cyborg city, but as long as it still has a space for people to collectively be human, it will never become the full robot it often seems like the powers that be want it to become. Yes sometimes I play cheese and more often than not you love it, but much of that is to do with memory, creating a shared experience which draws on people’s roots to bring them into the present… and sometimes it’s because I’m drunk and just want to play Prince and sing along. Generally though, on the weekends, I like to give people something different, exciting and inspiring, something that’s not going to make you shut off but wake up parts you forgot were working. We all deserve a little bit more out of life so if somebody is up harassing the DJ, trying to stop that in some way, trying to drag you back into the machine, trying to ask for Lady frigging Gaga. We may be polite and nicely decline, we may also be a little offensive if offended by the request, but what us CAI DJs (almost) certainly won’t do is play it.
This is not to say, if you happen to like Lady Gaga that you are not welcome in the place, of course not. I like Tom Jones and Dolly Parton and they still let me though the door (and I’ll happily defend my right to play them if I feel like it too). What it means is, this is a place where you don’t have to listen to her and you don’t have to listen to the latest R’n’B pop drivel, so please respect that right and leave the DJs to do their thing. It’ll make for a much more satisfying night out.
bigLOVE,
Kaptin
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by owen morgan 85, CAI. CAI said: Why You Will (Probably) Never Hear Lady Gaga at CAI http://cardiffartsinstitute.org/2010/06/zeitgeist/gaga/ http://fb.me/zHmilV6j [...]
Jesus christ, what a snob. Music is FUN whether Lady Gaga or Monotonix, so get off your high horse.
Oh, and Prince is NOT cheese. I really can't stand you indie elitists. So scared to look uncool, second-guessing yourselves all the time.
I think the point was that Prince IS cheese.
Yup – read it again and that definitely was the point…
I was there the other night at the Chew Lips gig, and I think I would write WTF all over the lego wall if I heard Gaga in such a place. Not that I don't LOVE Gaga, but there's a time and place for Gaga, and it's dancing around my living room, not in the CAI.
So… my comments got removed then? How very Stalinist.
Kaptin,
So you personally don't like R&B, why not just say that.
A good song is a good song, don't worry too much about who is singing. I like what you do at CAI, but off the top of my head I could name 3 Gaga songs that I'd rather hear over, say, Chew Lips or similar generic production-line psudo 'art' band.
Hey Rob,
Actually I like alot of R'n'B and as I said, I even like some Lady Gaga but as @Mymyi says there's a time and a place for everything and for me and alot of people that is not Friday and Saturday night at CAI. If people want to go to Oceana, etc fine but there has to be an alternative that is more creative and expressive and helps people wake up rather than shut off. I completely agree that music is fun and anyone who has been to CAI on the weekend recently would definitely testify to that.
elmsyrup I don't think any comments have been removed, I'm open to any criticsm and have no problem looking uncool, something I've managed to look most of my life… and sorry Prince may have made some of the most innovative, exciting music of our generation, I have plenty of his albums, but he's still cheese for the most part.
Well said Kaptin.
Theres a place for everything. If not, the people fighting on St Marys St would be in the CAI. Playing Gaga would be the start of it…
Personally, i love the disco room in Oceana. Its as much as a change for me as i shun that type of club normally. Not enough Prince lpayed though.
DJ's are a bit like music dictators, but we're to blame for putting them in power!
Its easy to make it a democracy; Vote with your feet. If you don't like the song, sit down, however if you love the tune then show some appreciation and dance your pants off…a good DJ will soon get the hint of what their audience want or they risk a massacre on the dance floor.
Because people who jump on an opportunity to troll blogs aren't elitist are they?
If you don't agree with an opinion on a blog … don't read it. The internet is full of opinions and guess what you probably won't agree with all of them.
I think it's fair enough that DJs should want to express their tastes and try to expose an audience to something they might not have come into contact with. Don't we want to be surprised or excited? I would rather be asking a DJ what tune they're playing than telling them.
If you want a jukebox there are plenty about.
A good DJ gives you exactly what you want; a good DJ meets the crowd halfway; a good DJ plays music you've never heard before. It all depends how well they play it.
As a fellow DJ I empathise with Kaptin and the points he is making. I often give this expalnation: For every song you have heard in your life, at some point you had never heard that song. You make the choice if you like it or not.
The Dj's job is to entertain but also to play something you never heard before in the hope you like it. There is no greater pleasure than an excited individual asking what a new song is called. We know that you want to dance, we know you want to have a good time, we know that you want to hear stuff you know, but cut us some slack and let us get on with it.. If you ask us to play something unsuitable, (would you ask for northern soul in a techno club) it isn't gonna happen and it is the haranguing of the DJ that causes the bad vibe. Open your ears and open your mind, you might find that there's more to life than Lady(boy) GaGa, and if you don't like what you hear then go somewhere else and leave the people who do like it in peace.
Alright, I've cooled down a bit. Sorry I thought my comments were removed- they disappeared off the site 10 minutes after I posted them, but they have come back now so it was obv some technical thing. Look, I'm not being a troll (they say things they don't mean purely in order to provoke a response), but I'm so disappointed to read this article because I LIKE the CAI. I'm a regular. But this kind of anti pop sensibility is so short-sighted. Just because Gaga is popular doesn't stop her from being audacious and exciting, and I have a suspicion Peel would have rather admired her. If you dismiss her so readily, you're totally missing the point. Music is just good or bad, there should be no such thing as a guilty pleasure. I know many of the Cardiff scenesters and (naming no names) certain people can be so po-faced and indier-than-thou. It infuriates me.
This is a point of view that can never be agreed on. I've DJ'd a lot in the past, and luckily have never had the dilema of being asked to play something I don't want to. Usually because its not in my bag. But to have a disclaimer on why you don't play XYZ artist is a bit much. If you politely say you don't have the record to the drunken numpty who asked for it, they will leave CAI with an indifferent attitude. If you tell them to do one, or take an aloof standpoint they will never come back, and probably tell 10 of their friends that the place is full of music fascists. You may start to lose business, or you may garner the support of more secular Indie crowd and make a killing, who knows.The scenesters are equally as annyoing as the guys who have superficial tastes. I'm talking about the kind of people that list all their favourite bands on Facebook, or you pass in the street and have annoyingly cool clothes on. I'm all for a place to go and listen to decent music for a change, which CAI most defintely is, but please just get on with creating a manifesto that doesn't alienate potential enthusiasts!
I remember the heady days of the Sub Club in Glasgow where the DJs were behind a fairly high parapet – this precluded the shorter clubbers from asking for requests. Being over six feet tall, it was no problem for me to occasionally go over an (perhaps inadvisedly) ask for a tune.
Invariably they'd go "Aye, no bother mate" and then not play it. The clubs strict avoidance of chart-matter never seemed snobby though – (not that that's what I ever requested by the way!) – I say let the DJs be the makers of music and the dreamers of dreams.
God, I hope I never get stuck in a machine. Especially not a blog culture machine with a current trend for Future Garage or the Dubstep-esque.
Hate to loose a limb or scratch my Skream bootleg vinyl.
I think the point may have been lost somewhere along the way, people are defending Lady Gaga but there's really no need. This is no reflection on her as a person, she is a remarkable businesswoman and although she's no Madonna she's possibly her best student. As I said, some of it I like some of it I'm indifferent too and yes some I think is drivel. It doesn't matter to me in the slightest if you like Lady Gaga or not, this rant (and yes it is a rant not a manifesto, the CAI Manifesto is elsewhere on this site and I certainly don't speak for everyone here) is basically about the fact that for some people out there, ALL they want to hear is Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole and other stuff that is over played elsewhere. The rant comes from having far too many people at other venues asking for Lady Gaga at completely innapropriate times, a problem that DJs everywhere complain about all the time. The point is that CAI is that little oasis away from the zoo of St Marys Street where you can actually find something a bit different to do on the weekends, if that's snobby at all then so be it.
Didn't you put on a Stevie Wonder tribute act?
you sound like a twat and ur nights sound shit