DJ Your Next Party

In this week’s blog I will talk about and teach you how to be a DJ at your next social outing, party, dance, or any type of event that requires a DJ. First of all let me just start out by saying that I am NOT a professional DJ, nor do I have years of experience being a DJ but what I do have to offer is a great love for music and a great appreciation for the songs that get people out of their seats and onto the dance floor. I have always enjoyed playing music for my family at our family parties but it has always been as simple as playing one song after another one ended. This past weekend was the first time that I DJ’ed at an actual event, it was my college’s Spring Formal. I agreed to do it because I knew this opportunity was rare and I had always had the desire to be the DJ at an event.

As I mentioned earlier, I am NOT a professional DJ therefore I do not have an actual DJ kit and you do not need one either. Thankfully we live in an era where there is an app for almost everything and I came across an app called “djay 2”, this app allows you to play two songs at once and make transitions like an actual DJ. After you download this app and get the hang of mixing songs the most important thing to figure out next is the audience that you will be performing for, I call this “knowing your crowd”, knowing your crowd is essential to having a successful night. I knew that my crowd was going to be a diverse crowd with different preferences in music so I had to find something that my crowd all shared in common. I figured that my crowd were all 18-24 year old millennials therefore I knew that all I had to do was prepare two hours of the most popular music from the 90’s up until now.

After you figure out your crowd the next step is to figure out what songs really get the crowd going I call this phase “knowing the classics”. There are songs that always get people onto the dance floor and every DJ should have these songs in their arsenal, some of these songs include “The Cupid Shuffle”, “The Cha Cha Slide”, “Suavemente” etc. each one of these songs are 99% likely to fill up the dance floor. As I mentioned earlier, I DJ’ed for a crowd of millennials so I knew that songs like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” then “This Is How We Do It” were songs that would provide a sense of nostalgia and excitement that they can only find out on the dance floor.

The final phase and perhaps my favorite phase is called “making the executive decision”. There will always be requests made while you are DJ’ing and there will be songs that are completely out of the blue but it is up to you as the DJ to play that song or not. If the music you are playing is getting the job done and people are having a good time then there is no need to change your playlist!

If you’ve never DJ’ed at an event I highly recommend that you give it a shot if the opportunity presents itself and here is a playlist to help get you started:

1. Despacito by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee
2. Drop it Like It’s Hot by Snoop Dogg
3. Get Low by Lil John
4. This is How We Do It by Montell Jordan
5. One Dance by Drake
6. Yeah by Usher
7. Suavemente by Elvis Crespo
8. Danza Kuduro by Don Omar
9. Middle by DJ Snake
10. Humble by Kendrick Lamar.