iPod killed the DJ star
April 13, 2007
I was looking at San Francisco music entertainment prices. Then I crapped my pants.
It’s understandable that live bands can cost several thousands of dollars. They’re trained musicians who have honed their craft for years. Unlike me, who was actually quite good on the piano and violin but gave it up for……um…yeesh, I don’t even remember. Was it Princeton Review? Maybe, it was something “Asian.”
On the other end of the entertainment, you have the event DJ. To me, the event DJ is just some dude or chick who plays CDs and “improvises.” (Note that those were cynical air quotes).
Not a lot of people dancing = Baby Got Back.
A bunch of drunk tweens = Living on a Prayer.
Easy enough.
So we’re opting for one of those iPod Weddings. The Zoo’s event manager said that they do it for receptions all the time and that it was basically an audio line-out that you plug into your iPod. This way, we can have all the songs we want playing from a playlist. Oh sure, cast your judgement. This idea may sound tacky, impersonal, unprofessional, and makeshift to those frou-frou poodle brides. For us, it’s the perfect way to make the wedding more interactive. On our future wedding website, we’re reminding people they can make their own Patrick-and-Karen Playlists on their iPods (songs people want to dance to, songs they want to dedicate to us, whatever), and on the day of the wedding, we will plug different people’s iPods at different time slots! The sense of community and interaction is really brought forth by this rad, rad, rad idea.
April 16, 2007 at 10:46 am
wedding DJs SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, I hate them all and I’ve been to SEVERAL weddings… and heard the same songs at each one. Since I’m a big music snob, I will NOT be having a wedding SJ unless it’s me or like some dude from the UK or Germany.
April 21, 2007 at 5:27 am
Wow, that P&K playlist idea is very cool. I would love to go to wedding where someone actually let me dedicate a song I thought was appropriate for them! Very cool.
April 23, 2007 at 7:41 pm
my fiance and i decided on a similar thing, we’re using my lapto (or his) and he’s getting some bluetooth thing so he can control the music via his cellphone from wherever he is. i thought paying for a band that no one was going to dance to was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere. plus i had nightmares about trying to find a band that kept EVERYONE happy.
the ipod idea is SUPER though. why d the best ideas seem to always occour to someone else?
August 1, 2007 at 2:02 am
Real DJs don’t play at weddings. The mobile-DJ service companies are pathetic, idiotic and ignorant above all. The largest crowd I spun for was around 5000 or so people at a FutureFest in Atlanta back in 2000. Hopefully you already knew the difference since you lived in the UK. CD playing people aren’t DJs.
There is true artistry in track selection(key progression), beat matching, scratching, beat juggling, triples and rewinds that are among the tools a true vinyl DJ uses. Especially this one.