*EDIT: This was at first a long ranting post about blah blah blah; now it's just medium-long.
From what I've seen in Miami, and for that matter most cities I've been fortunate enough to DJ in (focusing primarily in the US), you could interchange the DJ between the cities and nobody could tell the difference. Apart from varying degrees of finesse and technical proficiency, the set-lists would be near-identical.
"Yoga Fireball!"
The worst thing about it is that this trend of conglomeration/"rushing to the center" is occurring in a period of time where music is, for arguments sake, at its most diverse. In what other decade could you hear most any genre at the same party? Hip-Hop, Disco, Funk, Blues, Doo-Wop, House, Booty, Rock, Reggae, etc etc etc. The question is, why, with the availability of such an expansive musical palette, is there an increasing moderation/conformity of selection? Is it some derivative musical form of "Future Shock"?
Read me. Seriously. I'm like 1984+9.
Well, if you're still reading this, and happen to be a DJ, take a chance and drop something people haven't heard that you enjoy next time you're out. If it doesn't work, maybe you have a horrible taste in music and shouldn't be a dj in the first place. Or, maybe you need to hit em again, and again, and again.
Months ago, Induce and I were watching a Channel 4(UK) documentary I had bootlegged called, Pump Up The Volume: The History of House Music, that has a segment on the days of Larry Levan(?). Some of the interviewees remark on how some nights he might have played an unknown cut 4 times in one night. The first time, nobody cared; but by the last play, everybody was into it. I told this to Matt Cash, and he kinda did the same thing w/ Holy Ghost's "Hold On" track. By the end of Poplife that night, everybody was up on it!
That said, play something different, and if it doesn't work . . . 5 times later, you can still play "Groove Is In The Heart" . . . the Remix.
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