What Happens To Dance Floors When ‘Everyone’ Is a DJ

It’s difficult to tell how many DJs there are in the world. Whatever estimates are available likely don’t count your roommate who has a few hundred songs and occasionally plays at your local bar; your uncle who learned to DJ while bartending in his 20s and jumps on a controller whenever he sees one; the so-called professional DJ who only makes money selling real estate. Still, all those people are DJs, at least according to them and the people who hear their music.

But what does it mean for dance floors when just about anyone can get behind the decks and attempt, as DJs do, to create an atmosphere?

Even someone who doesn’t listen to DJs often can tell when one is really bad. Playing several songs that empty the dance floor and none that pack it is a clear indication. Transitions that grate at the ears and make people wonder if the DJ is hearing the same thing they are another. 

It takes more attention to notice a good DJ. Their song choices and transitions keep a crowd in what some might call a trance, lost in the music instead of wanting to run away from it. Their sets might feel like journeys as opposed to random selections of music. Good DJing is like air. It’s easier to notice when it’s absent.

The quip “Everyone’s a DJ” has played on loop in the scene for years. Whether it’s said with an exhausted eyeroll or an encouraging smile, it reflects the reality that it’s rather easy to learn the technical ins and outs of playing one song after another. It’s also increasingly affordable. You can learn with a laptop, free software, and a few YouTube videos, no need for additional equipment, as many people did during the COVID-19 lockdowns. But there must be more to being a DJ than turning a few knobs.

What makes a good DJ?

“Being an actual DJ for me is understanding how tracks work together, how a crowd responds to them, and to have a passion and vision for a set,” Miri, the booking agent of Equation, the artist agency behind Vietnam’s “cave rave” told VICE. 

Miri added that a good DJ has knowledge of music history and spends a lot of time digging through tracks to find hidden gems. All the better if DJs can produce their own music or remix existing tracks. 

Nobody would be able to tell just by listening to DJs whether they have knowledge of music history, or how long they spent sifting through music to find their tracks, or whether they can produce their own songs. We all just hear the music thumping from the speakers. But the more you pay attention to their sets, the more you notice the less obvious ways DJs can be good. Knowledge of music history, a taste refined by exposure to more music, and production skills are not only important to “serious” DJs or booking agents. They may very well dictate whether the people hearing a DJ’s music bounce on the dance floor or from it. 

“Unfortunately, nowadays everyone can call themselves [a] DJ as soon as they have headphones and a USB, so the bar is getting lower,” said Miri. 

Professional DJing is all about intent for Sean Bautista, a DJ who also takes care of programming at Manila Community Radio, an independent online radio station.

That intent is informed by community and context. Good dance music DJs might intend to play sets that reflect their community’s history and respond to its current needs. Good scratch or hip-hop DJs might intend to flex the technical skills involved in mixing their genre of music. 

For Bautista, professional DJs know their intent and see it through in the right contexts and for the right people. 

Who gets booked? 

Few people will be good when they start DJing. Most will get better before they play more gigs. There are benefits to having as many DJs as possible: Provided the DJs aren’t just parroting other DJs, it means more music for everyone. It means more people expressing themselves while connecting with other people. It also means more people potentially learning about the rich history of music and how it has formed communities, decorated cultures, and fueled revolutions.

But “to differentiate yourself as a professional DJ and do it as a living [as opposed to being a hobbyist] comes with a responsibility,” said Bautista.

Professional DJs are responsible in large part for how good of a time the people listening to them have, at least if music is important to those people. They also compete for jobs with other DJs. In many cities, especially in Southeast Asia, where underground nightlife battles questionable policing and conservative cultures, having more DJs can be far better for the dance floors than it is for the DJs.

According to Sai Versailles, an archivist at Manila Community Radio who DJs as well, more DJs playing professionally in Manila, Philippines, has created a surplus of DJs and a big demand for them.

“But there is a lack of supply of places to play and money to give to everyone,” said Versailles.

That’s because most music venues are necessarily businesses. A bad track played at the wrong time can lead to a tab closed for the rest of the night. In order to make sure customers stay and keep coming, some venues will often book the same DJs over and over again instead of cueing in new ones. 

Versailles said that this pattern sometimes has little to do with actual DJing skills. An “influencer-y” DJ who is guaranteed to bring in a crowd will get more gigs than a skilled, and likely more intentional, experimental DJ.

“The big con about everyone being a DJ is that not everyone’s getting compensated fairly,” said Versailles. 

Booking the same DJs can sometimes be less about maximizing profits than about protecting the spirit of a scene. This might mean having fewer people at an event. But it allows the organizers to be more forthright about the atmospheres they are trying to create.

A queer rave might stick to its favorite half-dozen DJs instead of inviting one of many other DJs because the favorites know how to build an atmosphere that its patrons appreciate. Bringing in new DJs might also bring new crowds that inherently change the energy of the dance floor, driving out the people it was originally supposed to welcome.

What now?

The point is not to gatekeep DJing. It’s to understand why some DJs are better than others, why a handful get booked more than the rest, and how the quantity and quality of DJs affect the people who hear their music.

These are all, for better or worse, the rules of the game. It’s up to the DJs to play.

Follow Romano Santos on Instagram.