So, there you are playing a gig, the music’s pumping, the crowd’s dancing. You stretch your arms forward, bringing your hands together to form a heart shape. The crowd responds.
It’s great, right? But, stop for a minute and ask yourself: are you doing it because it’s what will help the crowd have a better time? Or are you doing it because you want all that love and adoration reflected right back to you?
Some DJs are all about centering the attention back on them. Others are all about stepping into the shadows a bit more and letting the music and the crowd be the stars. All DJs have, at one time or another, relied on a certain trick or move because he thought it would get the crowd going or because he thought it would be cool.
But if everyone’s doing it most of the time, that trick suddenly becomes cliché. All of a sudden you’re not cool anymore, you’re just a run-of-the-mill DJ who doesn’t really know how to engage the crowd in any other way.
Ouch. That’s kind of harsh! What I mean is that clichéd moves aren’t necessarily bad, boring or ineffective. They’re just too overused. Switch it up, use them a little less often and you might be surprised at how effective they really are.
Wondering what some of the most clichéd DJ moves are? Check them out here.
