Fuzzy Lion

It seems like every time I open my email box there’s another invite to
watch someone DJ. Whether it’s a celebrity DJ, a band member showcasing
as a DJ, or simply a friend, it’s seems like everyone can DJ. Now I
like music more than most and I also love hanging out with friends and
drinking;. however, inviting someone to watch you spin some records (or
play CDS, which is in most cases) is the equivalent of inviting someone
to watch me make some grilled cheese. Not exactly a plate of
excitement, right?

I have nothing against DJs or DJ parties; if
you want to gather your friends around a turntable/CD player and have
some drinks go for it and I’ll actually decide to go sometimes. The
thing I despise the most is the “DJ Guilt Trip.” You know, after the
initial email invitation, you get the personalized email, instant
message or phone call threatening “You better be there” or “You are
coming right!?!?!?!” Since I hate being rude and it’s obvious the
person doesn’t realize I might have something better to do on a Friday
night at 2 AM (Side Note: Why are they always DJing at like 1 AM in a
club that it not even near transportation), I give the typical “I’ll
try and make it out.”

Now here’s where it gets tricky: the DJ
aftermath. So you opted not to go because you wanted to save money
and/or decided to go see a movie, etc. The DJ calls you out with
something like “Missed you Friday night,” and/or “Where were you?!!” in
a disappointed tone. They continue to give you the details of all the
fun things you missed, like everyone got really drunk and spun some
records.

I know that some DJs view your attendance as a support
system. It’s not like if we don’t go we aren’t being supportive, we
just know that tomorrow we will get another email the next day about
another DJ for some other party. To summarize: we are just DJ’d out. So
here’s a list of helpful hints every DJ night should have that might
convince us to venture out into the middle of the night to a run down
bar to hear music we can listen to on our iPods:

*Famous Factor-
Yes, that’s right, get somebody famous. We are more likely to want to
see famous people DJ. We aren’t talking about F-List celebs or someone
that’s dating Paris Hilton. No, we want like Gwyneth Paltrow or Tom
Cruise, people who are really famous that we didn’t know actually
listened to music.

*Free Drinks- We do not care about drink
specials because that means we have to pay money out of our own
pockets. Open bar is definitely the way to go.

*Goodie
Bags/Raffle- Who doesn’t like leaving a party with some cool free
stuff? Whether we leave with a goodie bag or at least have a chance to
win something really cool in raffle, free stuff is always a shoe in for
high attendance.

*Theme Night/Creativity- Make it interesting
and pick a theme. Hawaiian t-shirts or slutty outfit night, add some
spice to make the evening stand out from the same old dj night.

*Spread
the Love- Look, stop having weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly DJ
nights. We get it; you like records. If you spread it out over a period
of time, we will more likely show up because we know it’s only once in
a while!

*Chill- Most importantly CHILL. Stop harassing and giving guilt trips and making us “feel bad” if we can’t make it out.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 at 12:32 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.