Club Music Debate

BANG ON SISTA !!!!!! AMEN TO THAT COMMENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly this goes out to all of Adelaide's DJs, really enough is enough, I together with half of Adelaide who do actually know what good music is all about sincerely have had enough of the same shit over and over again.... Some tracks I have heard being played for almost two years now, its ok if they are great tracks but most of them are not which makes it almost unbearable... How do you ever expect the evolution of the scene in Adelaide to happen when its the DJs who are holding it back... Now I can hear the arguement of having to make money for your employers by filling the dance floors with patrons brewing, but I would argue if you are able to fill the floors with the commercial crap is it not possible to fill them with new stuff too... I have had this conversation with some DJs who work in some relatively commercial clubs and suggested that they should try introducing new tracks in amongst the commercial ones they believe are filling the floors... They have and we have observed a rather interesting occurance, the crowd goes nuts for the newer stuff but go and get a drink or start chatting when the crap is played... The resulting factor is that in the equation is that I am starting to hear less of the crap, the crowd is much happier and the numbers at closing time are far greater than they previously were....

So what does that tell you ???????

ADELAIDE IS OVER THE CRAP AND READY TO START DANCING TO A WHOLE NEW TUNE..........

**It would be cool if a moderator could start up a separate thread for this, rather than drawing unnecessary attention to HQ.**


To an extent I agree with your posts J, but do believe that many are craving new music/education. It doesn't mean we should cease persisting in pushing things forward.

My perspective is that having played many times interstate in the last 18 months (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra) at major clubs the (house/dance) music scene is very different here to everywhere else.

For the most part people crave new music interstate. They are not generally exposed to older music via radio, as radio stations like Fresh dont really exist and Nova interstate might only play those tracks high in the ARIA club chart. Yes the general playlist on Fresh does contribute to people wanting to hear older familiar music in Adelaide's clubs. Or at least specific tracks as played on Fresh's general playlists.

But there are many more parts to this.

Giving DJs shorter sets is a major problem. When you have 3-5 DJs in a night who all play/have similar tracks, in order to stand out each will play the big familiar tunes to get a reaction, each trying to out-do the other and get recognition. Many clubs think that by having more DJs on the bill that means they will bring more friends/punters into the club. It may work for an event but for a club night the reverse is true.

The night will often lack consistency and people will often say one week it was great, the next week it sucked, and it is very much a hit and miss thing, depending on what time in the night one goes and which week one goes. The DJs become less loyal, playing gigs elsewhere to try make more dosh. The DJs also then become replaceable with another cheaper DJ who plays similar tracks.

Longer DJ sets are the way to go, any many international DJs who've I have interviewed on SG are quite vocal about this, some frequently playing 4-12 hour sets. It is all about building a consistent sound at a venue that people become passionate about. I like the fact that when I play at my Saturday Night residency I can play whatever I want over 3-4 hours. I get less requests now, and when I do they are decent choices. Last Saturday night was a great example of this, with a strong turnout.

Another factor is that compared to clubs/bars interstate, there is relatively little investment in clubs/bars here. I think that reflects more on Adelaide's general economy. People should expect to pay to get in to clubs/bars here, especially if the clubs/bars have invested much.

In terms of playing to bigger crowds, Mobin and I played to to a capacity crowd at OneLove Melbourne last year, so I dont agree with above posts by others that one has to play familiar to a larger venue at all. A better comparison (population wise) to HQ for example may be The Family in Brisbane, which does exceptionally well in pushing new music to a packed crowd every Saturday Night. They have internationals every 3-4 weeks and it is probably one of the best venues in Australia. And Brisbane will have 3 larger clubs (1000+) with 12 months.

Mal Chia recently published an article and it was bang on. *Hint Hint Mal*

Respect.

i pretty much agree with everything you said

Bill I agree with what you are saying and I am not referring to Melbourne I am referring to Adelaide.

Kingee.. take your blinkers off

may country western will take off in australia

unfortunately c&w is bigger here than it should be! can you say 'tamworth'?

i think it is just going through a phase, you had dance massive in the time you stated, then grunge/rock took over, rnb/hip-hop dominated after that and now that has kinda died off and we find ourselves where we are today

i am not talking in terms of 'popularity', more in terms of innovation and quality... and there is an element of popularity involved i guess but that is not the driving factor of a 'musical movement' in my opinion

Exactly - its not necessarily the DJ's who are to blame - they "have" to play certain track as thats what the typical 18 yr old commercially minded drone wants to listen to because shows like Video Hits say its cool & to buy its ringtone, etc.

There are however some DJ's that make a living off of picking up half stale anthems that respected DJ's have stopped playing on a weekly basis & IMO these anthem vultures are the DJ's holding back the scene..

That's what HMC and the like do, but it won't achieve the mainstream of practice in the dance party "scene". The simple fact is the punters don't want to be experimented with, they want comfort and anthems and familiarity.

Sure, there are people who will go hunting out sub-genres and djs like HMC for Bundi, but most people don't care. They just want to hear that "cool" Mylo or Chemical Brothers track ...

i dont understand having so many djs either, the only reason i can come up with for this is more djs equals more guest list equals more people equals more money over the bar



and this is why HMC is one of the most respected djs in the country. the music always comes first.

Somewhere a little less sa-fm i would say. Been to a few larger clubs around the place & must say I can;t remember ever hearing commercial house in any of them. I don't honestly know mate, I would just like to see the general populous of adelaide expand their listening horizons a little..

It is and it is merely a comparison of generation and change that has occurred as to why things have changed so much

Bang on, the general public doesnt really care about the music imho, they are there for the one or two headliners that theyve been told to like, everything else is just background music, but then that's also the case at gigs with bands, the supporting act usually means a good time to go to the bar.