How to DJ

Well, I haven't updated this in a while. I have an event today. As one of my friends would put it... "DANCE DANCE, HYPE HYPE!"
If you haven't guess it yet, I am DJ-ing a middle school dance tonight.

I have spent the last couple of nights staying up late spending some iTunes money buying songs.

There are some very important things to keep in mind while DJ-ing or preparing to DJ. Here's a list:

1: It is important to keep in mind the general age of the group while preparing your playlist.

2: Is there a theme for the dance?

3: What are the regulations on language/lyrics in the song?

4: What activities are planned for the night?

I will elaborate on each of these points:

Age of the group:
In my case, the age group the dance is for is middle school. Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8. Now, this has an impact on music selection. I hardly doubt that kids like house music. (Unless it's famous Benni Benassi's "Satisfaction") Kids are more into mainstream music, such as "Call Me Maybe" by C.R.J., or Katy Perry.

Another thing to keep in mind is, Are there any "traditions"? At this school, it is quite popular to play "We No Speak Americano" or "Cha Cha Slide".

Theme:
This one is kind of self-explanatory, but I'll go into detail anyways. Themes are important for many things.

They have a factor in the music selection. (In my case, this dance is the 80's!) I was asked to play some 80's music tonight, which I plan on doing.

They also have a factor in what you will do with your lights. I like to give the kids a great light show. We have at our availability 10 "LED par 64" lights (such as the ones shown below) as well as 3 DJ LED moving lights with mirrors.



These lights are easy to control with a DMX/XLR operating board.












Language/Lyrics:
Again, another self-explanatory one, but I will go into details.
Keeping in mind your audience, you must select an appropriate song choice. For younger kids, it is not appropriate to be playing songs about sex and drugs and hookers and stuff. That doesn't bode well with the organizers ( I am saying this from past experience...) so keep it to an acceptable level.

Activities:
Quite often during dances, there are activities/competitions planned. We have a FreezeDance planned, as well as a Snowball. You need music for these things, and sometimes it's specific music, so you must be sure to include these songs in your playlist.

That about sums it up for this portion of how to. I plan to update this one a few times, because there are more dances, and I will have pictures and stuff to upload :)

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment and critique my how-to's!