Hire local artists and musicians instead of DJs at your parties

DJs are hired extensively at dance festivals also, although they are not in the same bracket with parties, weddings and anniversaries, and shall not be a subject of discussion in this article.

The title of the article suggests that this article is regarding something that is in sharp contradiction with the commonly observed phenomenon, which is in vogue nowadays. Tons of words have been written on the glamorous presence and the advantages of hiring DJs in the relevant occasions, but little has been written on the disadvantages and far reaching impact of the obsession with DJs and trans-music. It is the high time to discuss some of those, as the issues will result into grave consequences if neglected.

First of all, DJs do not sing or dance. Their only talent is to make you dance – sometimes on a slow, romantic tune and at other times, crappy high pitch tracks. They are fully dependent on electronic equipments and music created by other people, and they only mix those tracks to the extent that it becomes spicy enough to make people leave their seats and spring to their feet after boozing for quite some time in the parties. As a result of this hysteric nature of their art, nothing original and genuine is produced. The music we hear from DJs are mostly short lived and sounds well only when we booze or are in a mood for wild celebration. As such, there is no or little artistic quality in what DJs churn out of their turntables and electronic mixers. I am yet to see a track prepared by DJs surviving 5 years.

The second point of concern is that the money we spend behind cheap music is discouraging local musical talents. The local singers and players of musical instruments, who practice hours in a day to perfect their art, are getting no scope of performing at local stages and earning money for the same. The grim reality is that one can romanticize about high quality and original music produced by a creative mind and a body of blood and flesh, but no mind or body will be able to sustain, let alone practice and sharpen their craft, if there is no or little money in what they do. Let us face a fact – not everyone can become a Justin Bieber or a Miley Cyrus at their teens and people pursuing music needs encouragement from the public.

Another, and perhaps that most significant and far-reaching yet the most neglected point is that we are losing a culture of music and thereby, sacrificing a part of our soul in turn for some metallic, cold and electronic sound. Let us remember one simple fact before we hire DJs for parties and weddings at the next occasion – electronic music cannot create a culture and is incapable of binding societies and nations. There is a difference between sound, noise and music. We need to understand that difference. Folk music, in terms of quality, is far more soothing and exciting to human ears and can make people dance also. We must not forget that for hundreds and thousands of years, folk music have made tribal dance and there is no reason that it cannot make the so called sophisticated people of urban societies dance at their parties. In this case, I would like to mention one incident concerning the best DJ service in Melbourne, Australia. I shall not mention their name but they regularly keep a healthy stock of folk music collected from all over the world and they are heartily accepted by the audience, every single time those tracks are played in the original or the improvised form.