Shpongled247 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 So, according to everyone who was there, from what I always hear, parties back in the hayday of goa were not so much about the dj playing, as the moment and music itself, and the people around you. DJ's and artists weren't put in some massive booth facing the crowd, and people wouldn't just be facing them the whole time in some kind of strange awe. Often times the dj booth would just be tucked away in some corner while the main area was the dancefloor with everyone facing and interacting with each other. You can check videos like this and similar ones to see what I mean: A lot of times nowdays, everyone faces the front, watching this other human being doing frankly boring things on a constructed stage rather than embracing what is around them and the moment they are in. I too am guilty of this of course! Have we lost something along the way? And are artists/dj being put in a spotlight that perhaps is not the most condusive to psychedelic experiences? What do you think? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blair Thaumic Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Even more mainstream DJs (Ishkur) have been saying this. I agree that it's better if DJs are semi-anonymous and take a facilitator role, rather than performing on a stage. As you said, it's not really exciting to watch, unless you're trying to learn how to DJ of course 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Hypnotic LFO Room Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 I've been saying this for years. Sadly no one seem to care these days. It's all about fame and adding people on pedestals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Eye Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Often I dance facing whatever direction I feel like facing. Turn your back to the DJ/Artist and you can watch the faces of people on the dancefloor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theqlogic87 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 All styles of electronic music was like this back in the day, now there's not one genre where people dont face the dj, Psy has been loosing that slowly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padmapani Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 absolutely! it's time to hide the artists behind the speakers or behind some flouro blankets. i have to admit that i usually face the dj on parties, but that's only because i face the direction the sound is coming from. i'll also happily stand in the huge free space (which shouldn't be there!) behind the central pillars at festivals, which block the view to the dj booth. what really made me realize how bad this has become was the pyramiduna festival in hungary. they had the dj booth rotated 90 degrees from the mainfloor and while there was a huge crowd near the dj booth - facing the djs, we were just 10-20 people near the speakers and oriented towards the PA. that was just insane; it's like the guy on stage is more important than the music he's playing. All styles of electronic music was like this back in the day, now there's not one genre where people dont face the dj, Psy has been loosing that slowly. not all styles. there's still freetekno, but even there the culture of not having the dj visible at all (and not printing individual artists on the flyers) has begin to erode a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padmapani Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 i've also looked for such videos some time ago. some nice examples i found were these: goa gil playing in goa in 1999 (that's not even the early days of edm, when everything was still new and there was more of a kind of communal spirit - as far as i hear, i wasn't there) notice how we see the at the time "superstar dj" of psytrance only for very short amounts of time in the video, and when we see him, no one cares, no one looks at him, no one cheers to him. everyone faces the music or the other partygoers. now on to the other extreme: everyone looking up to a fancy stage decorated with visuals and blinking lights and with the most important thing in the entire performance: the guy who presses play and then waves his arms around and shouts into a microphone every now and then. no one is really dancing, but they hold up signs and national flags and raise their hands when commanded to do so. if we extrapolate from how our scene has changed from 1999, then the second example is our not so distant future. so what can we (or rather party organisers) do? my list of measures would look something like this: - don't build a fancy stage - don't sacrifice "traditional" decoration like fluoro blankets or string art for lightshows/lasershows centered on the stage - distribute decoration equally around the mainfloor - don't book artists that act like a rockstar on stage and play "put your hands up in the air" breaks every few bars and - hide the artists from plain view Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Often I dance facing whatever direction I feel like facing. Turn your back to the DJ/Artist and you can watch the faces of people on the dancefloor But on the other hand, facing forward gets you the best sound from the speakers! Personally I don't go to enough parties, and especially not big enough ones, for this to matter to me. Where I live there are no DJ stars, and parties are a few dozen people at most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penzoline Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 goa gil playing in goa in 1999 (that's not even the early days of edm, when everything was still new and there was more of a kind of communal spirit - as far as i hear, i wasn't there) notice how we see the at the time "superstar dj" of psytrance only for very short amounts of time in the video, and when we see him, no one cares, no one looks at him, no one cheers to him. everyone faces the music or the other partygoers. That feel when you realize you will never experience goa party in goa with Etnica - Blinded Moon in the background Such. Feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 @Shpongled247 I agree. Reminds me of a party in Ibiza where the DJ was hidden in a tree Awesome videos too. But everyone is free to dance as he wants! Personnally I settle where the sound feels the best and don't move from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatsu Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Well, in my book a DJ or act who is able to deliver a great set deserves the attention from the crowd. This does not mean that the dancers have to worship the guys and girls on stage or anything like that. Dance your asses off anyplace you like if you feel like it, this shows allready all the respect that is needed. I personally also like to dance in front of the DJ because I like to see how he or she mixes, this can be very interesting. I also like to show my support if I like the music that is being played and it can be lots of fun if the DJ interacts with the crowd (on the other hand I prefere friends djing to big names so the interaction is different there anyway). But what annoys me if people don't really care about the music that much but just cheer for the DJ if he or she has a big name. I've encountered that lately when I was watching and hearin Solee (not a goa guy but a damn fine techno producer) play a set. He is sort of my hero since he is able to create amazing tracks. Unfortunately he either had a very bad day or is generally not really a good DJ since his set sucked hard. Never the less people where acting like it was the hottest shit ever. Even when he had problems mixing the tracks together sometimes, wasn't able to create a real set (it sounded like he randomly selected some tracks) and the music was mainly boring. But hey, he has a big name so lets cheer. Generally (not only when it's about techno but I had similar feelings at the last psyparties I were) lots of people at parties (depends on the parties of course) give me the feeling they don^t care too much about the music. A good beat, a hard bass and they are satisfied. Obviously it gets worse the bigger and more commercial the parties are. Since it's more about being there, taking some pics for facebook and maybe find somebody to bang or doing drugs than actually enjoying some special musical moments (not that really loving the music and still looking for somebody to bang or drugs is not possible ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 its all depends wich party do you attend .... if you attend todays parties with oldschool rules and tematics, you will find similar public reactions too (dancing, music, happiness, positive vibes to all around ect ) .... those who are there with no reason exept they came because of no other options, they cant be trolls like allways cause no one see them .... soon they go into hibernate state and leave .... thats only my experience latelly ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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