The Imitation Trap
As DJs we all have access to the same popular songs. So how can we avoid emulating each other and better manage the process of building creative sets that inspire our listeners.
The best way to not fall into the imitation trap is to diversify your intake of music. The more blended your music knowledge is, the more varied your creative output can be. Combining many different styles of music rather than sittin’ in front of your laptop and curating your playlist so that it’s on par with what everyone else is playing is crucial to keeping your DJing style unique.
“Do you have in your Brolic Army curriculum, tutorials on scratching out of songs?”
Second, practice! Solely relying on tutorials that aim to show you how to scratch, beat juggle or accomplish a task as basic as scratching out of a song means the “creative choices” you’re making when you DJ aren’t really yours, or all that creative for that matter. By all means, seek DJ tips from as many DJ schools as you like, but there comes a point where YOU must put what an online video has taught you into practice. Techniques are taught. Creativity is discovered!
So the next time you put together a set (whether it’s for a battle or a club) ask yourself, “what’s mine about this?”
Don’t get discouraged if aspects of your DJing still sound inauthentic. Developing your own style is a process that cannot be completed overnight or in a week’s time. Achieving originality as a DJ is time consuming. You must allow yourself the time to build the confidence it takes to work with different styles of music and do things to said music your audience doesn’t see coming! When what you learn from an online DJ class can be transformed into a personalized expression of that information, you’re no longer copying and regurgitating but experimenting.
Experimentation is by far the most important part of DJing. So after that online DJ tutorial helped you identify a particular DJ technique or concept, learn how to apply them in functional ways. Never allow a DJ tutorial or whatever is trending in the DJ world to limit the techniques you administer during a set or the type of music you choose to carry out those techniques with. Let go of rigid ideas of what a DJ set can be and instead define that for your own creative self!