Quote:

Hell I see people planning very expensive party’s and weddings and when it comes to the music they think, “we need a DJ”, not “we need a band”, not we need a DJ.



The reason is those wedding parties are not in their 60's except for the parents and their friends. The bride and groom and their friends who make up 90% of the party are mostly in their 30's. They know nothing of what we're talking about, they never went to clubs and saw real bands. To them DJ's are it, period. I think the reason is their type of music can't be covered by a live band anyway. It's all mostly sequenced with very bass heavy drums and such. No way can a live drummer duplicate that and no way can a live bass player do those super heavy thumping things without a ton of equipment and it's not a bass player doing it anyway. It's from a synth. Then there's all those little but very important synthy parts and scratches that are thrown in. I've actually gritted my teeth and listened to several sets worth of modern music. By modern I mean in the last twenty years. I know, that sounds incredible but rap, hip hop and the new R & B is that old. I listen with an ear towards how would I put a band together to do that stuff live and the answer is I couldn't. Nobody could without a full studio of stuff with all the roadies. DJ's are the only way to do it and they became stars because of it. I'm not saying all young people have no taste, far from it it's just there's not enough of them to matter to us as live players and when it comes time to party they want to hear DJ Jazzy Jeff or whoever the heck he is.

Before some of you jump in and say there's plenty of different gigs around, true there is, the market is not monolithic it's just that's a very small part of the big picture.

I guess the real answer to the original question "what is a live performance?" is if you're on stage in front of people doing whatever, be it playing or being a DJ, it's a live performance and whatever goes into making it possible is irrelevant to that question. My original answer was strictly from my point of view as an old fart who can play some keyboards.

Bob

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