By Dave Austin – “The Music Professor” At a mention of the city of Detroit, it’s likely that “The Motor City” and “Motown” will instantly come to mind. However, by way of a close friend and Detroit native with whom I worked, I learned that this city has a varied and rich musical heritage. With…
By Dave Austin the “Music Professor” It seems to me that there’s been another subtle shift in pop music tastes recently. After years of often mind-numbing rap and minimalist hip hop songs, my hopeful ears seem to be hearing a resurgence of slow songs which are classified as ballads. You remember them, don’t you? They…
By Dave Austin the “Music Professor” As DJs, we know and play a lot of music, but how much do we really know about the songs we work with? I’m fortunate to have studied and played music and have a basic understanding of musical structure. However, not everyone had such an opportunity, so let me…
By Dave Austin, the “Music Professor” Nashville, “Music City USA,” is just a short drive up the road from where I live and work, so it goes without saying that country music is very popular at many of my events. In fact, this fundamental American music has roots which date back to the 1920s in…
By Dave Austin, the “Music Professor” Over the holidays, I made a swing through Florida, and while there, had the opportunity to visit with a couple my old band buddies. During the course of our gab sessions, we got onto the topic of Florida musicians. I was somewhat surprised to learn just how many famous…
By Dave Austin, “Music Professor” I belong to a local business group and at each weekly meeting, members offer a short statement about their particular business. This past meeting, I asked the group to name the top dance song in America. The responses included, “YMCA,” “Cha-Cha Slide,” etc., but to my stunned amazement, not a…
By Dave Austin, “Music Professor” So you’re a new DJ standing behind the mixer at your first major event. If you’re like I was, you have a vision of packing the dance floor from the very first song and driving the crowd into a dancing frenzy with your music selections. Now fast-forward to the end…
By Dave Austin, “Music Professor” This month brings us to Part 3, the concluding installment of this series on music programming. In Part 1 I discussed selecting music to fit your audience. In Part 2, I discussed building music sets. Now, let’s talk about organizing your music or sets in a manner which fits the…
By Dave Austin, “Music Professor Last month, in Part 1 of this series, I began a discussion of programming with an eye on selecting music to fit your audience. However, audiences can vary widely and you may have a group of middle school kids at one event and a senior citizens’ dance at your next….
By Dave Austin, “Music Professor” In an interview, trombonist J.J. Johnson observed, “Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.” Jazz, in its various incarnations, now spans over 100 years – from ragtime to the present day, making it nigh impossible to define. Music scholars spend hours trying to succinctly define jazz…
