I'd like to know other people's opinion about this.
I was discussing this phenomenon with a friend - DJs playing in restaurants
and other types of places (cafés, some types of bars, etc.) where dancing
is clearly not a possibility and the DJ is not a necessity.
My opinion was that, overall, it's annoying and a negative side affect of
the popularity of "DJ culture". As I'm sure many of you can attest - the
human jukebox gig can really be a drag. I had one gig that ran for a while
and was good but eventually turned into that. Near the end of my stint I
was told that someone there was about to threaten me with bodily harm
because I played something that was a bit leftfield. Essentially you
couldn't just ignore it. I was trying to tell my friend this - these types
of gigs allow trendy restaurants to bank on DJs to raise their hipness
factor and charge more for mediocre food. I know one local DJ who ranted
about DJs bringing down the "scene" by playing in coffee bars. A few weeks
after this I saw him spinning in a "upscale" beauty salon! Turns out he
seems to have a regular gig there.
His opinion was that he's been turned onto a fair amount of music by some
DJs in his city (Vancouver) that he's heard in restaurants. Now, he's a
producer himself and isn't shy about finding out about music he likes. I
doubt most others in restaurant would do the same. They eat, they talk
over the music, they pay their bill and leave. My friend is not a DJ, has
never played records to an audience anywhere so he doesn't know the
experience.
I suppose if you're getting paid you're getting paid but I feel there's
something just not right about DJs becoming so ubiquitous.
MEK
