by MATTHEW DEVITO Staff Writer
Many people think DJs accumulate large wads of money in a short amount of time just for playing music, but what people do not know is that the life of a DJ is harder and much more complicated than people think.
Though most of the stereotype of how DJs simply take in large sums of cash in one night is true, people do not see how much preparation goes into that ONE party.
Before you can even DJ your first party, you need to know that you are going to commit. I only say this because you have to spend tons, and I mean tons, of money on equipment. I can say the minimum for a decent mixing board would cost around $200. Though it may seem like a lot (to someone who is starting young), that is one of the many things you need to buy just to do small house parties.
You have to buy a mic, speakers, wires, lights, tripods for the speakers and lights, and even a fog machine to make the lights look better, and some of these things are very expensive. For example, if you want a decent mic, it costs $100! And wires for the mic and speakers you have to buy separately from your equipment.
Freshman David Lawrence, a DJ in the school, said, “It is so expensive because you have to buy a computer (if you don’t have one to begin with) and those are extremely expensive. Then you have to buy the program to use for DJ’ing, speakers (very expensive for the right ones with good quality), a mixing board, which are very expensive for the good ones, and lights which costs hundreds of dollars for just a few of them.”
After you have gotten your equipment, you need to practice for hours and hours. Everyone thinks that it is as easy as singing the ABCs. Well, it is not. When I first started DJ’ing, I would practice maybe three to five hours a night, every night, until I felt I was ready for a party.
It is complex to mix live in front of a lot of people at parties. Mixing live is basically going from song to song in a creative way that flows and sounds well. If you mess up, it is not a good thing at all. To not mess up, you have to practice, practice, practice!
Another Monroe DJ, senior AJ Demarco said, “You should practice for about one to two years before doing huge parties. Honestly, you could practice for a week and DJ a party, but I can guarantee it will be your first and last party that you would DJ.”
Then there is the pain known as downloading music. If you are trying to save money by getting free music, then it is a painful process to get songs. Free music has to be downloaded from several different sites and only a few of those sites can be trusted. It takes hours to get a lot of music, but in the end, when you start to use that music for the first time, it is almost like opening a bunch of different gifts on Christmas morning.
Then last but not least, there is the fun of finding jobs and FINALLY DJ’ing at them. After all of the hard work, going to the party and creating the atmosphere for people truly is the highlight of the job. It is not the pay (though that is a wonderful bonus) or for being popular, it is truly the fact of having fun and making a lot of people have fun for that night.
To like this job, you truly need a passion for music and you need to love to have fun at a club atmosphere. You cannot like it because it gives good money.
That is the life of a DJ. Hours of hard work and patience finally pays off when you DJ a party.
Now as people can see, being a DJ is more complex than just playing music for a few hours and getting paid. Now knowing this, would you want to be a DJ?