Video: This Is What DJing Is All About

You don’t need to be a big star to be a successful DJ. You don’t need to be performing crazy, out-there transitions or spinning the same tunes as all the other wannabe DJs on your block. If you already love music, and have a deep God-sent desire to share the music you love with other people, then you have what it takes to be a DJ. And the 20 million views this video has got on Facebook is proof…

The Video

This is Misbehaviour (original Facebook video here), a DJ originally from the UK but now stateside. We don’t know her personally. She’s a working DJ, and has a respectable string of corporate gigs under her belt (listed on her home page). She’s been doing this since 1990, and promotes a successful weekly vinyl-only night in her current home city of New York. She’s done a Boiler Room. She’s certainly got a profile. But you haven’t heard of her, right?

Yet you only have to look at the faces of the people here to understand that this is a DJ at the top of her game.

Why she’s great

So what has she got that marks her out as a great DJ? Apart from clearly having been in the game for long enough to prove she belongs there, let’s list a few more things that are obvious from this little clip:

• Knowledge of music
• Passion for what she plays
• Obvious authenticity
• Naturalness behind the decks
• Humbleness

What I want to point out is this: That right there is what really matters! This clip is so good because it shows what’s truly important about DJing. It’s connection with your crowd. Love of your music. The sense that you’re a conduit, a messenger, that you’re bringing the good stuff and channeling it onto the dancefloor. It’s not about you: It’s about the music.

This is what DJing is about. If you too feel that feeling about music and DJing, you have what it takes. The rest you can learn. But that – the spirit demonstrated by Misbehaviour in the clip above – can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t. And she clearly does. That’s why the clip made us so happy here at Digital DJ Tips. Great work, Misbehaviour!