How Disc Jockey Skills Can Effect Environment and People
Introduction
Music provides a dialogue between a performer and the audience, usually even with no words needed. Thus, a disc jockey’s skills can be crucial for establishing this dialogue using music as a medium. It is interesting to study what exactly a disc jockey (DJ) needs in order to get in touch with the listeners via music.
Music And Emotions
According to recent studies, emotions sent by a performer – no matter if it is sadness, anger or joy – are received and understood by the listeners in the correct way. Correspondingly, those people, who create music, develop their sensitivity to other people’s emotional state (Weinberger, n.p.).
The connection between music and the listener is not always invisible. For instance, looking at people at a rock concert or a marching band can give an absolutely clear view of how music interacts with a human body. One can see heads nodding and feet tapping; those are visible signs. What one cannot see but what also can be measured and proven, is the high rate of blood pressure and even blood chemistry. That is the practical proof of music’s influence on a human body. Music can be used as an instrument for changing emotions, releasing emotions or comforting and stress relieving (Juslin, 131). Considering the type of music and the environment one can affirm that music can induce any type of emotion (Juslin, 133).
Music is a powerful instrument in a DJ’s hands, which allows energizing and exciting the crowd, or – vice versa – calming people down. Anyone who has ever been to a concert knows this effect. It turns out that a DJ can actually rule the audience. That is an amazing and, at the same time, a little bit scary fact. The crowd of people can be a great power, and led by a DJ, it can be programmed according to the wish of the latter.
Disc Jockey’s Charisma
For a good DJ, it is not enough just to know how to mix compositions. It is charisma that plays a significant role in the success of DJ’s performance. A DJ is by no means a robot that only pushes the button ‘play’; a DJ needs to be a bright individuality. A DJ must share his emotions with the crowd, charge people with energy. In this relation, a DJ should be a person with a rich inner world and have a sensual, emotionally deep-colored soul. A hard-hearted or faceless performer will never attract audience because of possessing nothing to be shared. Another obstacle of sharing emotions may appear if a DJ is reserved. Any performer must be opened to the audience for 100 per cent: this is a necessary condition for success achieving. Being a leader, a DJ makes people follow a certain way. It is a DJ who sets this path and sets the audience’s behavior. Thus, the type of the audience depends on the type of a person a DJ is. In this relation, the DJ determines the cultural level of the environment. The performer attracts those who like the music played by the performer.
The music is of prior importance for DJs, but when people attend concerts, the visual effects are also crucial. The show that a DJ makes and the image of the artist also play a certain role. The way the artist is dressed can have some impact on the crowd and set some fashion. For instance, if a performer has some tattoos, the admirers may want to have the same tattoos. This concerns also hairstyle, dress style, and so on. Not only outer look can be adopted by the viewers; admirers imitate the manner of speech, lexicon and movements that a celebrity performer demonstrates. In this way, a DJ, being a personality, renders individual features showing his character, background, and culture.
Feeling The Audience
Disc Jockeys from all over the world exercise their primary skill: selecting music, which is appropriate to the occasion (Komninos et al.). A Disc Jockey needs to feel the audience, to understand people’s preferences and their mood. The crowd’s mood is always changing and that may cause some difficulties for a DJ. But as soon as a DJ succeeds in it, some kind of invisible connection between the listeners and the DJ will be established. Why is this important? Music has a very significant influence on human psychological state. Thus, a person who sends some impulses to other people via music can have some influence on them (Komninos et al.).
As a DJ attempts to win the audience attention, it is necessary to interact with the audience. Many DJs invent some techniques for people’s attraction making not a simple concert but a dramatic show with numerous effects. This requires from a DJ certain creativity and intuition because it is crucial to understand what people want. This shows that the dialogue with the audience is conducted in a mutual way. Thus, the audience is driven by a DJ and, at the same time, the DJ is driven by the audience.
Conclusion
A Disc Jockey has a great impact on the audience. Music is a powerful instrument in a DJ’s hands allowing the latter to change people’s mood and behavior. Another instrument is a performer’s charisma which plays an important role in attracting people who want to listen to the music and watch the show. A professional DJ needs to interact with the environment: to count the preferences of the crowd and intuitively feel its mood.