Like most good things in life, the modern idea of a disc jockey (or DJ) comes from France in the middle of the 20th Century. When given the choice between an unpredictable band or the reliability of records to soundtrack a party, most nightclubs became discotheques ("record library" from the French), and discotheques needed people (or DJ's) to play the records. However, in the modern parlance of the DJ, there's a difference between someone who plays records and someone who manipulates records, especially in the world of EDM (electronic dance music), and there's a lot more esteem and money associated with one over the other.
When I tell people that I used to DJ when I was younger, people tend to think of the current understanding rather than the historical, and they're often more impressed than they should be. However, I pretty much saw myself as a human jukebox, with little to no actual artistic input. Looking back, I see plenty of opportunities where I could have made myself unique through creativity, but let's be frank -- I pushed buttons, sequenced music, and played with lighting and fog and a portable microphone. Anyone could do what I did, and in the 21st Century, everyone can.
But back in the late 20th Century, while it was less common, it was something I did with relative regularity when I got into my teens. I "officially" started by DJ'ing a dance at a summer nerd camp (Midwest Talent Search!) between my freshman and sophomore years by cuing up cassettes and playing them via my dual-cassette boom box. I then moved into the CD world in '86 and DJ'ed many of our high school dances for a few years running. In the summer of '87, I had one-and-done gig at The Rock House in Houghton Lake, where I did a pretty terrible job; when I did a handful of July and August gigs at the Rock House in the summer of '91, I was much better. I even did a couple of weddings, just to come to the quick understanding that I never wanted to do weddings.
However, when I think of my DJ "career" (such as it was), Mount Pleasant was where I did my sinful little business. I started for a few months in the fall of '91 at The Wayside, the freshman meat market bar just off campus, and I played enough rap and R&B to get noticed by the racist and sexist manager, who gave me a rock-oriented playlist to follow on my last night of employment there. (I don't like being told what to play, for some reason.) After a few weeks off, I moved over to the now-defunct Nick's 911, a bar just out of town on M-32 that nonetheless did well for a while, and stayed there until I went home for the summer. When I came back, I stayed away from DJ'ing in Mount Pleasant for just over a year, until I was called into duty at Boomers, a nightclub inside the Holiday Inn (and just across from the Nick's 911 location).
My first job at Boomers was the Wednesday night comedy night -- I was to DJ before and after the comedians, and act as the MC for the evening -- and that was about as close to a dream job as you could find. I mean, I could play anything I wanted to hear for the hour before the show, then I could say anything I wanted when I was introducing the comedians, then I could play whatever I wanted after the comedians were finished. And every two weeks, I got a small check that allowed me to buy new records. How great is that? After a few months, I also picked up the odd weekend shift, where I played more rock-oriented sets (but rock that I wanted to hear), MC'ed a few karaoke nights, and even did some sumo suit wrestling nights that were fun as hell. Eventually, I moved to prime time, which was Thursday nights in Mount Pleasant -- the official start of the party weekend -- and I did Wednesday and Thursday nights for a couple years, until I started to absolutely hate the DJ'ing instead of only merely hating it.
Why did I hate DJ'ing so much towards the end? Mostly, it was death by a thousand cuts (a cut, in this case, being asked to play AC/DC or Alan Jackson one too many times). I wanted to lean towards R&B and house/techno tracks, but the audience didn't want that. I wanted to play songs that the audience may not have heard, but the audience didn't want that. I wanted to play songs in the order that I wanted to hear them, regardless of BPM (beats per minute) or tempo, but the audience...well, you get the picture. And if you're doing things that the audience doesn't want, and the audience is paying your wages, it's pretty clear that the problem is you -- and not the audience -- in that setting.
Regardless, I always loved my Wednesday nights -- in fact, of all the years that I did our Comedy night, with an opener and a headliner each night, I can only think of four individual comedians who were dicks out of hundreds of one-timers and repeat performers -- but as grad school was winding down, I could see the writing on the wall, so I said goodbye to Boomers forever. I had the odd DJ job after that, but I called those my "theoretical DJ gigs" as I rarely had actual human beings present for those jobs. When I think of myself as a paid DJ, I remember my years at Boomers as the best -- and worst -- of myself as a disc jockey.
Sadly, Boomers is no more -- in 2007, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe bought the Holiday Inn and tore it down to make a new "three star" hotel for the overflow from the Soaring Eagle casino. But before I left, I was able to grab a beer stein as a keepsake, along with ever-advancing tinnitus, for one of the most fun jobs I ever had. Although my professional DJ career is most likely over, the ringing in my ears will remind me of all the good times.
When I tell people that I used to DJ when I was younger, people tend to think of the current understanding rather than the historical, and they're often more impressed than they should be. However, I pretty much saw myself as a human jukebox, with little to no actual artistic input. Looking back, I see plenty of opportunities where I could have made myself unique through creativity, but let's be frank -- I pushed buttons, sequenced music, and played with lighting and fog and a portable microphone. Anyone could do what I did, and in the 21st Century, everyone can.
But back in the late 20th Century, while it was less common, it was something I did with relative regularity when I got into my teens. I "officially" started by DJ'ing a dance at a summer nerd camp (Midwest Talent Search!) between my freshman and sophomore years by cuing up cassettes and playing them via my dual-cassette boom box. I then moved into the CD world in '86 and DJ'ed many of our high school dances for a few years running. In the summer of '87, I had one-and-done gig at The Rock House in Houghton Lake, where I did a pretty terrible job; when I did a handful of July and August gigs at the Rock House in the summer of '91, I was much better. I even did a couple of weddings, just to come to the quick understanding that I never wanted to do weddings.
However, when I think of my DJ "career" (such as it was), Mount Pleasant was where I did my sinful little business. I started for a few months in the fall of '91 at The Wayside, the freshman meat market bar just off campus, and I played enough rap and R&B to get noticed by the racist and sexist manager, who gave me a rock-oriented playlist to follow on my last night of employment there. (I don't like being told what to play, for some reason.) After a few weeks off, I moved over to the now-defunct Nick's 911, a bar just out of town on M-32 that nonetheless did well for a while, and stayed there until I went home for the summer. When I came back, I stayed away from DJ'ing in Mount Pleasant for just over a year, until I was called into duty at Boomers, a nightclub inside the Holiday Inn (and just across from the Nick's 911 location).
My first job at Boomers was the Wednesday night comedy night -- I was to DJ before and after the comedians, and act as the MC for the evening -- and that was about as close to a dream job as you could find. I mean, I could play anything I wanted to hear for the hour before the show, then I could say anything I wanted when I was introducing the comedians, then I could play whatever I wanted after the comedians were finished. And every two weeks, I got a small check that allowed me to buy new records. How great is that? After a few months, I also picked up the odd weekend shift, where I played more rock-oriented sets (but rock that I wanted to hear), MC'ed a few karaoke nights, and even did some sumo suit wrestling nights that were fun as hell. Eventually, I moved to prime time, which was Thursday nights in Mount Pleasant -- the official start of the party weekend -- and I did Wednesday and Thursday nights for a couple years, until I started to absolutely hate the DJ'ing instead of only merely hating it.
Why did I hate DJ'ing so much towards the end? Mostly, it was death by a thousand cuts (a cut, in this case, being asked to play AC/DC or Alan Jackson one too many times). I wanted to lean towards R&B and house/techno tracks, but the audience didn't want that. I wanted to play songs that the audience may not have heard, but the audience didn't want that. I wanted to play songs in the order that I wanted to hear them, regardless of BPM (beats per minute) or tempo, but the audience...well, you get the picture. And if you're doing things that the audience doesn't want, and the audience is paying your wages, it's pretty clear that the problem is you -- and not the audience -- in that setting.
Regardless, I always loved my Wednesday nights -- in fact, of all the years that I did our Comedy night, with an opener and a headliner each night, I can only think of four individual comedians who were dicks out of hundreds of one-timers and repeat performers -- but as grad school was winding down, I could see the writing on the wall, so I said goodbye to Boomers forever. I had the odd DJ job after that, but I called those my "theoretical DJ gigs" as I rarely had actual human beings present for those jobs. When I think of myself as a paid DJ, I remember my years at Boomers as the best -- and worst -- of myself as a disc jockey.
Sadly, Boomers is no more -- in 2007, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe bought the Holiday Inn and tore it down to make a new "three star" hotel for the overflow from the Soaring Eagle casino. But before I left, I was able to grab a beer stein as a keepsake, along with ever-advancing tinnitus, for one of the most fun jobs I ever had. Although my professional DJ career is most likely over, the ringing in my ears will remind me of all the good times.
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