If you haven't read Part One Click Here

What exactly is a Request?

According to Merriam-Webster.com a request is:

1.) an act of politely or formally asking for something

2.) something (such as a song) that a person asks for

The later of course pertains to the matter at hand: asking a DJ for a particular song that you want to be played, but in my travels and my experience the first part of the definition usually gets left out. I can't tell you how many times a week I get a "HEY" from someone yelling at me, or even worse when I tell them that I don't have a song or even that I will play the song, they keep asking the same question over and over again. So if you want to request a song you should just be polite and understand that I am not always able to play your song next or even have your song at all.

How do you decide when to play songs especially requests?

With years of experience, I can usually tell what songs work well together. Even though I have experience the way that I DJ can be learned fairly easily. I usually break my sets into 8 country songs, two line dances, and usually some Top 40 songs to change it up at the end. Depending on the beats per minute is where I usually put requests in to my rotation. Starting off slow and increasing BPM is the key to having a good rotating dancefloor and allowing for patrons to exit and enter and go get more drinks.

Are there times when you don't play a request when you have the track?

Of course, nobody's perfect. I also have to gauge the crowd and see if they would react negatively to the song. Most of the time I usually try to play a request within 30 minutes of it being requested, but sometimes it either slips my mind or I've already played the song earlier in the night.

In the comments below let me know if you have any questions about how it is to be a nightclub DJ and I might just answer them in my next part.