“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 (New International Version)

For the Christian DJ, a preferred gig typically includes an honest Christian promoter, proper marketing to a responsible audience, a great, clean venue, and hordes of people who all love the type of music you spin. This article is not about that type of gig.

Until Christian dance music becomes an artistic and economic force in its own right, Christian DJs will be asked to play at clubs or raves that do not have a proper spiritual focus; maybe even an overtly hostile one.  Even worse, as promoters seek to broaden their potential consumer base by adding new DJs or different genres, they may do so without properly promoting to the right crowd, which can throw you in front of a truly hostile audience.

This article is not discussing whether or not Christian DJs should take those gigs.  That decision is one between you and God, although I definitely advise praying for wisdom and discernment before taking any gig.

This article is about providing you with information about how those clubs and venues operate, where their income comes from, what the crowd is there for and how DJs successfully program for those audiences.  If you feel called to take one of these gigs, you need to know what the game is.  You don’t have to play the game, but hopefully this helps you with the “shrewd as snakes” part.

The Club

First, let’s define a mainstream club.  If underground parties are “about the music,” mainstream clubs are – by and large – not.  Likewise, the clientele do not view it as a chance to hear some great music; they are shopping for a different experience.  Mainstream clubs sell them what they are looking for, which usually boils down to two things: alcohol and sex.

This is also partially true of major electronica clubs – “superclubs.”  Major electronica clubs put on a show.  Lighting, atmosphere, video screens, huge floor space, epic sound systems, dancers.  It is true that, in America, electronic music maintains an underground status, and so the fans of that kind of music are typically just that: fans of the music.  Since they eschew the vast number of mainstream clubs in favor of the electronic club, the type of music holds a high priority.  As such, there are far fewer people looking to “hook up.”  I’ll talk more about alcohol later, but the sex in these clubs is sold through the visual aspects of the show.  Scantily clad pole-dancers are almost a fixture, and anything can show up on video screens.

Mainstream clubs market to as many females as possible, because they sell sex through their presence.  This is why many clubs don’t charge women for entry early on in the night.  They are looking for the “ballers,” the guys who are willing to drop tons of cash on the possibility of leaving with a woman on their arm.  The music is unimportant to them.  They hear every day on the radio and on TV.

This is the essence of the mainstream club, to provide an exciting environment for people to get together.  The club will also actively encourage those people to do more than just “get together,” because if people get what they’re looking for out of the night, they are more likely to come back.  

Business Model

If you’ve been to electronica clubs, the cover charge tends to be a moderate chunk of change.  $10 to $30 a head isn’t unusual, and at major clubs with special headliners, it can get above $50.

Mainstream clubs couldn’t be more different.  True, at huge mainstream clubs with special-themed nights, you might get up to $30 for cover.  Outside of Las Vegas and Miami during spring break, this is the exception, not the rule.  Most “typical” clubs charge under $15 to get in, and as noted earlier, women are frequently given a pass on paying to get in, especially if they’re dressed in a way that will encourage the men in the building to buy them drinks.

Alcohol is the primary means of income for nearly every mainstream club. (Most electronica clubs, too.  More on that in a minute.)  A particular club in Las Vegas with a three thousand person capacity can expect to make over $300,000 at the bar alone on any given night.  Smaller clubs, with three hundred to five hundred people, can still make $30,000 on one night.  As such, they rely on men trying to get women and themselves drunk before they leave for the night.

Electronica clubs are also usually financed by alcohol sales.  The reason they charge so much at the door -- despite the fact that people usually stay longer -- is two-fold.  First, electronica fans, statistically speaking, don’t drink as much.  (Getting “crunk” hasn’t really caught on, except in some drum ‘n bass and breakbeat circles.)  Secondly, the promoters of the event are typically not the club owners.  That brings us to…

Booking Practices

At electronica clubs, the promoter will approach a club and offer to host an event.  The owners get to keep drink sales, and the promoter books and pays for the DJs, using ticket sales to finance (and profit off of) this. Mainstream clubs rarely book headliners.  If they do, it typically goes in a similar way to the electronica clubs: a promoter does the booking work and keeps the ticket sales.  At these events, the cover charge will also be a lot higher.  (Note: “Headliners” at mainstream clubs rarely include DJs.  They are usually hip hop acts.) So, the DJs at a mainstream club typically play every week.  Usually, there can be one to five of them, rotating on and off during the night.  Getting booked at these places entails talking with the owner or the manager, since there is usually no promoter to speak of.

I could write an entire article on club owners.  The level of cheapness in a manager knows no limits, and they will almost always be happy to book you without a contract and not pay you at the end of the night. The important thing to note about them is this: Most managers don’t care about the art of DJing.  They want a DJ who will make them more money.

“Successful” DJing

So, we have a crowd that is trolling for sex and mass quantities of alcohol being consumed.  How do DJs successfully play to this crowd?  In essence, how do they make club owners more money?

Answer: They play for the women.  As long as the women are on the dancefloor, the men will join them, and the floor will be full for much of the night.  Then, people will get thirsty (which means more income), everyone will be happier and more sociable (meaning more future income), and those people will tell their friends how awesome the club is (even more future money).
       

Conclusion

See a pattern?  Make no mistake about the mainstream club industry, it is just that: an industry.  A business.  It concerns itself only with the bottom-line.  The bottom-line is not foreign to the underground – those promoters like to eat as well – but the mainstream industry sells a different product, and if you want to try and change it, you must be aware of what the product is.

Of course, “success,” as defined by the mainstream club, is not the definition I hold.  Keep in mind, things like “talent” and “skill” don’t enter into the equation at all, and “class” doesn’t even broach the subject.  And let’s be blunt: Spirituality can and will be seen as a liability to that “success.”  Your faith might end up under attack before ever getting a gig, so be prepared.

This ends part one of this topic.  Next time, I will try and relate solutions; tactics and strategies that Christian DJs can employ even in these adverse spiritual conditions.  But prayer and discernment will be your best bet to navigate these perils, even beyond the situations I have just discussed.