What are DJs doing wrong

[JournalInTime]

Vals, yes! They are often too short, especially the Biagi valses.

Standard comments after three enjoyable valses: "What? It's over?", followed only then by "Thank you, that was fun!"

Standard reaction to DJs who have the guts to break with tradition and play four valses: APPLAUSE! A new DJ looking for a quick-and-easy way to earn points in a community could do so by becoming "That four-vals DJ."

At least the way I dance milongas, I'd already be exhausted from dancing these three relatively high-tempo pieces. Maybe for the more relaxed ones like Milonga Sentimental, Milonga Criolla, I'd play four.

Sure, that makes perfect sense.

With regards to length of a tanda (which I try to keep to less than 12 minutes when DJing), I still find myself unsatisfied after just three late Troilo instrumentals, so it's definitely a personal thing.

I understand. We all have our preferences. I'm a D'Arienzo maniac and could probably dance six of his punchier tangos in a row . . . but most people feel after just four the same way they do after three high-tempo milongas.

 

[pianistamediano]

Standard reaction to DJs who have the guts to break with tradition and play four valses: APPLAUSE! A new DJ looking for a quick-and-easy way to earn points in a community could do so by becoming "That four-vals DJ."

I try to include four-vals tandas in all my sets unless I have to play three-song tandas.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

There are also odd-one-out tangos, like Café Domínguez, that don't really fit anywhere. Here, that specific tango is popular enough that you had better play it .

I can live without it. Moreover, I don't really hear it much.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

There are some almost but not entirely forgotten orquestas that have insufficient not-mediocre pieces to fill a tanda, but one or two that people like enough to be worth playing.

Yeah, you have to wonder whether they're worth bothering with at all. Federico has a couple of nice tangos, but enough to really make a nice tanda?

 

[ArbeeNYC]

I'd love it if more organizers had the guts to play partner-switching games.

They rarely work as hoped for.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

I still find myself unsatisfied after just three late Troilo instrumentals, so it's definitely a personal thing.

Question of intensity and quality. Sometimes three are just right if the dance is really good.

 

[dchester]

I find it completely ridiculous whenever the DJ puts the best song of the tanda first and follows it up with increasingly mediocre pieces. It just makes it a cheap way to get dancers onto the floor for each tanda — to make the DJ look good — at the cost of the dancers' enjoyment.

Agreed. My favorite tandas are the ones where the first song is probably the weakest one, although it still needs to be good enough, to make people want to get out there and dance. Sometimes though (at least for me), the first song can set a mood that makes the following song more enjoyable than it would be, if it was played first,

 

[Rabbit]

Yeah, you have to wonder whether they're worth bothering with at all. Federico has a couple of nice tangos, but enough to really make a nice tanda?

There are enough to make a few variations of one good tanda, and just as importantly, I don't hear it every week.

 

[Mr. Moustachio]

Maybe Plegaria shouldn't be played at milongas. Recently, a DJ played Plegaria. I asked my partner if she knew the song. She said, "No." I said, "It's the Tango of Death." For me, it's just a bit of trivia. I told the story about the song. Her response was, "That's horrible!" The conversation went on to the Oct. 7th attack which led to the current war in Gaza which led to a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks. The mood got decidedly somber.

This is a short video on why Plegaria is the Tango of Death.

Tango, una historia con judíos


The video clip is in Spanish with English subtitles.

 

[Rabbit]

Maybe Plegaria shouldn't be played at milongas. Recently, a DJ played Plegaria.

I know the story, the song is supposed to be cursed. Fortunately it is not so great that one would miss it if it was never played. I don't recall hearing it at a milonga.

 

[TTanguero]

I said, "It's the Tango of Death."

I believe there are conflicting accounts about the story, but for me it's just not great music to dance to anyway, so can't see any reason to play it at a milonga.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Maybe Plegaria shouldn't be played at milongas. Recently, a DJ played Plegaria. I asked my partner if she knew the song. She said, "No." I said, "It's the Tango of Death." For me, it's just a bit of trivia. I told the story about the song. Her response was, "That's horrible!" The conversation went on to the Oct. 7th attack which led to the current war in Gaza which led to a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks. The mood got decidedly somber.

This is a short video on why Plegaria is the Tango of Death.

Tango, una historia con judíos


The video clip is in Spanish with English subtitles.

I believe most of the history regarding the song has been show to be false. Largely anecdotal and largely untrue.

 

[itwillhappen]

I suspect what most DJs don't do is listen to their tandas in private. If you hear mediocre sound of an incoherent tanda in the morning before breakfast, you would think twice about whether you should play that or better revise your library. These are often copies of bad bootleg CDs that got grabbed in the backyards of Buenos Aires a few decades ago. And time has passed over this with its technical development. Nowadays even Spotify provides you with better source material and better tanda suggestions. On the other hand, you don't really need to start if you don't have a hundred hours of free time.

And then it is important to constantly ask for real feedback, otherwise you might stagnate in a secure position and not develop further. Especially on the internet, there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions who often contradict each other. Nowadays about half of the traditional tangos I play at a traditional milonga got recorded between 1950 and 2023. That doesn't follow a DJ majority opinion, but as long as it's accompanied by positive feedback of the dancers by the organizer, that doesn't interest me much.

 

[Brummbaer]

Recently, a DJ played Plegaria

Possibly a very misguided thought of remembrance (Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, etc), which would be even more bizarre?

Bianco certainly had fascist sympathies which, increasingly and sadly, might find a home today. His composition Poema also has a dark background.

the song is supposed to be cursed.

I wouldn't say 'cursed'; just inappropriate as some people still recall that time, whether or not some of its associations are wholly true.

 

[Rabbit]

Nowadays about half of the traditional tangos I play at a traditional milonga got recorded between 1950 and 2023. That doesn't follow a DJ majority opinion, but as long as it's accompanied by positive feedback of the dancers by the organizer, that doesn't interest me much.

The DJ majority opinion is meaningless as it depends on what the local dancers prefer, I think most DJs don't play enough post 1950 music though, and conversely they play too much of the second tier GA orchestras.