Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their events.
Beyond the DJ Booth
Gen Z, Gear Hacks & the Death of Award Shows
Ever wonder how to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry where connecting with younger clients is crucial? In our latest episode, we tackle the language barrier head-on with a fun (and slightly humbling) exploration of current Gen Z slang. From "ratioed" posts to having a "Menty B," these linguistic insights might just save you from awkward miscommunications with your next twenty-something clients.
The gear corner returns with a brilliant submission from listener Kevin Nichols - portable ramps that solve a problem every working DJ faces: navigating equipment over curbs. For just $39 on Amazon, these clip-together ramps could be the upgrade your setup process desperately needs. We discuss how this simple solution addresses the very real physical demands of our profession, especially when hauling heavy speakers and lighting equipment.
We couldn't ignore the elephant in the entertainment room - the spectacular failure of this year's American Music Awards. With zero album of the year nominees bothering to show up and performances relegated to aging stars, we examine whether this marks the beginning of the end for traditional award shows. This conversation opens up broader questions about how entertainment formats evolve (or die) in the digital age, with valuable takeaways for anyone marketing entertainment services.
The episode concludes with tactical business advice on handling client requests for direct contact with musicians you've booked for their events. We share strategies for maintaining professional boundaries while ensuring client satisfaction, plus offer practical insights about which solo musicians actually work for different parts of events versus which create a disappointing atmosphere. These real-world tips come from our combined decades of experience managing expectations and delivering exceptional events.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or building your DJ business, this episode delivers actionable insights to help you communicate better, work smarter, and make more informed recommendations to your clients. Subscribe now and join our community of forward-thinking entertainment professionals!
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
Welcome to Beyond the DJ Booth podcast. I'm one of your co-hosts. Brian B and this is Joe Bon is here. Did we just like speed through to fall? What is happening? The weather is trash today, but I mean it's cold.
Speaker 2:I know why.
Speaker 1:It's been like that way for like all weekend apparently.
Speaker 2:I wasn't here, but no, no, no, no, no, no. Tara said it was Somebody lied to you.
Speaker 1:Tara said it was like in the 60s.
Speaker 2:No, just Monday, Memorial Day and yesterday and today, or garbage, maybe she. No, no, thursday, Friday, saturday were absolutely gorgeous, like low 80s.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's because I've been in Florida for so long and it's just been so hot so hot Tara's been cooped up with that baby of yours.
Speaker 2:It's not even a baby anymore, full-blown toddler. What's up? Everybody welcome back, yeah man to your favorite podcast for private event djs what's?
Speaker 1:going on well. Last time I saw you was in wilmington at the whippa event remember?
Speaker 2:yeah, we did do the whippa event together that was fun networking it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, saw our friend uh beth chapman.
Speaker 2:we did see beth chapman, beth chapman's awesome, great presentation. What was it? It was about millennials, no selling to.
Speaker 1:Gen Z, gen Z, that's right. So that's kind of what I wanted to open with today. Okay, she did this as an icebreaker. I thought I would continue on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to give you some Gen Z slang.
Speaker 2:You're forgetting my sons are like 17 and 20.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you should get these. I think so. That's my point. I hope so, but we'll see how well you do on this. Okay, First one ratioed Nah.
Speaker 2:I don't know this one.
Speaker 1:Take a guess.
Speaker 2:It's like a slang word for Gen Z. What would you guess that? You're half cool, half nerd.
Speaker 1:It's when a post gets way more replies than likes usually means it flops. So an example would be he tweeted that and got ratioed hard.
Speaker 2:I don't know that one, saquon, you know that? Nah, I've never heard that one, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, All right. How about the second one here, Gnar?
Speaker 2:It's like no it's like a negative or no, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got that one, all right. No, I think, yeah, you got that one, all right, you're one for two. It's an exaggerated dramatic. No, yeah, used ironically to mock drama. Like he said, he's texting his ex again nar nar, okay, menti b mental block. I have no idea. Close yeah close. It's a mental breakdown, okay yeah I had a little menti b after I saw my email inbox. That's a a good one. I might use that.
Speaker 2:A little minty bee.
Speaker 1:Two more here. How about this one? A soft block?
Speaker 2:Is it in the cock block family or no? I?
Speaker 1:don't think so. It's not a softie. Any idea? No, you remove someone as a follower by blocking or unblocking. No drama, just distance. I didn't want to unfollow or unblocking. No drama, just distance. I didn't want to unfollow, so I just soft blocked her, muted them.
Speaker 2:Nice, I've definitely done that. You think that's worse? Yeah, alright, last one, rentry man, I don't know these. You're off, I am, I knew the ones that she gave, so maybe her list is out of date.
Speaker 1:It probably is, yeah. These are freshies, some sort of re-entry, I don't know. Yeah, it's the mental adjustment after a vacation, or a long break. So, first Monday back at work and I'm deep in re-entry.
Speaker 2:Deep in re-entry. Okay, so there we go. Now you can be cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I'm hip, so you got to know these.
Speaker 2:I knew all of Beth's but I think her list was out of date. These are like the newest of the Gen Z terms.
Speaker 1:So we've been doing that gear segment for a while. Yes, and we actually had someone submit one to us, yeah, we did, and it was gold. Yeah, so this is from Kevin Nichols. What's up, kevin Nichols? He's in Georgia.
Speaker 2:I believe it's either South Carolina or Georgia. Okay, I think it's Georgia. I think it's.
Speaker 1:Georgia. So we're going to play this video of what he sent to us and then we can talk about it here in a second.
Speaker 3:All right, joe and Brian, here you go. Here's another equipment find for Brian's little segment. Got these on Amazon. They clip together like this and you put it up against a sidewalk and now you have a little ramp to get your stuff up the sidewalk without having to find the handicap ramp $39 on Amazon, go get it.
Speaker 1:So these are basically to help you get in and out of your trailer, I believe, or really just to get up a curb when you're rolling your gear, that's true, yeah, solid point.
Speaker 2:Think about it from a standpoint. If they don't have a handicap ramp or they don't have an access ramp at all, yeah, and you kind of pull up, you drop your trailer door down, you drop your you know like the ramp out of the back of my bed, yeah, and you don't want to sit there and pop the curb every times. Yeah, these things go right up. Do you have them? I don't know, I'd never seen them. He. And then he just hangs them on the wall of his trailer. When he needs them, he pops them out.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool. I think he said they were $39.
Speaker 2:For the pair? I believe so.
Speaker 1:So we'll put the link for this on our Amazon card. I'll let you do it, because you're kind of the gear corner guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will put these on there and I think we should order a set, because we've got the evolved 90s. Now the sub part are on the heathers. They're heavy, yeah, and but they're on casters right, so those are rolling. Yeah, we've got both of our pop-up totems now. Yeah, on the rock and roller, they stay on the rock and roller. We've got a small case of movers. Those roll in and then even all the small stuff. We bring the pop-up totem cart back and do one more load, but we basically roll everything in.
Speaker 1:Now there's no hand carrying anything so I mean having these little ramps would be premium I was trying to think if it would be something, since I'm on the road so much yeah yeah, it probably would make sense, but if I was local those do look solid. Appreciate it, kevin. Thanks for listening to. Yeah, everybody wants to.
Speaker 2:Any, we're happy to take whatever ones you guys are using right, because Brian's Amazon bill is freaking extra, I had to cut it off. I had to cut it off this month.
Speaker 1:It's your turn, tara. Shut him down, shut me down. I do have one that I'm holding off on, though, okay.
Speaker 2:It'll be good. Meet S-Start, the ultimate event platform built by a DJ for DJs. With apps like photo sharing, real-time slideshows, song requests and even seating charts, S-Start helps you create a better guest experience and upsell your clients with ease. Everything simple to set up, fun to use and designed to boost your bookings and your bottom line. Join their membership to unlock the best pricing and start stacking value at every gig. Go to sstartcom right now and book your free demo.
Speaker 1:I had one more thing I was going to throw to you. I just saw it on. I think it was Sunday. Oh no, it was Monday, the first of the award show season. Did you see it, amas? Have you heard about this shit? I think, but maybe fill the rest well they.
Speaker 2:They've canceled the last two years okay so this is their re-entry this is their re-entry into the market and the numbers and the people that showed up. There were 10 album of the year nominees. Guess how many showed up? One, zero, oh zero. Then I was seeing all this stuff about blake shelton performing and gwen spottie and taylor swift. Did you hear about that whole?
Speaker 1:thing she didn't show up.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, she didn't show up either. They played videos of the people performing. They weren't even up on the stage. Did you see any of the show? No, I didn't even know. It was on until it was half over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the performers. They had no, so they had Janet Jackson. Oh, j-lo did it too. I didn't see her performance, but I heard it was a little pitchy.
Speaker 2:She's not a good singer.
Speaker 1:She's beautiful, but they had Janet, yeah, and she's 59 years old now. Yes, right. So I'm like, if you're trying to market to the younger generation just seemed odd choices. I mean, she only did All For you and Someone To Call my Lover, which I thought those are great. I mean I love those tracks personally, but they're not like her iconic tracks that she would go out with. She also looked solid for 59. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I was like, wow, I did see the clip of that.
Speaker 1:And then they had Gloria Estefan. She's 79. 79. How old is she really?
Speaker 2:I think she is that, look that up 76.
Speaker 1:I wrote it down actually in one of these and then who. And then the last one was Rod Stewart. Yeah, gloria Estefan is 67. Oh, I thought she was older. Okay, sorry.
Speaker 2:Gloria, and then Rod Stewart. Oh, he's definitely in his 70s, 80. God damn, and he wasn't even singing.
Speaker 1:He was so up probably no.
Speaker 2:here's the thing, though. Here's what you're forgetting. You know where it was. I don't know Las Vegas. So they got Janet and Rod on residency to come down the street and do a couple tracks from their show, promote their show Blase Blas. I mean it was like a throwback show.
Speaker 1:I should have told my mom it was on and they closed with Rod and I'm just like, why would you close?
Speaker 2:with him. That was the closer Were you watching this, or are you?
Speaker 1:getting a recap Like half watching, half watching, so like I would watch it?
Speaker 2:How did you even know it was on?
Speaker 1:Because Tara was watching it initially and then I, after I put Annie down, I was like hey, let's watch the basketball game. And she was watching this. I was like what is this? Is this a ward show? It was AMA, so I was going between the game and that, you know, the was like half full and it was like no celebrities. They kept showing these random people in the crowd. I'm just like I'm telling you man it.
Speaker 2:So you think it's dead? I do. There's no way that they come back again. It was a dick clark production back in the day. It was a. It was a big deal, it was right. I mean, michael jackson would be on there, lionel, and even even up into the 2000s it was a pretty big deal. But I mean, if you can't get anybody to show up, and especially the biggest living pop star in the world to show up, to accept whatever she got everything was video response for the winners there's no way that they recover from that. No way. I I genuinely believe that that will be the last year we see the amas and is this the start or?
Speaker 2:it just goes to like an online only thing and then you know they tweet out who won. I don't think there will be a broadcast of that magnitude. I mean, think about how many millions of dollars that production costs, whatever network put it on is it the beginning of the end for these kind of shows?
Speaker 2:I don't know about that. I think it's the beginning of the end for anybody marginal. I think. The grammys live forever, oscars live forever, but a lot of this other stuff, I think, as well, there's what the mtv music awards, I think that will eventually fade away because that's not even a real network anymore even things like the golden globes, yeah, the tonys or whatever they do for broadway.
Speaker 2:All that stuff is just so marginally attended and viewed that it's going to go just digital only. I'm not so sure they'll get rid of the award, but they'll get rid of doing a broadcast of that magnitude. The amount of money that lost those networks and just bad press and it's just a bad look man. They're dog shit. Yeah, it'll probably like go to Netflix or something like that, something like that, or just again like they literally just notify the winners, maybe get some sort of response and tweet out so-and-so won this award.
Speaker 1:Hey Brian B here. Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast, but let's be real. You're here because you actually care about your DJ business and if you've been nodding along like, yeah, I should totally step up my game, then let me make it easy for you. I've got a coaching platform, the DJ's Creative Edge, where I help DJs like you stand out, raise their prices without feeling guilty and actually get paid what they're worth. We're talking one-on-one coaching, a killer course option to help you define your uniqueness, and a group coaching option with other DJs who actually get it. The website thedjscreativeedgecom. That's thedjscreativeedgecom. That's thedjscreativeedgecom Because you know repetition works. And if you want to just lurk for now, hit up Instagram at thedjscreativeedge. All right back to the show. Before Joe starts yelling in his extra thick North Carolina accent about how back in his day, djs used CDs and still had to walk uphill both ways to a gig. What's the question?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do a question.
Speaker 1:This has got emailed into us. This is fresh, this just came in.
Speaker 2:Fresh.
Speaker 1:From one of our DJC mentoring alums here Vincent Orlando Shout out Where's he again.
Speaker 2:Do you remember?
Speaker 1:It would make sense he's in Florida I wish, I wish, but it would make sense.
Speaker 2:He's in Florida. I wish, I wish, but I don't. I think that's actually his name. Okay, yeah, go ahead. What do you guys do when a client is persistent on asking for the social media slash contact for live musicians they booked through you Like a violinist for cocktail hour, sax player for reception, drummer for reception, et cetera, et cetera? I don't do this, man, so I'm hoping you can give a little bit of insight into it.
Speaker 1:The expectations are set on the initial call. Yeah, I mean, you're the king of doing that, yeah. So I tell them listen, our musicians. They do what they do. They are just performers. I handle all the administration, all of the Making sure they're there. Yeah, they're just hired to perform and that's how we keep the rate affordable. We don't have them do planning calls. It's all done by the office in-house.
Speaker 1:So the day of, I'm happy to give a phone number you know, but it's not given out until like literally the day before, and it's given to the planner. That's kind of how we handle it, I mean, and they don't need to be tagged and blah blah, blah blah Just tag my company.
Speaker 2:They're subcontracted by me. I'm taking care of them, making sure they have all their gear, making sure they're on time, they're dressed appropriately, Absolutely yeah, I would do the same thing. You don't need to talk to them. You've entrusted us, my company, to provide the entertainment for this event and I assure you that these people are top notch.
Speaker 1:If I've got them working under my brand and I'm trying to think of why they would even want to reach out outside of. Yeah, I mean they already booked. Yeah, it says it here. So is it just like song lists? Or just to make sure they're a real human? I don't know, but again, I think it's. It's set up at the expectation early on. This is how we keep the rate affordable, is to handle all this in the house, and this is just our protocol. I have had a few times where they wanted to talk to them directly. Maybe it was because they wanted a special edit of something or could they learn something, and I tell them hey, if they need to learn anything again, that needs to go through us because there may be a cost involved. That's right.
Speaker 2:Or maybe they can't do it, yeah, and then the DJ has to play the recessidesmaids and groomsmen, even the processional, but like they wanted, sign, sealed, delivered, or this will be an everlasting love, the recorded version, and we had to play that as their after their pronounced husband and wife. You know what I mean. So sometimes it's just not something you can learn or it's not gonna hit the same as like a pop song. You know, a lot of people are leaving now to a popular song, even if it was popular 40 years ago or whatever. It just hits different. I think. What are your thoughts? Like Saquon and I have seen this the last two weekends A lot of these musicians, especially like a violinist or a harpist, they must have a two-hour minimum and so they basically make the couple hire them not only for the ceremony but also for the cocktail hour. It just is the most boring cocktail hour. It's fine for the ceremony man. We also noticed that a violin by itself is kind of shitty.
Speaker 1:Doo-doo, doo-doo. Yeah, not going to work. It's so sad.
Speaker 2:And then she proceeded over to the cocktail hour and just sat there.
Speaker 1:And was she mic'd at all?
Speaker 2:No, oh, it's even worse, just like standing in the corner and I was like man.
Speaker 1:I was like listen, I'm like dude, it sounds miserable.
Speaker 2:It just sounded yeah, like we were, like yeah, we were like you know in tears at the end of cocktail hour and you could almost feel this like refreshing breath of air when the ballroom doors opened, of air when the guests when the ballroom doors open and they let everybody you know the the the guests in and we're playing right Um, jack Johnson or Bob Marley or whatever, and you could almost feel them be like okay now. Now this feels like a party, right, man, I don't know, do you feel the same?
Speaker 1:I think there's certain ones that you can get away with it with, like as an example anytime we book a guitarist a single guitarist yeah, they have the ability to sound chill for ceremony and then ramp it up for cocktail Because they're I wouldn't say they're always playing instrumental for ceremony but it's a little bit more somber. Yeah, or serious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say, with a guitar they can, and they can loop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they can loop and do a bunch of other things. Okay, so like those ones work If it's a single musician with strings like violin cello, even a sax player, like it just sounds thin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I tell a couple of this, like you know, usually the good news is they book through us for a lot of the musician stuff, right, so they don't go outside of that, right. But I do tell them like, listen, if you're going to do strings, you got to have a quartet, right, because it just will sound fuller. Yeah, and I have seen a cocktail hour where it is jamming because they're playing like taylor swift or whatever the case may be, but it sounds full right, if it's one.
Speaker 2:If it's one, it's wimpy. Okay, super wimpy, just making sure I'm not crazy. That's all I got. That's all I got. Man, this is a good little short little episode here yeah, we're nearing the end you want three absolutely always want to shout out DJ Event Planner.
Speaker 2:If you are looking for a CRM to track your leads, to follow up with your leads, can't think of anything better than DJEventPlannercom. And then also, if you are looking for some really interesting and interactive software, check out SSTART E-S-S-T-A-R-T dot com. Our friend CP over there supports the podcast, so y'all go support him. That's a wrap on this episode. Let's call it On to the next one. New episodes every single Wednesday morning. Y'all. Thank you for listening. Peace Later, bye.
