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How to become world famous
On YouTube this video is called How to Become a World Famous DJ
What this lesson teaches
Short, odd, and there is a real idea in it.
Follow the pack from outside it
His formulation: be with the pack, not inside it.
The image is a pack of wolves. You are not in the middle of it - you are alongside, moving in the same direction, taking note of everything that is going on.
Why that matters: inside the pack you are indistinguishable, and you are reacting to the same information as everyone else at the same moment. Alongside it, you can see the pack itself - what it is doing, and more usefully what it is not doing.
That gap is the thing to work with. Look at what is going on, make note of what isn't, and build your direction out of that.
The contrarian part
He pushes it further: listen to what people like, and then go the other way - find the thing people are not on yet and plug it, and plug it, and keep going.
Taken literally that is bad advice; a DJ who only plays what nobody wants will clear rooms for a living. Taken as he means it, it is how every scene actually started: somebody committed to material the room had not asked for, repeatedly, until it became the thing the room came for.
The honest version is that this is a long strategy with a real failure rate, and it works alongside being able to read a floor rather than instead of it. The DJs who broke a sound were almost all also capable of keeping a conventional night going.
The frog
And then the bit you remember, which is the demonstration of his own point.
He puts a toy frog on his head and says: when you have finished watching this, there is one thing you will always remember - the frog on my head.
Which is true. That is the whole lesson executed rather than described.
His conclusion: be different enough that when people leave the club, they do not just remember I saw a DJ last week - they remember something specific about you.
Why it is worth taking seriously
Because recognition is the actual currency in this business, and it is not awarded for competence. There are thousands of technically sound DJs and no way for a room to tell them apart.
One memorable thing - a look, a signature record, a way of opening, a frog - is what turns a good night into a DJ somebody can ask for by name. And unlike skill, it costs nothing and you can decide on it this afternoon.
Contents of the video
Alright guys, I'm going to tell you how you can become the best DJ in the world. How you can be known worldwide and how you can become famous. It's very simple. Be different. Follow trends, but at the same time, follow trends from the outside. Don't follow trends from the inside. In other words, be with the pack. Don't be inside the pack. Imagine a pack of wolves. You're not with them inside the pack. You're actually outside, but you're following it. In other words, you're taking note of everything that's going on. Think of something different and unique. Think of something wild and wacky. Look at what's going on, but at the same time, make note of what isn't going on and try and incorporate that into the direction you want to go.
Also, listen to styles of music. See what people like. Don't go that direction. Go the direction of maybe what people don't like and try and plug and plug and plug it. Just carry on going for it. Now, you may think this video is a bit wacky, but hopefully one person or someone or a few people will take tiny bits of this information and take it in, take it on board and look at what's going on. Take it in, take it on board and look at what's going on. Or who they want to be in a new light. Now, when you've finished watching this video, there is one thing you will always remember. The frog on my head.
This is how you need to be. You need to be completely different and wacky. So when you leave that club, when you leave that gig, the people will remember something about you. They will not just remember I heard I saw a DJ last week. they will remember something about you that stands out. The frog. Think of that and be different. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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