It’s 11:30 PM. The dance floor is packed, people are losing their minds, and everything feels like a scene from the best movie you’ve ever starred in. Then, like a bad plot twist, some guy with three tequila shots in his bloodstream demands you play Baby Shark. Plot. Ruined.
Welcome back, music enjoyers! Coming back to your right after the OneHSLU Fest with a great portion of thoughts regarding my favorite combo – event + music. What if I told you that I knew exactly what was going to be played far before the party? Here is the timeline, prove me wrong:
✅ Slow build
✅ Unexpected bangers
✅ One massive crowd singalong
✅ Zero (I wish) random requests.
It is not something to study and research, might be even self-explanatory, but we should put some spotlight on a topic of storytelling in the music field.
Setlists Are Stories — Not Shuffles
Imagine watching a movie that jumps from the final boss battle to a slow romance scene and then back to an awkward family dinner. You’d be confused. You’d leave. Same thing happens with a bad DJ set.
A good setlist has a flow. It builds tension, releases it, surprises you, and leaves you wanting more. You start by warming people up — chill beats, familiar tracks, grooves that make heads nod. It’s not about sticking to one genre or BPM either. It’s about managing the ✨emotional energy✨ of the room. A 90 BPM R&B track can feel way more hype than a 130 BPM tech house track if you play it at the right moment.
Emotional BPM > Actual BPM
How to Build the Journey (And Not Crash the Party)
- Know your audience. A warehouse rave crowd isn’t looking for Ed Sheeran singalongs. A wedding dance floor isn’t necessarily vibing with 15 minutes of underground techno. Read the room like your life depends on it.
- Think waves, not walls (sounds deep, isn’t it?). You can’t blast high-energy tracks for four hours straight. People will either burn out or get bored. You want mini peaks and valleys — songs that bring them up, then let them catch their breath, then build higher. Like you’re DJing a rollercoaster, not a treadmill.
Bonus – always have a Plan B track ready to either bump the energy up or bring it back down smooth. The crowd should feel like you’re one step ahead of them, not chasing them.
When (and How) to Ignore That Drunk Song Request
Here’s the thing: some song requests are gold — surprise anthems you forgot about that fit the vibe perfectly. Others? Absolute chaos bombs. And guess what? It’s okay to say no.
If the request fits the story you’re telling, you might weave it in. But if it rips a hole in the vibe you’ve built — “Bohemian Rhapsody” at 1 AM during a deep house set, anyone? — you gotta shut it down politely. Thank them, tell them you’ll “see if it fits later,” or just give a big smile and stay focused.
All in all, creating the perfect setlist is like making a playlist for your life — you’ve carefully picked the songs that’ll keep the vibes flowing, building that energy from chill to hype to peak, and then slowly bringing everyone back down to earth. It’s a whole mood, and you’re the vibe curator.
But just when you think everything’s going perfectly, someone from the crowd decides to ruin the flow with a random song request. Suddenly, you’re hit with “Yo, can you play Baby Shark?” mid-drop, and you’re like, “Really? Right now?” It’s these moments that test your DJ skills — not just with the music, but with how you handle that chaos. How do you keep the energy up and not totally derail the whole vibe without being rude? It’s a delicate balance.
- For my home-made DJs, imagine your frustration after you carefully created a playlist for your friend’s party, and then right in between your perfectly matched songs you hear a viral Tik-Tok song. Is the song bad? Probably not. But did it ruin the vibe and your effort to build the narrative? Oh yes.
You want to protect the story of the night, but sometimes you’ve got to shut down that crazy request and get back on track. Because no matter how smooth your set is going, there’s always someone who’ll try to throw you off your game.
Honestly speaking, I tried in a smooth transition, but in the end all I wanted, is to wrap up this flow of thoughts :). Write in the comments your favorite song to request and I will try to listen and not judge :). See you next time, xoxo
