Love Generation

The DJ story began 4 years ago (and you already know this if you've read my previous entry or my update on Facebook).  The KJ story goes back a little bit further and I promise I'll tell it someday (if you nag me about it enough).  Back then one of the hot spots was the Offshore Bar in Port of Sale Mall.  It was especially hot on Thursday nights.  For a while the featured DJ was DJ Rob.  If any of you are familiar with BADMAN it's the same DJ Rob.  At that time he started a lesser known event called Karma Tuesday where he spun house and trance music.  Granted both genres aren't very popular on the island.  I used to go pretty often and as much as I liked the music he played I lamented that there wasn't more dance and electronica.

Very soon into the run of Karma Tuesday, DJ Rob started bringing in guest DJs.  That's when I got to thinking it would be cool if I could be a guest DJ and spin my brand of music.  So I got some software and pitched it to DJ Rob.  He was pretty cool about it and he originally gave me about 15 minutes to strut my stuff.  I'd like to say I was a genius on the board from day one but I was actually pretty bad.  I didn't know a whole lot about transitioning and mixing and my song choices lacked majority appeal.  With practice and DJ Rob's tutelage though I got better and he started giving me more time to play among the guest DJs.  I was hailed as the only dance and electronica DJ from St. Thomas.  At the time I had one skill that the other DJs found particularly impressive even though I didn't think much of  it at the time.  I used to match beats by sight (waveform) and without cuing up on headphones.  It's still a pretty useful skill, but using a crossfader is soooooo much easier.

One of Rob's favorite songs was Love Generation by Bob Sinclar.  This song blew my mind not because it was good (which it is by the way) but because Rob could play this song during the regular Thursday night crowd and get away with it.  It was the first real crossover song I ever heard.  It's dance, pop and reggae all rolled up into one and had mass appeal.  Occasionally I work this song into my set.  I have other Bob Sinclar song but this is the only one that was ever requested by the audience.  Here it is: