I also like the simplicity of Jerry Allen's view "You can share any playlist, it is just a list of songs". When I think of the "Mine, all mine!" DJs who won’t share, I do love the contrast with statements like this.
So, a term as rare as it is useful: “the setblog”. This is a regularly updated list of sets (i.e. the music, the tandas and tracks) played by a particular DJ at real milongas and made available on the web. It is like a public diary of the music that a particular DJ played and where it was played and when.
To my mind the best of these setblogs because of the quality of the music for dancing, the presentation and the fact that musical clips are often provided, is Chris Jordan’s here. You can also see how a particular track has been used in combination with other tracks through his "uses" feature giving results such as this.
Don’t miss also his Top Tandas - usefully grouped by date. There are many reliably good ideas here for DJs, especially new DJs. I don't think there should be any guilt or reservations about using these as whole tandas because I believe they are probably offered there to be used however any DJ wants to use them. I doubt Chris thinks anyone "owns" the ideas about playing music that has been played in so many combinations (many of them now famous, classic tandas) for decades. If a new DJ was to string say four or five hours of these tandas together in a set and they lived within a couple of hours of me, I would be there! It could be so easy. Why do people want to make it hard?
Other sites with setlists (information, not endorsement). If you know of any more, please do say.
Current:
By Clive in UK
"With that in mind, it doesn’t seem like giving away any great trade secret to let people know what you played. Everyone, including the DJ, learns as a result!" From here.
Archive resources:
Homer's sample sets. Various music.
Others
There are also some here and by other DJs scattered through this blog you are reading, e.g. here and on the Milonga Review website e.g. here. I might get around to putting them all in one place one day.
Sample tandas
Tanda of the week: Variable tanda contributions by the site host and various DJs.
Tango Route's tandas on Youtube
Track groupings by Anton.
Cliff's a great tanguero, I didn't even know that they publish lists. And neither did I hear that Homer stopped. Thanks for the research!
ReplyDeleteThey are countless reasons not to publish. It may be technically tedious. The annotations are often wrong and take time to correct; at other times they betray the possibly questionable provenance of the records; and even more often, it leaves open a so-far hypothetical possibility that the owner of the rights might slap you with a bill.
Then regularly published playlists inevitably lay bare the DJs mistakes or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, perhaps lack of creativity manifested by recycling of old tandas and lists. So DJs' insecurity plays against sharing.
In short, it's all good for mavericks, for people with exaggerated self-esteem, or (on the opposite end of the spectrum) for people ready to welcome criticism. Not for your average tanda tinkerer, I suppose.