One of the most fun I have as a dj is playing at a retail store. The instruction is to play fun feel good music. This is as open format I can get. Open format is just a bit of everything. Typical djs stick with one genre. Open format djs cover a wide array of music to satisfy the diverse crowds. With Sherman Oaks I wanted to go with an old school disco 80s theme so I went that route. I feel Donna Summers was the biggest hits of that day. I was there for three hours and it was a good time.

  For Brea I went with a Latin theme and old school plus some feel good classics. It was for five hours. Typically, when I play I give out a card or two but today I gave out like 10 cards and two folks talked to me about doing their wedding in 2025. What made it different this time around? I just bounced all over the place with some Latin gems then going to some 90s dance hits then hitting the disco hits. I added some dance hits the past 10 years. I think I solved the puzzle for a cool retail store is to play songs people know and play the original song. Nothing really needs to be housed up. People want to hear songs they know the words to. Also its good to smile at the patrons when they pass by and not be too focused on what you are going to play next but enjoy the moment and it makes the dj more approachable.

  I love playing at Brea mall. Typically, I show up and play fun music but this mission has specific instructions. This time I was on the 3rd floor not the first one. Using an elevator is not an issue, it just at times takes a little bit longer to setup. I had to make sure it was not too loud since there were vendors there and keep it fun and lively and do some mic work. Mic work was easy. Every 30 minutes we were saying names of people who won baby gear prizes. People were just hanging out shopping and waiting for their name to be called.

Usually on the bottom floor I play a bit more Spanish by the make up area but today I wasn’t really feeling the Spanish vibe so we went old school. I went with a 90s vibe for most of the event but I would bounce around with disco and some 2000s music. Folks were really digging the 90s R&B so I would feed it to them. Big artists were like TLC and Montel Jordan.  When I was really feeling it I went like 45 seconds of a classic song then mixed in another song less than a minute later. We didn’t really play any hip hop today. The only tracks we played were Ice Ice Baby, Treat em right and a little Salt and Pepa.

 Overall it was a good time and people liked the variety of music. Of course I came with my planned playlist but once you start playing you may have to change direction based on the feedback of the room.

 We are living in a Barbie world at the moment. Seem like that movie is blowing up and they were having a Barbie theme at the Brea Mall. All the cosmetic section was sporting Barbie shirts. I have been at this mall a few times already and it was being a good time every time. Most djs could just come by and just start playing what they feel but for me I have to prep since I don’t want to play the same kind of music over and over. I want it to be different every time I play. I had the instruction to play fun positive music. Most folks who play at retail stores usually play a certain type of music and let it ride the whole time. That is not me and I want it to be as diverse as possible. There were at least 8 folks who came by to tell me they liked the diversity of the music. I talked to one worker who stated the dj before playing 90s  songs over a house beat. That could be fun but a little of the same. I try to find songs that everyone knows and play it in the original format as possible. We did play a lot of Spanish cumbias and did a lot of old school music. This time we did 90s alternative, freestyle, 90s house, 90s pop, cumbia, Spanish ranchera. I even threw in Barbie Girl since it was the theme. Most djs would be afraid to play that but I have no fear. It was a very fun vibe at the Brea mall.

We were able to play at a retail store in Brea. It was very easy to set up since they had their own booth. I have done stores before but this one had to be the biggest. There were a few things I learned. I learned we do not need to be so loud. We had one speaker facing one direction and the other speaker faced the other direction. It was also Spanish Heritage Month so we included more Spanish in our playlist. When I got there they told me they wanted pop such like Beyonce and Timberlake. I used that as my baseline and decided to go way open format.

When you play at a retail store, it is best to play music that everyone knows unless you are doing some underground house music. I would try to play one to two versus of a song and then mix in another song. My goal was to have no dead air. Songs were either mixed in or a new beat dropped once a song finished if it went that far.

One of the songs that got everyone moving was by Bad Bunny. It has to be his biggest hit. I tried to keep it as latin as possible. I played a lot of Selena and Pitbull and added Marc Anthony. Most of my list was pop songs that everyone knew.

I started 15 minutes before schedule and finished 5 hours and 15 minutes later. It did not feel like 5 hours and it was 5 hours of enjoyment. I can truly say it was an open format set that ranged from Calvin Harris, Katy Perry to Selena and to the Temptations.

It was a joy to play for many types of people and look forward to doing it again. Please call Black and White Affair dj for your retail dj needs.

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