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Promo Only Event Review – 2011 DJ Expo

This week we had the opportunity to attend the 2011 DJ Expo in Atlantic City. The expo is a combination of educational seminars, hands-on technology workshops, and panels hosted by DJs, Remixers, and Producers. It’s a networking opportunity, punctuated by evening parties and showcases all sponsored by industry brands including Pioneer, Promo Only, and Zip DJ. Targeted toward Professional DJ’s, it’s the place to be in August if you want to buy equipment at special deals, and check out the latest mainstream club series releases.

Unlike our experiences at WMC, most of the audience at the showcases were critics. Because of this, the DJ Expo felt more business than party oriented. Industry people can be hard to impress, and quick to judge. Any of the seasoned performers were up in front of a tough crowd, while the less than stellar performances were stuck in a shark tank. Maybe this is as it should be, as the audience consisted of taste-makers and were responsible for critically analyzing music, and making selections to deliver and guide the general public.

The Promo Only Party was held at The House of Blues. The sound at the venue was not adjusted properly and it was difficult to hear the vocalists. Performance conditions inhibited the artist’s ability to sound best. This seemed unfair to them because it hampered the listener’s ability to assess their music. Many of the performers at the Promo Only event included live back up dancers, and thematic costumes. In an era where artists like Lady Gaga set the standard for attention grabbing publicity stunts that captivate the buying public, we can understand why an artist would want to have a full scale stage show, even at an industry showcase. Unfortunately without a major label budget, it is impossible for the artists at the Promo Only event to stage an act on the same scale as the major label artists. The stage enhancements we are used to seeing at a large scale event could barely be approximated at this event. This discrepancy of full blown media image versus live performance made some of the Promo Only acts feel amateur or inadequate.

Photo of Neon Hitch by: Joe Licul

It got us thinking about the nature of a live showcase at an event like this. Has media over saturated our sense of what a person can achieve live? Are we incapable of adequately assessing the reality of a raw performance? Perhaps the stage felt empty and the acts felt bland because they weren’t accompanied by special effects and rapid camera cuts like in a music video. The point of a live performance at a showcase is to look for potential in an act. In today’s industry, an artist is going to be marketed with videos, professional photos, and PR. In the industry, we have a responsibility to look past the hype and marketing tricks and find the genuine talent. The critics in the crowd need to be sure that their judgments are based on realistic assumptions about what can be achieved live, and not on media created fantasy. If an artist is talented, that talent will shine through during a raw performance, and later enhanced by large budget productions.

DJ Slique was introduced as Promo Only’s official DJ. He had a 15 minute mix accompanied by a mashup of clips from the artist’s music videos. It is surprising that this would be the choice of a DJ to exemplify the art of mixing and to represent Promo Only. From a DJ’s perspective, it wasn’t that impressive to listen to Slique scratch over a pre-mixed set. We assume this was done so that his mix could be accompanied by a pre-made video mashup, thus making his set more visually exciting. However if the point of a showcase is to demonstrate a DJ’s technical skills in front of an audience, then a crowd shouldn’t need the DJ to compromise his mix in order to accommodate flashy video clips from the artist’s music videos. Promo Only has a music video service, and we can understand why they would want to highlight that during DJ Slique’s set, but it was insulting to the audience’s intelligence to have an MC onstage during the set, hyping up Slique as if he was mixing live, and repeating his name ad nauseam. A DJ who is representing the market that Promo Only is targeting should actually perform live, in the same manner as Promo Only’s customer base.

The shark tank had a feeding frenzy after the performance of Kreayshawn, a rapper who overstayed her welcome on stage pretty much as soon as she started. She and her backup singer came out and seemed initially promising due to their funky hipster fashion, but within 10 seconds, the audience was looking at each other wondering if their act was a joke. The girls shouted a seemingly never ending barrage of obnoxious rhymes with no flow, in an irritating tone of voice, on top of bland music without arrangement. After a few minutes of this, the audience was quite restless, but the act continued for many more minutes. We don’t understand how Kreayshawn landed such a coveted showcase spot, and why nobody had stepped in during rehearsal to let them know their performance was going to solicit boos.

CLICK FOR VIDEO- Kreayshawn live

Considering that Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci” track caught attention only because of authenticity debates surrounding its viral video spread, we suspect that their rise to fame has a lot to do with budget and media tricks that are employed to cover up what’s lacking, in order to sell hype and fashion. For example, fast edits in their music video accent the glamour, and hide any full body shots.

CLICK FOR VIDEO- Kreayshawn- Official Music Video

Unfortunately, that trick couldn’t be employed during their live act, thus exposing Kreayshawn’s awkward body language as they paced back and forth on stage. What was most infuriating was that Kreayshawn’s slot in the showcase took away from another artist who deserved it more, and could do justice to a live performance.

The acts that impressed us did so because they felt more genuine. Despite limitations of the venue, sound system, and lack of budget, some of the artists shone through with polished skill, and didn’t need to rely on smoke and mirrors to distract the audience from anything lacking in their music. Most often, these were the artists that sang live, such as Kimberly Locke and Wynter Gordon. Both Singers have beautiful voices, and sang from their heart. They owned the stage and intimately connected with the audience without the use of any background distractions. Blake Lewis’s performance consisted of impressive live sampling to charismatically showcase his ability and stage presence. Alyssa Reid featuring Jump Smokers had a well orchestrated performance that was flashy without trying to be anything it wasn’t, making the cover of Heart’s “Alone” sound modern and relevant for today’s DJ’s. These were the performances that ensured that the Promo Only showcase was entertaining despite any limitations.