“I lived across from a frat. I would hear a DJ twice a week, sometimes more every week for the entirety of the first semester. I wanted to try something new,” said sophomore Katie Lee. This is what drove her to start trying her hand at mixing — and eventually DJing — at frat parties.
Frat parties have a universal draw. They’re dark rooms full of young adults and music blaring from the speakers at 11 p.m., with a DJ sitting at the helm — their deck situated at one end of the makeshift dance floor that usually doubles as a living room, typically on an elevated surface of some sort. Lee is one of those DJs.
As a freshman, Lee DJ’ed in her room across from SigEp until videos taken of her skills circulated the frats. “They showed the video to the frat brothers, and then those frat brothers showed the video to, like, the entire frat, and then their social chair reached out to me.” After that, junior and ADP’s frat brother Britton Ambrose, who was the social chair at the time, asked Lee if she’d be interested in DJing for a party hosted by ADP.
There’s a usual trial period depending on the frat. For some, that means playing a shift with a trained DJ or playing one or two parties alone. After Lee worked with Ambrose for a party, she was ready to lead one herself.
Since then, despite DJing at different frats, ADP has been her primary one, where she sometimes gets paid $50 per gig.
When it comes to music choice, Lee makes an effort to include modern, electronic, and requested genres in addition to the “10 songs on everybody’s frat rotation.” This includes 2010s bangers like Mr. Brightside, as well as songs from artists like Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift.
“I learned how to DJ off of frat music, though,” Lee said. “And so, like my main, it’s a genre at this point, like frat music is a genre.”
You could say DJing runs in the family for Lee. She had no idea her dad was a DJ in college until she received her first deck. It was the “continuous flow” of her favorite songs that attracted Lee.
“I had a hard time writing music production-wise but being able to take a song that I really liked and mix it with another song — I really liked hearing them both together,” Lee said.
Even though she’s majoring in Geology, DJing is a nice side gig where she finds herself being a part of “something greater than herself.” Career-wise, though, she wants to contribute to efforts to sustainably combat climate change.
On the other hand, Britton Ambrose wanted to give DJing a shot when the main brothers and DJs at the time were about to graduate.
Frats mainly employ a brother to learn how to mix music and serve as the primary DJ, although occasionally there will be “guest DJs” or other hired students that occasionally cover certain themed events, like Bollywood night.
At least for ADP, Ambrose serves as the almost “main DJ” for events at the home, whether that be a closed or an open event. ADP is in a unique position where the house actually has a house deck for brothers to practice on and use during functions.
Ambrose was taught by his Big and main DJ: “I just took it back home with me, and I just, like, worked it every single night for like two, three hours. And by the end of that, I sucked. But, I was good enough that I could just barely manage to do a party.”
Aside from majoring in data science, Ambrose spends his time on campus serving as an RA and being involved in other musical pursuits like the YellowJackets, an all-male a capella group, despite having only really started singing his junior year of high school.
“The thing about DJing is that there’s such a low floor and such a high ceiling that you can really get — if someone has some ability, some sense of rhythm — they can figure it out within a good six to eight hours of practice.”
Next semester, Ambrose plans to go abroad and take two courses in sampling, music production, and remixing.
“I think adding that stuff in, being able to do stuff that’s original into it, or a remix of a common song to make it a trap beat behind a love story, that would just be good for me. So I think I could get to the point where I’m doing more branching out, more trying to go to other places,” Ambrose said. Ambrose plans on trying his hand at local bars in the future like Martine’s, which is known to be welcoming to newer DJ’s.
“People can get into it. It’s not like playing piano where you have to be like this for thousands of hours before you can actually perform,” Ambrose said. “No, you can get into it and be okay. It’s very rewarding in that sense.”
