Seeking thrills
On the weekend, as if guessing that I wanted to have a fun evening, a young friend named Duc who works in a freelance transportation service immediately invited me to change my "taste", let's have a drinking party with an additional "complementary" dish, which is DJ performances. Just hearing it made me excited and also to gain some experience material for this article, I immediately agreed. So that very evening, my uncle and I immediately "headed" to a luxurious restaurant on To Huu street. It was just after 8 pm but the restaurant was already packed with diners, most of them young. It seemed like people in their 60s like me were from a strange planet when there were only a few people there.
There was nothing special about the food, but the restaurant space and the DJ performance of the first musician, a young girl in an eye-catching outfit, were different. From the “prelude” were lightly mixed songs that gradually increased in tempo and volume over time. As the night wore on, the sound and rhythm became more passionate and vibrant, and finally the entire auditorium of hundreds of people seemed to “burn” together… I don’t remember how much the bill was for the two of us that day, but it seemed not small. As for me, just one overindulgent party left my whole body aching for days. Suddenly I understood better, that was not a place for old people like me.
It was already 12 o’clock at night, but my friend told me that it was just the beginning. If I wanted to fully explore the parties with the DJ as the “king of the night”, I had to go late into the night, to the “flying rooms” with all sorts of things that are hard to describe in a few lines about this world of entertainment. Listening to my friend, who was younger than my child, tell the story, I felt a little offended, wanting to play a little longer to make it worth it and also to know, to make it worth the “money”, but I didn’t dare to “risk it”, when I had only been sitting for a few hours, my blood pressure had already started to rise… high!
I would also like to add a few words about the DJ profession. This is an abbreviation for Disc Jockey and Deejay. For a long time, DJs have been understood as people who specialize in selecting music and playing it back after it has been recorded for everyone to listen to. Not only do they have to select music, but DJs also have to somehow transform and adjust the music to make it exciting, stir up listeners and be suitable for many different audiences. Starting to appear in Jamaica in the 50s, it was introduced to the US in the 60s and from here, DJs really reached their peak. In the early 2000s, DJs explored the Vietnamese music market and appeared in Hue around 2005 and are now in vogue. However, for a long time, DJs have not been recognized as artists. In the eyes of many people, places where DJs appear are chaotic, messy and unhealthy.
No fun without DJ
Try going to the Facebook page of Pub Airlines at 39 Ba Trieu, which introduces itself as a leading entertainment venue and defines a new style of “nightlife” entertainment in Hue, and what caught my eye were images of fun and partying, and of course, the hot images of DJ girls who are skilled on the piano and have hot bodies. Let’s stop at one of the latest irresistible invitations of Pub Airlines: “… the appearance of DJ Thao BeBe, one of the sexiest DJs in Vietnam; coming to Airlines this time, DJ Thao BeBe will bring us extremely intense music sets, predicting a sleepless night for the partygoers of the Ancient Capital”.
It is not an exaggeration to say that DJ is one of the marketing tricks for restaurants. City Beer at 44 To Huu is not shy when making a passionate invitation: "Recharge your energy with City Beer, refuel with a great drinking party, enjoy the vibrant music from hot DJs". Although not a singer, DJs are assigned the mission of spreading the joy of music to everyone and in comparison, female DJs show an advantage when just needing to have a good appearance and be a little skillful, they will find it easier to get shows than men. In the environment of bars, live music cafes or restaurants, female DJs are always asked to wear hot and super short outfits, showing off their curves or skin as much as possible.
It is no exaggeration to say that now is the time… of DJs. And it seems that in this game, Hue is not lagging behind, if not rising to the top in the Central region. The number of dozens of bars and restaurants from popular to luxury that light up with DJs says it all. In fact, not only are the nightly shows usually lasting from at least 2pm to 2am the next morning at bars or restaurants, but DJs also appear and are the main characters in many events, from meetings with close friends, celebrations, birthdays or product launches and introductions… Especially the parties in the “flying room” filled with strong feelings often start after drinking parties and in general, if you want to have fun and “go all out”, you have to rely on the DJs. Surely many people still haven't forgotten the story of dozens of men and women, including the restaurant's manager and DJ staff, caught red-handed "high" and testing positive for drugs at the K&K restaurant and catering service more than a year and a half ago.
Duc told me that he often receives orders to transport famous DJs in Hue to perform in the districts, mainly in coastal communes, where many overseas Vietnamese visit their hometowns and organize parties to entertain friends and relatives. These are "quick orders", supplementing the already abundant income of some beloved DJs who have established positions in large bars and restaurants in Hue. These requested parties often start quite early, become lively when DJs appear to join in the fun and can last until... late at night. Duc also told me that he started to get acquainted with and "addicted" to this electronic music from those trips. As for me, I thought that the appearance of DJs in some way brought to Hue new, positive and vibrant cultural features and contributed to "breaking" the feeling of Hue's early and quiet nights.
(To be continued)
Part II: High income & high pressure
Source
Comment (0)