On that note, digging is arguably the first step into the world of deejaying. Based on what was discussed so far about dopamine and motivation, consider a simple question: how often do you find music you actually like? Would you say that you like every song you hear? Probably not. Over time, in fact, most people probably get pickier with the music they listen to, further reducing the chances of actually getting the desired reward. Granted, over time your sources should get better, but that is eventually evened out by becoming even pickier and feeling the need to dig deeper to find more and “better” music, according to evolving individual tastes. That said, there is a particular quality of music that drives our brains to respond emotionally: groove. Groove, in music, is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a musical rhythm that is enjoyable and makes the listener want to move or dance” and it occurs when the beat division in a piece of music creates momentum. Momentum is when we believe that we can expect certain things to happen in the music at certain points in time. Whether those expectations are met, or intentionally broken, is what makes a piece of music more or less interesting to us. Striking the right balance, as discussed above, will make a piece release the optimal amount of dopamine. Digging, in and of itself, is a relatively easy, satisfying process, provided you have the funds to invest (because pirating is not cool!). It’s much easier than actually learning how to compose a piece of music anyway. No wonder there’s way more DJs than producers. Another thing is to know how to arrange the tracks you’ve found into coherent and engaging sets. That’s where the skill lies. So, an intrinsic part of the process is that over time you will need to find more and “better” music in order to satisfy your down-regulated dopamine system. And once you start playing gigs, it goes deeper.


Picture this, you’re in your teens, you just got a bunch of new tracks on your laptop and a brand new controller plugged in. You invite some friends over, fire up your speakers and… it’s on! In this scenario you don’t even have to be mixing the tracks, just playing one after the other and having a single friend ask “What’s this banger?” is enough to make you feel omnipotent. A feeling that some may find incredibly enticing, if not downright addictive. Discovering new music for your own listening pleasure is one thing, but sharing it with others, and the relative feel-good hormones that come with it, are experiences that may cause such deep satisfaction to determine one’s life path. Or at least how some choose to spend a lot of their time from then on. Fast-forward to a few years later, when some may have experienced their first gigs in clubs or parties with an actual crowd and a proper sound system. As gig experiences accumulate, not all will feel the same. Every DJ has a bit of a different idea of what a perfect gig is and it’s safe to say that in the first years of one’s career behind the decks, if things go well, there will be several shows that top everything experienced before. And that’s great! A clear sign of progress. The tricky part is when, for rea- sons out of one’s control, some experiences don’t quite hit the sweet spot as others did. All too often, it may happen that something may not be quite right. Maybe the speakers don’t sound as clean or one of the turntables is busted. Maybe the crowd is a bit smaller than it was last time around. Whatever it may be, standards get higher which, in this context, is another way of saying “you need more dopamine to feel as motivated as you did before”. It makes sense. When you start


accumulating good


experiences behind the decks, it’s hard to settle for more mediocre ones.


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