Teino Evans, Staff Reporter 
When the selector gets it right the result is like what happened at Body Shots, put on at Rex Nettleford Hall, University of the West Indies, Mona, at the UWI Students' Union on Friday, January 20. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer
SOUND SYSTEMS and selectors garner strong crowd support because they guarantee a good time, building lasting reputations.
"Yuh want a sound weh can build a vibe, people weh can move smoothly between different genres ... Get a mix and blend of music that will offer different vibes," Courtney Edwards, a regular party-goer, explained.
Another party animal, Natoya, said she liked certain selectors like Razz and Biggy, Alric and Boyd, Coppershot, Arif Cooper and Renaissance. "Dem always play nice music ... If mi si fi dem name on the flyer or any advertisement, that would make me want to go, definitely."
EFFECTIVE PLANNING
However, as individual selectors explain, one has to understand the kind of audience they are required to provide music for and, from there, effectively plan and execute their strategies.
"Fi one, when a selector know seh him can pull a crowd, is a great blessing an it mean seh yuh a do something right an yuh a do a good job ... Any man nah pull a crowd haffi jus know seh dem haffi guh back a di drawing board," Razz of Razz and Biggy said.
In giving a little more insight into their particular style of selecting and tactics, Biggy said, "People generally come a party fi enjoy demself, but different strokes fi different folks. When we a play people enjoy themselves an' by extension wi get popular over the years (since 2001/2).
KNOWING THE CROWD
"We play different; people cyaan study wi or know wa fi expect next and wi music always flowing. We keep it moving an a dat basically did kick off our popularity."
Razz, however, said knowing the kind of crowd in a party was also had a lot to do with pleasing patrons.
"People different; for example, people uptown different from people downtown. Downtown people like more talking, yuh haffi can talk an juggle an di same go for country people. An then yuh have di people dem uptown weh nuh waan nuh talking, a jus juggling ... Razz an Biggy can do both, that's why yuh find wi uptown, downtown, country all bout. Yuh jus haffi know the type of crowd yuh a play for an select your juggling accordingly," Razz explained.
Razz and Biggy say in the early stages of their selecting career it was mostly high schoolers and teenagers who gravitated towards their parties, but now they were seeking to target all age groups.
"I don't know if our age have anything to do with it, but yuh jus have certain sounds that people gravitate to. The only group weh wi nuh really corner yet a di older people dem, like di Heineken Startime people dem," Razz said.
Deejay Kurt Riley describes himself as having "a schizophrenic personality towards music, hence the name 'The Party Animal'."
He believes what attracts people to him is that "playing music is a fusion of different variables that must be balanced as a party progresses into the wee hours of the morning."
KNOW YOUR MUSIC
According to Kurt Riley, these variables include "the personality of the deejay. You must know your music, know how to mix and know how to blend. The second thing is the sound system. If you don't have the right sound that is positioned to allow patrons to hear the same frequency, it makes a good deejay look bad. And finally, the patrons. Patrons don't go to a party to make money, they go to enjoy themselves, and as every deejay knows you have to watch the crowd." He added: "I don't speak much; it all boils down to the delivery."
CREATE A STYLE
Jazzy T of Renaissance Disco concurred with his colleagues that reading the crowd is vital.
Jazzy T said, "It was not something that could be taught; is something weh come natural ... You just have to be able to read the crowd and know how fi play. Yuh cyaan jus do it one time either, yuh haffi continuous suh people know seh a your style dat."
Promoter Roderick Reid from GLK Entertainment said based on his experience, promoters sometimes put the name of the selectors on the posters to help establish in the minds of patrons that it is a high-quality event.
"I think what people go for is consistency and the entertainment value of a selector or sound system and, so far, certain selectors have established themselves as having a certain vibe, and depending on the audience at the party, they will definitely be a pull factor," Reid said.
Reid also said that the reputations of selectors and sound systems usually complement that of the party.
