Music. It’s in our souls. It’s in the air. It’s the universal language spoken around the world. The current global shelter-in-place has put a halt to many things, but it has not stopped the music. Austin has always been possessed by the passion of music, and our local powerhouse DJs refuse to let that passion die.
On social media is where you’ll find them. Jamming to crowds ranging in the tens of thousands from all over the globe. Mixing music you love; from their hearts to yours.
“I was so scared to go Live, at first,” DJ Melissa Bellz (Davis) says. “And people pushed me to go Live. Going on other’s pages helped me to see I wanted to create that vibe. And now I am.”
Anybody can pull up
Creating that vibe, indeed. And no matter where you are, what you’re doing, or who you’re with, you can connect to that vibe and energy.
“Anybody can pull up,” DJ Bellz says. Anybody.
Anthony Felder, spinning as DJ A/C, knows that all too well. He is killing each social media set and bringing in audiences from around the world.
“I thought I was just going to play for people that knew me. And the messages I got — people were like ‘Thank you for that. I needed that music,’ DJ A/C says.
It is no doubt music cultivates our moods. It hypes us up. It calms us down. It helps us remember. It helps us forget. DJs now know the influence their music mix brings in these uncertain times.
“It wasn’t an immediate knowledge to me that I was helping people on that much of a significant level,” DJ A/C says, “with people being in such a dire mental and physical state.”
That mental and physical state is a battle we fight daily. As the days get longer and the yearning for human contact continues, being quarantined from the world takes its toll.
DJs are here to help. Going Live and breaking records is their contribution in all this madness. It is their superpower.
But with dozens of online music outlets such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud at our disposal, what is the incentive to tune in to a Live stream? “It creates a different energy, it puts you back in that club atmosphere. You don’t really get a lot of energy from just pressing play on Spotify,” A/C says.
In addition to being able to see and interact with the DJ, fellow online listeners are able to chat with each other and build the hype when the latest club banger drops in rotation.
It’s a whole mood. This is why we love them. It’s why we find their Live during our daily walk or blast it at home while cleaning, or rock out to it during our just-because dance session. This is why we are drawn to their atmosphere.
The Live sessions also serve as a nostalgic return to our younger teenage days when listening to the DJ on the radio and we were forced to create own club environment for one. Back then – it was primarily about the music. It was not about the drink in your hand, the hottie at the bar, or the tall dark handsome gentlemen holding up the wall; we were deeply entrenched in the music.
With the current trend of Live DJ Sessions online, “It’s getting back to that time where you sat by the radio and you listened,” says A/C. You’re like ‘oh what song is that’ and the DJ would have to tell you. It’s really getting back to the true form of Djing.”
Everyone around the world is loving the vibe DJ’s bring. Sweet love songs illuminate the streets of Italy. The boroughs of New York ring out in unison to Biggie’s It Was All a Dream. A DJs superpower is protecting people’s sanity around the world.
“Literally music just changes my whole mood. You can be going through anything and you add a spec of music, and it’s lit,” DJ Bellz agrees.
Odds are that your favorite DJ – and those DJs you are not familiar with – are scheduled to spin a Live session on their social media platform, just about any night of the week.
DJ Bellz speaks every part of the truth, “Ya’ll never know what to expect, but we going to party!”
You can catch Melissa Bellz TONIGHT as she spins from 8pm to 10pm CST, with a special 4 Year Anniversary Remembrance Tribute for Prince. It’s free to join in the groove via Zoom. The Meeting ID is 6126051603 and the password is 595855.
