Student DJs & What MBHS Students Think About Them

Every year, Morro Bay High School’s ASB puts on the Homecoming dance. In many ways, it may be akin to other schools’ dances, except for one unique trait: student DJs. Most schools hire professional, adult DJs, who have a hard time connecting with and understanding the teens in the crowd. MBHS, however, has two student DJs – seniors Aesa Vidati and Anders Schuerfeld – who have been playing music for some of the dances for the past few years. 

Students at MBHS like the idea of student DJs. One anonymous student said, “I think that student DJs are a really good idea. I think it makes homecoming a little bit more fun because it feels more personal.” While many students want Schuerfeld and Vidati to DJ again, students at MBHS do have some concerns. 

One of the most prominent concerns is the lack of variety in the music that the student DJs play. This year, some students felt that certain groups at the dance weren’t being represented. Dian Lewis, a junior at MBHS, said, “I kept going back outside because it was just like a lot of awkward silence from my group, because they were playing a lot of music that I really didn’t listen to.” Other students voiced concerns about the variety of the music too, with one student suggesting that the DJs need to include more perspectives, “I think there are certain groups there that need to be represented. Like, there are different types of music, and it can all be hype. It can all be the Homecoming vibe, but not all be one genre.” Another student said, “they played some rap songs that probably a fourth of the people that were there actually enjoyed.” Additionally, other anonymous students shared that they felt like they only played “frat” music and had hoped for at least one slow song to be played.

In response to these concerns, Vidati explained the unique circumstances of the Homecoming dance this year. For one, due to a lack of supervision around the music setup, students kept accidentally pulling out the cord to the soundboard, stopping the music. This caused some songs not to be played due to the time it took to set the music back up. According to Vidati, the DJs had “two more slow dance songs that weren’t able to be played because of the music stoppage,” as well as “a lot of other diverse music, such as ABBA. We even had some Beatles on there.” Additionally, because the energy of the dance kept being interrupted by the music stopping, the DJs decided that they needed to run a lot of party music to “elevate the dance back up to where it was,” explained Vidati, “you don’t want to start a stoppage of music with a slow song.”

Another common concern about the student DJs among students was their inability to read the room. A lot of students felt that they played songs for too long that weren’t hyping up the energy of the room anymore. One anonymous student said that they played songs that would get “the crowd hype and then the hype would die off, and then they would keep playing the song, so I think they need to make quicker transitions between songs.” This same student shared that they think the student DJs did well in the previous years, but also believes that the crowd plays a huge role in whether the dance’s energy is high: “last year’s seniors were super hype about literally anything.” Another student shared similar concerns on how long certain songs were played, “There are some songs where it’s like, this is going on for so long. And it would be like the worst song of your life.”

While it is undeniable that the student DJs are doing a great job, it is important to understand how students feel about their work and what they would like to see improved. With no doubt, MBHS is excited for student DJs to return for the next dance – one that is hopefully even better than the last.