Trying to play bass music to a dnb crowd feels impossible sometimes
I was mostly known as a DnB producer for years, but in the last few years I’ve been moving more into multi-genre bass music.
Still around 140–170 BPM, still dark, bass-heavy, but not strictly dnb anymore. More 140, halftime, dubstep, breaks, experimental journey / club stuff that feel close to the same world.
The problem is, when I play this kind of set to dnb crowds, it often feels almost impossible. I’ve had moments where I felt like I was emptying the dancefloor and destroying the party for everyone, even though the music does not feel that far away from dnb to me.
This specific party was kind of an exception. I actually really enjoyed it and the crowd felt mature and open-minded, even though it was a pure dnb night. That made me think about this even more, because this kind of reaction does not feel that common where I’m from.
Maybe it is partly an Eastern European thing, where dnb parties are often very neuro / deep focused and there are not many cross-genre bass music nights. Or maybe I am just dealing with the expectations connected to my name, because people still expect dnb from me.
I know one obvious solution would have been to change my artist name and separate this from my dnb past, but I decided not to. At the same time, I don’t really see the point in playing the same tunes as everyone else just to fit in.
So I’m curious:
Do you feel like dnb crowds are generally harder to introduce other bass music to?
Is this mostly a local scene / Eastern Europe thing? (i never had a problem with this playing in Netherlands, Germany, UK or so, but i don't play so often abroad anymore...)
EDIT:
Thanks for all the replies, I think this cleared it up for me.
The outcome seems pretty simple: if a night is sold as dnb, people want dnb. Even if the music feels connected to me, it does not matter if the audience came with a different expectation.
It also made me realize that if you start as a dnb artist, experiment with the sound for years, and eventually your taste evolves into a wider bass music direction, you probably have to communicate that very clearly. Rebrand / change name, instead of expecting the same audience to naturally follow you there.
Otherwise you end up in this weird middle ground where you are not really playing what people came for, but also not fully presenting the new direction in the right context.
Appreciate the honest comments, it genuinely helped me see it more clearly.