Pre-Drinks Mix

See, even if you look at the sets in the mixes there, that's my scene too...but there's enough Top 40/chart remixes by those artists and the like that you can keep it commercial but still blast tracks you like to hear.

You also have to remember your audience too: are they coming to a venue or listening to a radio show to hear the DJ play new stuff or to dance to stuff they already know? (In general, the former want stuff they already know, the latter want new, unknown stuff. Unless you're a name/established DJ that they trust to play good new material)

I'll chuck in unknown tracks into commercial sets every week, but you're talking a mini-set at best (more often than not it's 3-4 tracks a evening max) and I've to pick my moments/mixes well. Last gig, for example, I got into a nice prog house set mixed into a bit of electro house filled with songs that, I guarantee, 90% of the dancefloor wouldn't have known. But they went with it. The week before in the same venue, though, probably wouldn't have gotten away with it. So it depends. Best preparing for all circumstances and just getting enough gigging experience behind you that you can go with the flow of the crowd.

(Sorry, I'm presuming you're relatively new to DJ-ing btw based on your "I need practise" comment. If you're not, I don't mean to be patronising and tell you stuff you already know!)

Hmm, depends really on what you believe and why you want to know (i.e. whether or not to use certain songs in gigs: if that's the case and you're not sure of the audience, sizing up the crowd beforehand or trial and error on the evening are your only real options).

I definitely wouldn't consider Axwell (on his own) and Dirty South Top 40 (they'd probably qualify under commercial house though), SHM definitely and Avicii is in the position now where he could go the way of Guetta or keep doing his thing as is.

Like I said, I class everything I do in my sets under the heading of commercial dance/house because they're the type of crowds that I play for. But that heading can contain a number of genres within itself...sure even a lot of dubstep could be considered Top 40 nowadays.

If you're putting together genre specific sets, I'd say don't focus too much about whether it's Top 40 or not and just on whether each individual track will go down well with the audience you're playing for.

I'd count it as anything that either charted or is written with the idea of charting. Like I'd count the likes of 'Sandstorm', say, as commercial dance. It wasn't specifically produced in that style but caught on to that stage (and you really have to warn people of anything remotely Top 40/commercial because some just don't like hearing music that others may also hear). But yeah, even if it's a Dutch House remix of a Britney Spears track (as I had in one mix) I'd still count it as Top 40 because ultimately it's Britney Spears on the vocal.