The Filmed DJ Set Contagion Has Arrived in NC
Inspecting a modern social media phenomenon, and presenting "The Hang," from Super Empty and OSR.
Of the many contemporary behaviors or realities that would be difficult to convey to someone from even 20 years ago (unanimous No. 1 pick: “reality TV host Donald Trump is president of the U.S. — for the second time”), the most awkward to explain might be this: the concept of doing a seemingly everyday activity like cooking or laundry, not for the instrinsic benefits of the behavior itself, per se, but because you’re recording yourself doing it to be packaged for mass public consumption later. While the wall-to-wall virality of Ashton Hall’s (truly) unbelievable “morning routine” this week led to (and was fueled by) collective groans, eyerolls, and meme-based mockery — but, in the broader landscape of 2025, could mostly be shrugged off — I genuinely think it might make a 2005-person’s head explode.
To spend even modest time on music- or music-adjacent-social media in the past couple years is to be inundated by an outgrowth of the same phenomenon, one that is far less offending to the senses but increasingly just as widespread: the filmed DJ set. Black House Radio, launched last January, and later covered in the LA Times. Elevator Music, started in May of 2023 (and getting a major boost, like BHR, after a Zack Fox appearance). The now 682,000-subscriber Flavour Trip, which debuted less than a year before that, in September 2002. Closer to home for us in NC, the series “The Living Room,” from Social Supply VA — first video, January 2024.
Given all that growing momentum, it was only a matter of time until North Carolina — which rarely is at the vanguard of national trends, but also is rarely, especially these days, far behind it — would follow suit. Just in the Triangle alone, debuts are being made, it seems, almost every week: Collective Chaos (the duo DJ J Mar and Professor X The Producer) posted a preview to IG from an upcoming series on YouTube; event series Friends + Family (again with J Mar on the decks) posted one as well. Raleigh-based recording studio Stratosphere Records kicked off a series of in-studio “S.TV” videos, including this one featuring DJ/producer/rapper Sifi!. And most algorithmically blessed of the pack, radio host and curator AyeeeDubb launched the No Skips “Kickback” at Durham photo studio Yours — with a viewcount that just crossed over 50k.
For a hardened cynic, it’s not difficult to see how a profileration of videos like these fits neatly within broader critiques of a content economy that has reduced us to competitively angling, 24/7, for small slivers of each other’s precious time; about no good, pure moments anymore going un-recorded, un-monetized, un-branded. And while phone-less or “phone away”-branded events have more cachet than ever — the promo flyer for upcoming Raleigh event The Free Hour explicitly says “No Phones On The Dance Floor!” — such directives seem largely toothless if the whole thing is being recorded to be watched later… on phones.
And yet — out of the yawning abundance of somewhat-contrived, self-filmed, social media videos flowing through that wonderful series of tubes called the internet, few could be be deemed as innocuous, and even endearing, as the filmed DJ set. While a good deal of day-in-the-life content owes its engagement to cheap and superficial gags or curiosities (in Hall’s case: bulging muscles, implausible time stamps, and unspeakable behaviors involving banana peels), DJing videos comparitvely feel born out of, at least on some level, something more soulful and true. That is: it’s nice to hang out with friends and listen to good music. It’s also nice for that experience to be stored somewhere for posterity, for others (or oneself) to be able to stop by and visit from time to time — not as a replacement for true connection and community, but as a welcome bit of company, in a way that the corporate-curated playlists of Spotify can’t provide.
It’s within that context that, inevitably, Super Empty has come to have its own: The Hang, a co-production with Mikey Sharks and the good folks at One Speaker Radio. For as long as we feel like doing it, we’ll be periodically posting up outside Raleigh/Durham establishments, setting out a speaker and a couple chairs, and playing tunes. We’d love for you to come hang with us while we do it. But if you’re not around that day, don’t fear — like footage of an influencer getting dressed in the morning, it’ll be online before you know it.
DJ series’ from this post:
Non-NC:
NC-based: