The road trip DJ is a role people are hesitant to claim.
It’s not because they don’t know any music. Everyone knows and likes music. Put on the spot everyone could rattle off the names of a few of their favourites.
So it’s not an issue of not knowing it’s an issue of being open to judgement. As music is such an opinionated topic it’s hard to find two people with the exact same taste. Therefore to stand up and put on a song as road trip DJ you are putting yourself out in the open to be judged by the other passengers.
The easy thing to do would be to simply avoid the potential judgement and take the convenient route of shuffling the latest top 40 chart. Selecting the list of the latest ‘popular’ music instead of risking something not everyone would agree with.
That’s why people ask for requests because they want to step out of the spotlight and allow someone else to be judged. If someone complains about the song the DJ can have an excuse ready – ‘it was a request’ and they’re off the hook.
It’s an interesting common place example of opening oneself to the judgement of others.
Thomas Duggan 