Just wondered which skill people rate more highly in a DJ - the ability to program a set well, carefully selecting appropriate tunes and placing them in the set at the right time or a DJ's ability to really mash it up and pull out all the tricks, keeping the beats precise and clinical ?

The reason I ask is I've seen a few (sometimes heated) discussions in various threads along the lines of "DJ insert-name-here is the most technical DJ I've ever witnessed" which somebody else counters with "Yeah, but DJ insert-name-here plays really boring tunes!".

I'll kick it off by saying that for me it's about the programming. The tunes come first every time. I can tolerate a few fluffed mixes or a few lazy beats in a set so long as the tunes are right. I don't care how clinical, technical or highly skilled a DJ is, if the tunes are bland they can be doing handstands on the decks for all I care, it'll still leave me cold.

Obviously it's a given that a good combination of the two is the ideal we'd all work towards, but that's the bitch of this question. No sitting on the fence, choose one or t'other please.