Forget the usual club deejay being some guy in shades and a baseball cap, with it being more about the music than the man. A wave of female models has hit the decks and it is about the looks, not the hooks.

Dolled-up console queens in skimpy outfits are gaining in popularity. More are being booked for club gigs and private events here, be they foreign guest DJs or local ones.

Industry players tell SundayLife! that the past two years has seen more eye-candy turning up the heat on the dancefloor.

Before, there was hardly one event a month that featured a hot model DJ but now, they grace events at many nightspots.

Nightclubs that have hosted sexy DJs are Attica at Clarke Quay, Avalon, luxe lounge Pangaea and multi-party spot St James Power Station.

Home-grown spinners include DJ Tenashar, 25, an FHM cover girl with over 100,000 likes on her FaceBook page; Nicole Chen, 26, an FHM cover model and former beauty queen; and model Pearlyn Koh, 25, known as DJ Foxxxy K.

They earn good money. DJs say some local ones earn as much as US$5,000 (S$6,000) for a two- or three-hour set overseas in places such as Le Baron in Tokyo and Mixx Club in Malacca, and about $500 an hour in Singapore - higher than what some regular DJs with similar skills and experience command.

These spin sisters may not need to be trained turntablists but they do need to master the basics such as beat matching, where you mix one track to the next seamlessly. But some female model DJs are said to have played pre-recorded mixes at their shows, instead of mixing their songs live.

Mr Aaghir Yadav, 29, director of events company Creative Insurgence, says his firm has started grooming local models to be DJs. "When we find a model who has an interest in music and DJ-ing, we bring her in and our in-house instructors will train her," he says.

DJ Foxxxy K is a model-DJ roped in by Mr Yadav. On why model DJs are a hit with clubbers, she says: "It's like, why would a magazine with girls sell better than a magazine with guys? There's a 'for him' magazine, there's no 'for her' magazine. The appeal of model DJs is that you're doing a guy's job, equally or better, and you're a desirable object."

However, some would dispute the "better". There are clubbers and veteran DJs who call it a cheap marketing gimmick.

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