Any song you listen to will have what are called "phrases" in them. When you get used to DJing (or producing for that matter I suppose, I'd hope) you'll start to notice how songs are structured, how after a certain amount of time, nearly every time you'll notice the song sorta shift a little bit and it'll sound a bit different, that's called "phrasing."
Phrasing in a DJ mix will make your mixes seamless as your tracks will essentially be lined up so that if you're doing intro/outro mixing for example, the outro on track A will start when the intro on track B ends, causing a seamless mix.
Phrases are very easy to identify. There are four beats in a bar (or measure, same thing), eight bars in a phrase (correct me if my terminology is incorrect). Start a track you really like and just count the bass kicks (4/4 music like house, count the snares for DNB but for DNB count it like 12 34 22 34 with a little gap between the 34, you'll know what I mean when you try it with DNB with how it sounds and whatnot).
1234 2234 3234 4234 5234 6234 7234 8234
You'll notice that the song will change a little bit, you might hear a cymbal crash and the song will shift a little bit, that's the start of a new phrase. Try counting the beats/bars/phrases for an entire song and you'll catch on quickly. I myself figured out phrasing just by realizing that "hey, a song often does this, sounds like this or shifts like this when a new phrase begins." I didn't learn phrasing through counting beats or anything, nobody explained it to me what it actually is, be it through counting beats or anything of the sort. I suppose I just realized the structure of the music I mix.
I never want to spread false information so if anything here is incorrect please let me know.
Here's an example.
http://soundcloud.com/connormgs/phrasing-example
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