more song ideas needed...

[Mike Mahoney]

Hi folks, Brady's post was so good, I stole the title.

This time, I need song help/ suggestions. Does anyone do Jr. High dances?

What are some good ones for this group?

More importantly for me, what specific songs do you refuse to play for this age group?

Coming from the bar/club environment, and not being a parent, I don't have a very "sensitive" ear for potentially offensive lyrics. Any help would be appreciated!

[Art Dearing]

Mike, if you have the "clean" edits, then you'll be OK. I did Pink's "Get The Party Started" for this age group, couldn't find a clean version, so I "blipped" every time ...shaking my A.., phrase came up. My experience is that they don't usually dance (boy-girl), but will polarize and do their own thing within each little click! They definately don't go in for Club Mix or Mix songs, so you can skip Promo's Rhythm Radio hits.
They like the Alternative Rock! And as you know, will try to have you play something they know is TABOO! or off the wall. You'll have to figure out what's what in that scenario.

They don't go in for much S-L-O-W stuff! An occasional slow song, they will come and ask you for one. If you're doing lights, they really like the light-show stuff. They will ask for Grease tunes. You could wow them with "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Can't Fight The Moonlight" from Coyote Ugly. They identify with that because of the movie. And don't forget movie cut from Schrek, "I'm A Believer"! Also, "Who Let The Dogs Out" and "Start The Commotion" work well with this group.

Oh Yes! You'll really be a star if you play "Sandstorm" by Derude! They love to jump up and down...LOL. Perhaps, "Tub Thumping" would work too.

Hope that helps Mike.

"Still spinning after all these years."
"Less Mic, more music for dancing."

[ November 08, 2003, 10:07 AM: Message edited by: DJ Art ]

[Wolfie]

Art is right.

Junior high dances can be fun. The students are very clique-ish at this age but not hard to please. The ticket is to play the "clique-ish" stuff every now and again. This keeps everyone happy. Remember, not everyone is going to dance. Don't worry about it. Many of the pups come to the dances to visit and hang out with their friends.

Remember to use your mic to keep the floor going. Building anticipation before laying on a popular track is a good thing. You can slowly kill the floor and then build it back up again with your mic and a popular song.

It's been a few years since I did middle school dances so I'm a bit out of date when it comes to the latest requests. I'd recommend chatting with some of the SCA students and asking about the off-the-wall songs they think will go over well. If you are subscribing to a promotional music service, chances are you'll have many of the songs they like.

Of course, the standard participation dances like Casper Cha-Cha Slide, Electric Slide, Macarena and YMCA will work. They're not likely to be big fans of Country music but you can throw in some Shania Twain.

They like lots of bass and lots of headroom. You'll need an arse-kicking sound rig to please these folks. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

Slow dances aren't all that popular with this age group but you should play at least one every 30 minutes. This gives 'em a chance to wind down and go to the concessions if they don't have dates. At this age, most of 'em don't have dates. The ones who have dates will slow dance.

Here are a few of the songs that have worked well for me at middle school dances:

Cotton Eye Joe
The Twist
Anything by Shaggy
Barbie Girl
Mambo #5
Rock Around The Clock
Love Shack
Get This Party Started
Limbo Rock
Livin' La Vida Loca
Who Let The Dogs Out
Hot Hot Hot
Move It Like This

Mix 'em up with the modern rock and mainstream stuff and you'll do fine. You may be surprised to find that older Motown dance tunes get 'em moving as well. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

I hope it helps and good luck!

[Mike Mahoney]

Thanks guys, some great ideas here. The problem I was running into is:

1. teachers at this school don't like even the radio edits. They have a problem, not so much with the songs themselves, as the way the kids dance to them.

2. Students would leave the dancefloor and swarm the DJ area when I played "the twist" or "staying alive" then was asked "do you have anything from this century" ...although they liked dancing queen, lol go figure

The Modern rock works great, & I do no more than about 6 slow songs in a 3 hour dance, whch seems to be the magic number, as long as i only play one at a time.

Some others that seemed to go over well, all the "linedance tunes" love shack, barbie girl, blue, mambo #5, we like to party, ice ice baby, & jump around.

Some heavy requests I've been asked not to play (even edited):

Chingy's Right Thurr, Get Low, Stand Up by Ludacris, Milkshake Song, & What's your Fantasy(which I wouldn't play for this age group anyway)

All in all, I think it was a good dance, the PTO, the boys and many of the girls all voiced their approval.

I guess I just hate telling the kids they can't hear songs they want that I know will work, even if its only a handful.

[ November 09, 2003, 09:11 AM: Message edited by: musicmainiac ]

[DJMC]

ugghhhhh---

I just got arm twisted into playing "Get Low" and "Baby Got Back" at a church teen dance last nite (ages 14 to 19)

Even Allie was appalled at their lack of taste!!!