What do you do to get people to dance?
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Reason808.
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September 12, 2011 at 4:18 am #7291
Marc Andy Tilley
MemberWith Weddings and Corprates u have a much more varied public, than the bar/club scene, factors such as age ethnicity come into play …. i find a good mix of 80’s 90’s and the more commercial tracks out nowadays usually does well + a few older dance tracks ,,,, target a group of ppl at the function find out what there into adjust accordingly
September 12, 2011 at 8:49 am #7302Pär Hessler
ParticipantThis is something you learn to deal with over time.
I sometimes get this kind of crowd….
The one thing to think about is to not to panic and play all your “secret wapon” at the beginning of the night.
That is what many beginners do wrong.
If they does not react at the first try, take a step back and play some tunes that is sueted but not the “secret weapon”
After an 30-45min try again with one “secret weapon” still no reaction, try again after an hour.
That has worked for me over the past 20 years.
Sometimes they just does not want to dance and then it does not matter what you do….//DJ Hessler
September 12, 2011 at 4:29 pm #7329D-Jam
ParticipantFloorfillers. Also bear in mind some crowds simply won’t budge. Like if I’m playing a lounge I’m not going to try to make people dance.
Likewise, I attended (not DJed) a wedding where the ONLY songs people would dance to were the traditional cheesey wedding tunes. They wouldn’t dance to anything else. Slow tunes also filled the floor.
Sometimes you can try your best and give it your all, but end up with a crowd who simply doesn’t want to dance.
September 12, 2011 at 5:18 pm #7332Michael M. Hughes
ParticipantYep, sometimes you have a dud crowd. Do your best anyway and always look like you’re having fun, because crowds can pick up on your unease. Ultimately, you’re getting paid, you’re playing good music (I hope), and that’s really your part of the bargain—if no one dances, that’s *their* problem. And if MJ’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” doesn’t pull a few souls out of their chairs, just hunker down and view it as a learning experience.
I’ve been surprised on a few occasions when I’ve played for dud crowds and people came up to me afterwards to tell me how much they enjoyed the music. Just because the dance floor isn’t full doesn’t mean you’re not doing a good job. Some crowds, especially corporate groups, might be uptight people who don’t get along with each other and hate their jobs and view the event as forced socializing. Can’t blame them for not wanting to boogie.
September 12, 2011 at 9:56 pm #734398 Percent Chimp
ParticipantMichael M. Hughes, post: 7327 wrote: Yep, sometimes you have a dud crowd. Do your best anyway and always look like you’re having fun, because crowds can pick up on your unease. Ultimately, you’re getting paid, you’re playing good music (I hope), and that’s really your part of the bargain—if no one dances, that’s *their* problem. And if MJ’s “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” doesn’t pull a few souls out of their chairs, just hunker down and view it as a learning experience.
I’ve been surprised on a few occasions when I’ve played for dud crowds and people came up to me afterwards to tell me how much they enjoyed the music. Just because the dance floor isn’t full doesn’t mean you’re not doing a good job. Some crowds, especially corporate groups, might be uptight people who don’t get along with each other and hate their jobs and view the event as forced socializing. Can’t blame them for not wanting to boogie.
This right here has pretty much been my experience. After almost every event I thought was a complete disaster, I’ve had people come up to me and tell me the music was great. It’s just a bit of a hit to the ego when you see an empty dance floor all night. I know it happens, at least to me, on occasion. But I’ve also talked to a couple of DJs that said that you can get any crowd to dance and if you can’t you’re just not trying hard enough. I don’t know if these guys are literally pulling people out onto the dance floor, but that’s just not my style. There’s a difference between being energetic and obnoxious.
Billie Jean has only ever failed me a couple of times, and they were both of the cranky corporate types. Party Rock Anthem has been pretty successful for me this year, especially for groups with a larger young crowd. When I’m DJing House and/or Techno, it’s never a problem. Everyone generally likes the same genres and is there specifically to dance and/or lounge (in the case of lounge, I’m not heartbroken over an empty dance floor).
September 12, 2011 at 10:08 pm #7347DJ Stone Crazy
ParticipantTry disco like the Bee Gees, ABBA or Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thang.”
September 19, 2011 at 8:20 pm #7632ParticipantWhat I really wanted to know is what you all do besides (or instead) playing floorfillers to get people dancing. Do you get on the mic and say something? Do you leave your booth and go talk to the crowd?
September 19, 2011 at 8:29 pm #1001710ParticipantI would never exhort people to dance. Because for one thing, I can’t imagine doing it and have never had to. Secondly, if you do exhort people to dance, and they just sit and stare at you, you look like an utter dork. If the music isn’t doing the trick, either a) you picked the wrong music, or b) they just aren’t into dancing. Either way, just enjoy yourself and do your best to at least make them happy while they’re sitting. You can’t always get people to dance, for the reasons I pointed out above, and you shouldn’t make a fool of yourself trying to do it.
September 20, 2011 at 2:09 pm #7648ParticipantSince I’m currently writing my book about how to DJ weddings, I just thought I’d jump in here to point out that weddings are excellent training for how to deal with this issue. Most weddings have built-in dance cues—for instance, often a couple will have their first dance, and minute or two into the dance I invite the bridal party onto the dance floor, then a little later I ask all the guests to join in. So you have a fully packed dance floor, and you can throw on a guaranteed no-fail tune (e.g., Billie Jean or the like) and immediately you have the energy to keep everyone going.
September 20, 2011 at 3:20 pm #7653U31
MemberI’d drop Blast – Crazy man just for the hell of it at that last point, Micheal…
[media=youtube]Ma3VOIrxso4[/media]
September 20, 2011 at 4:49 pm #7656ParticipantThanks, U31—great tune! I would probably mix that into Gnarls Barkley…. 🙂
September 20, 2011 at 11:23 pm #7660DJ Loso
Member98 Percent Chimp, post: 7627 wrote: What I really wanted to know is what you all do besides (or instead) playing floorfillers to get people dancing. Do you get on the mic and say something? Do you leave your booth and go talk to the crowd?
Sometimes people will come to you with requests. You can sometimes base requests of what type of crowd you have and what they want to hear; not always, but requests help.
September 20, 2011 at 11:54 pm #7662ParticipantYep. Last wedding I played, someone came up and said, “The groom loves hip hop” (which they hadn’t told me when I met with them). Threw down a hip hop set that went on through the night’s end and the dance floor was packed the whole time.
September 22, 2011 at 10:11 am #7682MemberI wonder how ” Foolish Behaviour” would go down at a wedding? 😮
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September 22, 2011 at 6:08 pm #1001719Phil Morse
KeymasterI find keeping the volume down and the lighting rig off or on subtle and then picking your moment to double the volume and whack some lights on works well… however it needs to be used with care. It’s like a “signal” to the dancefloor that things are gonna step up a gear, but if nobody’s up for it you stand the chance of looking a bit silly… 🙂
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