You got to know your audience and you've got to keep your ego in check, those are my song picking rules. For Jacinta's party, I tried to focus on playing dance music for girls...this means keeping it very hip hop and Top 40 (in spite of this rule, I had the additional personal rule of NOT playing the Put a Ring On It or Paper Planes songs because I was so tired of hearing these two at every party. You'll see how well that resolution went)
Here is the 2.8 Hour Battle:
"My Girl" by the Temptations
"Four Minutes" by Madonna
(see, my plan was, and I followed this plan, to play "My Girl" when Jacinta came in for the "surprise" and then launch right into real strong party music--no warm ups unlike last time)
"Boyz" by MIA
"Cyclone" by Baby Bash
"Get Low" by Flo-Rida
(People know Paper Planes, they don't know Boyz, and it bores them...so into the hip hop we go. Good thing I watched Real World last week or else I wouldn't have known that Cyclone song.)
"Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown
"That's Not My Name" by the Ting Tings
"The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson
"Take On Me" by Aha
(Almost as popular as hip hop? Singalong songs. Like Take On Me.)
"I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops
"Kiss" by Prince
"My Boo" by Ghost Town DJ's
(You can see here I am losing my ability to hold on to the Top 40 model, but I knew the army would be with me on My Boo. And originally I had thought to play Kiss right after Kiss Kiss, but that's not what I did.)
"Hot n Cold" by Kate Perry
"Womanizer" by Britney Spears
"Ching a Ling" by Missy Elliott
"Shake it to the Ground" by Rye Rye
(and here I take it back to hardcore party town, you give them enough hardcore party town, and then you can play Rye Rye)
"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday"by Boyz II Men
"Hypnotize" by the Notorious BIG
(see, what I did was play a slow dance and then BAM! "take that...take that...take that")
"Crazy" by Pitbull & Lil John
"Heatless" by Kanye West
(do you know how rad Crazy is? Very rad. And I thought everyone loves Heartless. Nope. They don't. Sorry Kanye, your song is unpopular)
"Shoop" by Salt n Pepa
"OPP" by Naughty by Nature
(last party I had the 80s under my skin, this time, the 90s)
"Je Veux Te Voir" by Yelle
"Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
(I started Silver Screen by Felix Da Housecat right after Yelle, which was a good linkup, but the song was rejected so I tried to win back favor with a singalong banger)
"Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol
"Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners
(Bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Dexy...there were rumblings that I was throwing a dance party for boys SO I had to repent by playing the song I swore up and down I would not play. And it's a fun song)
"Single Ladies" by Beyonce
"Love Like This Before (Remix)" by Faith Evans & Fatman Scoop
"Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna
"American Boy" by Estelle feat. Kanye West
"Fire" by Joe Budden
"What You Know (Remix)" by T.I.
(The lie was that Jacinta was being invited over to watch Mean Girls. Fire is a great song that plays in Mean Girls when Lindsay goes to the house party. Someone did not like Fire, so they ran over to my computer and clicked a new song...what they thought was "Whatever You Like" by T.I. Sorry! Wasn't Whatever You Like, it was a super awesome reggae remix of What You Know. And keep your hands off my laptop.)
"Lights and Music" by Cut Copy
"Let Me Clear My Throat" by DJ Cool
"Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
"Move" by CSS
(It was getting late, the party was thinning out, songs were getting requested, leg wrestling occurred...it was getting real fun and loose)
"Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order
"Paper Planes" by MIA
(Okay, okay. No biggie. I'll play it)
"Boys Don't Cry" by the Cure
"I Get Around" by the Beach Boys
"I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles
(I was asked if these were the songs I played to make people want to leave the party. But on the other hand, one of my post-party evaluation forms said "not enough Beach Boys" so, you know, it takes all kinds.)
"One Step Beyond" by the Madness
"Beggin'" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
(party getting real sparse...most of the decorations have been taken down, and I'm just playing what my heart tells me.)
"Inside and Out" by Feist
"Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley
In closing: Very good party, very fun partiers. Only a handful of party fouls.
And I still really want to do a party where I only play oldies, r&b, vintage reggae, and soul.
Further Reading:
The Setlist to Emily's Party in November
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4 comments:
Oh man. That is one thing that is an unpardonable sin in my book... going and changing a song. I had this awesome set list that included ONE solitary slow jam (Aaliyah's "At the Best You are Love") and some ginger who obviously doesn't like to dance close to fine dime pieces goes up and changes the song... I about punched him.
See, I had made this incredible thematic and auditory transition with the song before the slow jam and the song right after. But, this guy couldn't deal with it. Screw me for building a moment. Fine. I'll put on the next song so you can proceed to not get with someone tonight.
Another great song in that scene from Mean Girls is Peaches. I believe the song is Suck and Let Go? I can't be sure...many peaches songs from Teaches of Peaches are similar, but all ridiculously amazing.
And what did I tell you about Kanye's most recent album...fewer are digging on it then Itunes would let on.
Thanks! I thought I'd die waiting.
"And I still really want to do a party where I only play oldies, r&b, vintage reggae, and soul."
You've inspired me. My next party is going to be a 50s/60s themed one. And the music of course will have to follow suit.
But then I want to do a 70s party. Because of all the decades for music, that has to be my favorite.
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