The Pop Pickers
1981. I was 3 years old, Page Boy for my Aunt and Uncle (another fashion mess, brown corduroys and jumper, but I did look kinda cute). The song was ‘One Day In Your Life’, by Michael Jackson, and I was dancing in circles, alone, upon what felt like the world’s biggest dancefloor. One of my earliest and most treasured memories, and yes, it had to be a wedding disco!
Far and away the best bit about weddings, in my opinion, is the disco. It’s an outdated term these days, but I can’t think of any better description. I’m talking about the bit after everybody’s eaten, when the booze starts flowing, the cheesy tunes come on and everybody from the bride and groom to the sugar-laden toddlers get up and throw some ridiculous shapes.
The only downside we found when we booked our venue was the stipulation we had to use a specific DJ company. There was no room for a band, we were told, and they have a contract with the one company for all the evening entertainment. I don’t know if this is the case for many venues out there, but I’d urge everyone to check – if you have specific plans for the evening entertainment, don’t sign anything without checking you can actually make them happen!
We met a couple of guys from our DJ company at a fair at the venue. The good news was that right away they impressed on me that the choice of music was entirely up to us. Well, it was like heaven to my ears – there you go Rob, play whatever music you like. But it’s not as easy as that. We have people coming to our wedding who probably don’t like early 90s metal, or Britpop. Or even ABBA. The cretins.
Part of any staple Wedding Disco. And part of my 5-a-day, too.
I’m going to go all Nick Hornby here, but bear with me. The creation of a Wedding Playlist™ is a difficult, drawn-out process, involving literally hours of testing and intense decision-making. In my opinion, your musical choices are dictated by the following:
- The tone of the songs. You cannot have ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E’ by Dolly Parton – yes it will be funny, but I’m not sure everybody would get the joke (particularly the new missus!);
- The anticipated / intended mood. Yes, ‘One Day in Your Life’ was number 1 in the charts back in ’81, but I look back now and realise why I was the only one on the dancefloor. It’s hardly a toe-tapper – in fact it’s kinda depressing really;
- The mixture of people. There will be young people, old people and somewhere-in-between people. They’re not all going to want to hear The Beach Boy’s ‘Pet Sounds’ LP on repeat (though I really cannot understand why not).
So. I’ve created a playlist. The idea being, I send this list of songs to the DJ, with the express instruction that he can play any of the songs in the list, but NOTHING ELSE. Proper megalomaniac ain’t I? But surely people can see my reasoning? I know what music makes a wedding disco – it has to be lively, up tempo stuff, catchy tunes that people will know and love. If I leave the DJ to play whatever is in the pop charts, for example, we’ll end up with 15 songs that sound the same, all talking about sex. Sorry, but that’s just how popular music is these days. I want songs about undying love (Come On Eileen?), or falling in love with the girl from the other side of the tracks (Uptown Girl), not ones which explain in detail how a wannabe gangster wants to ‘do’ his ‘bitch’, or whatever it is they’re saying these days…
So, who have I got on the list? All the big power artists have to be played, as they have lasting appeal and everybody will know and appreciate their music. There’s Jackson, there’s Madonna, Elton, Queen, Collins, Cher etc. After softening the crowd up with these megastars, I plan to get the DJ to take it up a notch with some actual Disco music, and plenty more 70s and 80s cheese. Wham will be played, simply because who doesn’t dance to Wham after a few sherbets? We will be throwing in a couple of modern tunes, mainly because my 11-year-old niece will kill me if she doesn’t get something she will know, but the vast majority of our choice is what I would call classic pop.
The music we want at our wedding has to be stuff we both like as well. That’s why I haven’t got any Stone Roses, and it’s why Emma isn’t allowed any Jim White (nope, I’ve never heard of him either – it’s not the guy from Sky Sports). We share a love of the old music of the 60s and 70s; Gold is our radio station of choice, so I have managed to get some classic stuff on the playlist. This will also keep the oldies happy – I look forward to seeing my dad up and grooving to some Beatles!
Nothing even slightly gay about this image at all, that's just how Pop Music was back in the 80s - innocent and very very hot...
Another idea we have had is to get a song played for each of the people who are helping us on the day. I have a song lined up for each of my groomsmen, there will be one played for each of the bridesmaids as well. We felt this would give them their own little moment in the spotlight. I just hope they all get up and dance when their song comes on!
There are so many great songs out there that I may have gotten carried away. I’ve just checked – we currently have 81 songs on the list for 5 hours of DJ time! But each song fits the criteria above, so I am confident they will help our wedding disco be the best one ever. And yes, there will be ABBA. Anyone who has a problem with that can go and sit at the back of the room with the cake remnants!
Follow me on Twitter my fellow Staggerers! I’m @RobKedge. The future Mrs Kedge, Emma, is @A_Future_Wife.
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The wedding disco is the best.thing.ever! We were lucky that we found an incredible DJ who was just amazing. Although I was sweating, desperate for the loo, so tightly strapped into my dress I could barely breathe, and bizarrely quite sober…I couldn’t get enough of the dancefloor. And I may have rapped the entirety of Ice Ice Baby on the mic, making Stag Test Dummy immensely proud! I’ve been to some weddings though with awful djs too and it’s incredible how they can make or break the reception. Playlists are definitely the way to go-Am sure you’ll have on hell of a party!!
I dunno, I completely see the sense in being dictatorial on your wedding list but I think you have to give the DJ a *bit* of flexibility. One of our Groom bloggers Tim was also a wedding DJ and as you can see from some of his posts you need to display a certain level of trust in your DJ that he’ll cut the right path through the evening http://www.iamstaggered.com/featured/life-and-times-of-a-wedding-dj-2-fight.
I’ve only ever had bad experience of DJs at weddings – not once but twice I’ve had to step in with my phone to provide the first dance track that they’ve been unable to find, without giving any prior warning to either couple.
That said, if you do find a reliable and decent DJ who you trust enough to hire for the job, then you should definitely trust their instincts when it comes to filling the dance floor. Just make sure you’ve seen them DJ before and give them a look at your record collection.
I’m going to make sure our DJ has all the music he needs – no chances taken there!
You can probably tell it’s my favourite part of any Wedding – the chance to let your hair down (metaphorically speaking of course, mine is always going to be scarce!) and cut some shapes always gets me going…
And by making sure that every song is a classic, I can excuse myself from any dull conversations and return to the dancefloor – it is my day after all lol…..
My Spidey sense tingles whenever my name is mentioned online. So here I am. Great post Rob, and for me you’re thinking along totally the right lines for what the wedding disco should be all about – music you both love but also something for everyone and stuff that will get people up and dancing.
Given that you’ve had your DJ chosen for you I see the sense in dictating a playlist. There are plenty of bad wedding DJs around, sadly, and nobody should accept a DJ turning up and doing an off the peg wedding set to an empty dance floor. It IS your day and you should get what you (and your guests) want.
What I do is always meet the couple in person and ask them for a few ‘must play’ tunes, loads of songs they want/don’t want and any genres they want/don’t want (also taking into account their guests and what they will go for). That leaves me knowing I’ll be playing lots of stuff they love, nothing they really hate and have a bit of freedom, within the boundaries we’ve discussed, to react to things on the night and play the right song at the right time – which is the DJ’s job and how they (if they’re good) keep dance floors full week in, week out.
What happens if a guest requests something that isn’t on the Wedding Playlist (TM)? Is it a no go? With my patented Wedding DJ Preparation System (TM) I can politely knock back requests that have been vetoed by the couple either specifically or by genre but, if it’s in keeping with the general feel we discussed, I can give the people what they want and get people dancing.
If a couple want a specific list of songs in more or less a particular order maybe they don’t need to pay for a DJ, and a playlist on an iPod or laptop will do exactly the same job?
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