Christmas Parties - Different this year?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

A few of us have commented that this year, a lot of the current chart stuff is being played and going down very well. Tracks by Rihanna, The Wanted, Maroon 5, One Direction, LMFAO, Pitbull to name a few examples seem to be packing out the dancefloor for me.

This has kind of been the way 99% of my Christmas Parties have gone this year with not just the late teens dancing to them but also for want of a better word, the oldies too.

On average I have had around 2.5hrs to play each night once the meals have been finished etc and I would say that at least an hour of that has been taken up by Current Chart music. To me, it seems a bit different to previous years and I wondered if it was the case where you are too?

It seems even more relevant / obvious after last night's party. I had played quite a lot of Current Chart and someone asked if I could play some 80's stuff. I went into Whitney Houston, Weather Girls, Michael Jackson etc and it went down well, keeping the dancefloor busy. However, during those tracks and the obvious change of styles I was surprised that a couple of ladies in their 50's came over and asked if I could carry on with the more modern tracks.

It wasn't long before I went back and into Kings Of Leon, Killers, Bon Jovi etc before some Christmas tracks and back to the Current stuff.

Is this a common occurrence this year?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Exactly the same here. It's been a good year for commercial poppy dancey tunes.

[CRAZY K]

A few of us have commented that this year, a lot of the current chart stuff is being played and going down very well. Tracks by Rihanna, The Wanted, Maroon 5, One Direction, LMFAO, Pitbull to name a few examples seem to be packing out the dancefloor for me.

This has kind of been the way 99% of my Christmas Parties have gone this year with not just the late teens dancing to them but also for want of a better word, the oldies too.

On average I have had around 2.5hrs to play each night once the meals have been finished etc and I would say that at least an hour of that has been taken up by Current Chart music. To me, it seems a bit different to previous years and I wondered if it was the case where you are too?

It seems even more relevant / obvious after last night's party. I had played quite a lot of Current Chart and someone asked if I could play some 80's stuff. I went into Whitney Houston, Weather Girls, Michael Jackson etc and it went down well, keeping the dancefloor busy. However, during those tracks and the obvious change of styles I was surprised that a couple of ladies in their 50's came over and asked if I could carry on with the more modern tracks.

It wasn't long before I went back and into Kings Of Leon, Killers, Bon Jovi etc before some Christmas tracks and back to the Current stuff.

Is this a common occurrence this year?

My events are not standard Disco so predictably different.

Only done 2--first one no chart music thanks---just the usual suspects
Cheese, 80s, Anthems, Floor fillers.

Tomorrow Wedding/Xmas event--loads of 70s Rod Stewart etc and a little bit of RAP--some standard Xmas stuff--Wham, Elvis, Mariah etc.

Dont recall any chart stuff--Air guitar as well--rock on Xmas !

Last night NO XMAS MUSIC THANKS --just Reggae/Soul /Fun.

[NKR]

Same as you tonight (OP). Last night was more all over the show, but had a good hour on the modern poppy stuff. Same as your list really.

[Charlie Brown]

Nope. I haven't played any poppy tunes all month except, Moves Like Jagger, JLS, and Pitbull. The rest have been oldies.

[Ryu]

Got to agree with the OP, every time I've even veered towards standards I've had requesters on me asking for new stuff! Fine by me!

[Excalibur]

Exactly the same here. It's been a good year for commercial poppy dancey tunes.

As a fully paid up member of the "They don't write them like they used to " brigade, it pains me greatly to have to say that I agree entirely with my learned friend on this matter.

There does seem to have been a big swing towards more modern stuff lately by the punters. ( Though last night, despite playing loads of modern stuff, John started the dancefloor filling with T Rex! :eek: :D :D :D

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

As a fully paid up member of the "They don't write them like they used to " brigade, it pains me greatly to have to say that I agree entirely with my learned friend on this matter.

There does seem to have been a big swing towards more modern stuff lately by the punters. ( Though last night, despite playing loads of modern stuff, John started the dancefloor filling with T Rex! :eek: :D :D :D

Ditto.....also started the dancefloor rocking last night with T.Rex but agree with the OP, at least an hour of current chart music and most of them asked for by older people.

[soundmaster mobile disco]

Last friday night it was a good mixture of old and new plus the usual party favourites.Saturday night it was mostly modern chart songs\dance tracks ect.Then again last night i played a few 80s tracks with not so much modern,

I suppose it all depends on the crowd that we are playing to.Last friday night the modern tunes did not go down very well but on the saturday night they did.

[boomerangdiscos]

i can only echo the above i am playing a lot more charty stuff this year and again it seems to be the older people requesting it maybe 2011 will turn out to be a vintage year for classic chart although will we be doing xmas parties in 2021 with people coming up asking for lmfao ect.

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

i can only echo the above i am playing a lot more charty stuff this year and again it seems to be the older people requesting it maybe 2011 will turn out to be a vintage year for classic chart although will we be doing xmas parties in 2021 with people coming up asking for lmfao ect.

Just thinking 2021.....shuffling with LMFAO.....I will be nearly 60 :eek:

[[email protected]]

I have to echo the OP as well, I was only saying last night to one of the crew that I feel that this year, I have played all the nights heavily slanted towards the newer music and not as varied as I have previous years.

That said, the new stuff has been packing the floor and the majority of requests that I have been asked for have been for more recent tracks.

[Ecstatic Events]

Absolutely. Averaging 127 bpm for a large proportion of the christmas parties. 90's Club Classics are really working well in the mix too. Robin S, Faithless, De'Lacy, Strike etc. The "what you expect from a disco" selection isn't really working for me.

Having sooooo much fun looping vocals 4/8 bar and really working some of the mixes to the point that even I get impressed.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

You know what, I should keep my gob shut sometimes (Yes, I know some of you will agree).

I posted this yesterday because 99% of my gigs have gone this way and would you believe it.....Last night, I kicked off with it again and it was all fine for around 30 minutes and then I started getting people asking for classics and oldies!!
I went through the lot - 70's, 80's, Motown and Cheese and they loved it. It was an older crowd though which probably explains it.

Last one at the residency tonight and I am bunged up with bloody flu now. Today has been a struggle already as I have helped set up for a wedding tonight at another residency and put uplighting in too.

An afternoon in bed is on the cards now and once everything is sorted tomorrow, that's it until Christmas Eve for me unless something else comes in.

[super-hero]

i was jusr going to start the exact same thread.

Last night got people up and dancing early with some soul and Motown, then into a bit if disco. But the chart music packed the dancefloor, literally had everybody dancing. And not just one or two tracks, but about an hours worth in total.

[sonicdj]

Has been exactly the same for me. Last night was 75% fairly recent chart stuff finishing with Avicci - Levels followed by David Guetta - without you. Had them dancing on the tables:p Luckily no one form H&S in attendance

[Gary]

I'm pleased to say that this years parties shared a little something with last years parties and that was a lack of idiots asking for "Dont play nuthing but r'n'b all night mate" - when they were just a couple of tables (of 20 or so people) in a room of twenty tables of twenty or so. Three or four years ago, there was a surge, as I saw it, in R'n'b popularity to the point where some people appeared addicted to it, whining whenever anything other than their beloved r'n'b was danced to by anyone else.

A first for me every this year however, was (in the same situation of multiple companies in the same room), one group bought in an A4 sheet (double sided) of requests that they wanted played. Over 80 requests, and the company in question only represented about 1/8th of the room that night. I retained the piece of paper but told the giver, that sadly its only a 4 hour function, and she'd handed me 5 hours of music requests.

In what she probably thought was a helpful gesture she asked if I had a pen and offered to mark some as less important plays. At this point I had to stop her and advise that as there were many other people in the room who could also make requests (I very actively promote requests), that in the interests of fairness, only a handful of songs off of her groups list would likely to be played for them.

I did point out however, that much of what they had of their list were the sort of tracks that the other customers would likely to be asking for as well, so it was unlikely that her group would be disappointed, or would have to wait too long at any given moment to hear a song that happened to be on their list as some tracks were likely to be requested by more than one other group - Pogues and Kirsty McCall, Mariah Carey, Maroon5, Rihanna etc for example.

Other than that...all the usual party tracks got requested throughout the month- Dancing queen, Macarena, Dont stop me now etc etc. Oh and not forgetting oopps upside your head...so much fun at +50% pitch for the last 30 seconds of the song...:eek:

[soundtracker]

Exactly the same here. It's been a good year for commercial poppy dancey tunes.

Although I only did a few Christmas Parties, I concur, I also seem to be playing more and more recent stuff at Weddings as well.

[paul1404]

I think the single release this year have been better due to the collaborations on the singles - Were seeing producers teaming up with vocalists and rappers which is giving us a higher quality of hits etc - I feel this will concur well into next year - with things be moving towards a dance hall / urban sound towards the summer In recent trends raggae allways seems to follow the more dance stuff - tell me to shut up if Im waffling lol