Another cheese debate

[Excalibur]

Morning Benny, good to see you here. All the best to you and yours.

I'm starting to see Brightside lumped into the 'songs a client hears more often than most, so will describe it as cheese' category more frequently these days.

Absolutely. While it's difficult to describe it as Cheese, it's definitely in the Anthem category next door, and definitely An Usual Suspect.

I came to the conclusion that the such free use of the word 'cheese' is the fault of a terrible DJ. There's a difference between playing a song because it works, and relying on a song because it works.

Terrible? Bit harsh, I feel. I'm not sure I understand what you've said there, but if I'm on the right lines, I might allow " lazy ". It's very easy just to start bashing out The Usual Suspects, because they're tried and tested. I've done it before, and I will again, I have no doubt.

And I bet you the latter will account for 99% of the songs a client would call 'cheese'.

And I definitely didn't understand that.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I mean Dancing Queen is a cheese anthem.

Thankfully I'm not a cheesy DJ

[Excalibur]

Thankfully I'm not a cheesy DJ

Nah, just a cheesy punter. Shaun, where are those pics of Neil in Reflex, with flowers in his hair, drinking from a goldfish bowl?

[Nakatomi]

Do you know what, I really don't care so long as it fills my dance floor

I used to say that. It was probably true 300 gigs ago but not so much now.

Despite my own opinions on what constitutes cheese I've always found the best reactions from crowds come from tunes they weren't expecting to hear. That's the mark of good DJing, being bold and/or knowledgeable enough to play them & put the usual suspects on the back burner. There are times the usual suspects are needed & go down exceedingly well, but I've not heard whoops of joy at punters recognising the opening bars of Mr Brightside in forever.

Watching a crowd 'dance' to songs with actions I think most look like they're just going through the motions, concentrating on getting the moves right. Is that.... Fun?

Party music has stagnated & the humble DJ has played a part, lazily wheeling out the same old same old every gig. For sure the guests have played a part too, but if you rely on pre requests or lists compiled from RSVPs you're bound to get little more than the usual suspects cropping up. Why? Because sat at home sober, most people are CRAP at picking music to dance to.

Dancing Queen is definitely cheese. So is Mr Brightside, Ike & Tina Turner's Proud Mary, Uptown Funk, Don't Stop Believin', Come on Eileen, Livin On A Prayer, I wanna Dance With Somebody, Town Called Malice, ronson & Winehouse Valerie., Sweet frickin Caroline... 500 miles... Don't Stop Me Now .. If it's in my top 20 most requested (and by association most played), it's cheese and should definitely be banned !

As for Abba's resurgence, it won't last long. Most of their danceable songs are about dubious subject matter anyway.. An underage girl being a certain kind of tease? Is that really acceptable these days? I think not

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Nah, just a cheesy punter. Shaun, where are those pics of Neil in Reflex, with flowers in his hair, drinking from a goldfish bowl?

That my good friend....was peer pressure.......

and a few Pina coladas

[Excalibur]

I used to say that. It was probably true 300 gigs ago but not so much now.


Party music has stagnated & the humble DJ has played a part, lazily wheeling out the same old same old every gig.

Unusually deep thoughts from you there, Justin. I shall reply in kind and say that once upon a time, we were the instigators of new and exciting music, often slipping in things we'd found in odd places, and definitely educating punters.
The boot is now on the other foot, and guests have often had stuff on their phones for a week that we won't be legally allowed to play for another week. We are no longer the leaders, we're followers, playing catch up.

As for lazily playing the same old same old, well a lot of that is because we just don't get a lot of classic/danceable stuff to play with. How much chart music may well be requested, but never in a million years will it fill a dance floor. And that's before we get to the sweary rap stuff so beloved of the cool kids. ( And as you well know, somebody asks for Cha Cha Slide, and the floor's rammed ).

[Nakatomi]

Unusually deep thoughts from you there, Justin. I shall reply in kind and say that once upon a time, we were the instigators of new and exciting music, often slipping in things we'd found in odd places, and definitely educating punters.
The boot is now on the other foot, and guests have often had stuff on their phones for a week that we won't be legally allowed to play for another week. We are no longer the leaders, we're followers, playing catch up.

As for lazily playing the same old same old, well a lot of that is because we just don't get a lot of classic/danceable stuff to play with. How much chart music may well be requested, but never in a million years will it fill a dance floor. And that's before we get to the sweary rap stuff so beloved of the cool kids. ( And as you well know, somebody asks for Cha Cha Slide, and the floor's rammed ).

Me, I'll generally favour taking a really big punt on a track I think will fit. Is that bad? Last night would be one example where I got a request for a track I'd never knowingly heard of. I wanged it on after a requested slowy (Ed Sheeran & that darn opera singer murderer) & lo, it was a hit. So I followed it with Black Crowes Hard To Handle. It mixed, and was in the same key (!).. and went down even better than the request. I live for stuff like that. Pity there are so few opportunities to flex that way.

It's so ironic that the gigs where people are requesting the 'new cool stuff' are just people wanting to posture & look cool - proms are the perfect example of this - you can play all the sweary mumble crap in the tiktok charts & watch the crowd stare into their phones - yet bang on the party cheese & they lap it up like addicts getting their first hit in ages

It's also confusing (and funny) that the best left field requests actually come from the younger crowds. There wasn't much of this back in the day - but then we didn't have the kind of access to all music everyone does now beyond older siblings & parents' record collections. I'm thinking of the last 21sts I did where the tunes of the night were Buggles or Van Halen or Prince. You just couldn't make it up!

I reckon we should all try to be mould breakers. Fine, if uncle richardhead wants Come On Eileen next let him have it, but let's strive to wheel out something unexpected next. Go on, you can risk losing the floor. You know how to get them all back, right? Are you a skilled artist, or are you a painting by numbers kind of person?

You know that thing where a guest comes up to request a track & it turns out you've got it cued up to play next? You're being derivative & predictable. Change your tack.

The one thing that boils my wee about other DJs, and I see this a lot on DJ forums on Facebook is the sheer amount of people who say "I ALWAYS play track Y after track X". Stop doing that right now! Or don't

[Excalibur]

OK, since this thread is over twelve years old, and refuses to die, let's broaden it a bit. How much of the Anthems/Cheese do we wheel out as a matter of course?

Now I'm a fairly reactive kinda chap, and if I get an increasing number of requests for the cheeseboard, I'll gladly throw it at them. That often happens.

Increasingly nowadays for me, I'm using them more and more as a last resort. Over to you, folks.

[Imagine]

OK, since this thread is over twelve years old, and refuses to die, let's broaden it a bit. How much of the Anthems/Cheese do we wheel out as a matter of course?

Now I'm a fairly reactive kinda chap, and if I get an increasing number of requests for the cheeseboard, I'll gladly throw it at them. That often happens.

Increasingly nowadays for me, I'm using them more and more as a last resort. Over to you, folks.

As little as I possibly can if I can help it. And it's very rare indeed to go into things like the Macarena and the like (says he that's just spotted that, Oops Upside and the Birdie Dance on a playlist for a couple of weeks' time )

I've found since the lockdowns, things like Livin' on a Prayer and Summer of '69 have very unpredictable results. Sweet Caroline - I veer towards DJ Otzi's version because it's more upbeat and has the "so good, so good" chants in it that everyone sings anyway - in my part of the world it seems to be a pretty certain floor filler. Chelsea Dagger and Tubthumpin' also seem to be massive here are the moment.

Brightside is sadly still on most playlists, as are Ike & Tina and Whitney.

I'm in a real happy zone musically at most weddings lately. Most of my couples are early to mid 30's so the music is mainly late 90s/early 2000s stuff. Strangely though I'm also doing a heck of a lot of the 70s disco anthems as well (don't know whether that's because the likes of Purple Disco Machine and Block and Crown are bringing these tracks back). The 80's (the source of soooo much cheesey goodness) with the exception of A-ha and Whitney seem to have been erased from the planet.

One anthem that seems to be appearing at every single wedding at the moment and I don't know why (must have been on the telly or something) is Gala, Freed from Desire. It was never a favourite of mine when it came out and before this year it hardly saw the light of day in my sets, but it seems to be getting requested constantly these days and with the dance floor exploding into song every time.