by Zotia Underwood
A lot of planning goes into organizing a dance party. You have to find the perfect venue, you have to get the perfect decor, you have to invite the right people and have it at the right time. If you don't have the right dance music, however, the whole thing is a waste of time. After all, no one will be dancing.
There are so many different kinds of dance music, so it can be difficult to decide. Everyone loves old school, but old-school means different things to different people. Usually, people like the music that they heard growing up. For my generation, this means 80s music. Coming from Detroit, Motown is also quite popular, but it doesn't hold sway over the whole country.
As a matter of fact, techno dance music is often one of the safest bets. The great thing about dancing to techno is that it is so easy to trance out. The pounding bass beats, the relentless rhythm, the synthetic sounds and the samples all contribute to a psychedelic vibration that is hard to resist. I have seen the shyest wallflowers lured out on the dance floor by the beat of jungle, trance, or house music.
| Quote of the Day |
O I shall hear skull skull,
Hear your lame music,
Believe music rejects undertaking,
Limps back.
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Of course, many of my dance DJ friends take a different approach. For them, dance music is about combining the old and the new. This has always been the way that people thought about making dance mix music, whether it is in remixes or mash-ups. Basically, they try to pay attention to what the kids are listening to and what the last generation was into at the same time. If you hear it playing on a cell phone ring tone, the chances are it will find a good home in your mix, but that doesn't mean that you should only use what's new. After all, some of the older songs have withstood the test of time for a good reason, and people will always be happy to hear them again.
The biggest thing in dance music nowadays is Hip Hop. If you leave that out of the mix, there is no way you will get the crowd shaking. This doesn't mean that you have to keep it new, however. People will sometimes get a bigger kick out of old-school, and you can score big points with a few tastefully chosen Grandmaster Flash numbers. This can help keep a more positive, upbeat vibe to the party as well!
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