DJ's, did you ever play a song that cleared your dancefloor?

[nrgbeat]

What song was it?

Did you ever play it again and get either the same or different reaction?

[Fantomas]

I remember back in '78 when a DJ played Stayin' Alive by the BG's, people would quickly boo him and clear the dance floor. Now a days, that the Disco era has passed, the BG's are considered "important" in the Disco scene. But when it mattered, back then, the BG's were a "no-no" on the dance floor. I liked the BG's when they were "rock and pop", but as a Disco group, they're far from being that. Those that came into the Disco scene post '78-'79 might disagree with me, but those that started with Disco in the early '70's will mostly agree with me.

[nrgbeat]

I agree that the Bee Gee's music was overplayed but I still enjoy their disco tunes and I enjoyed them back in the day.

I like some of their slow songs too.

[Ricardo_Mata]

Songs that cleared the floor???!!! I sure remember two: 1) There was a band named "Tierra" that put out an LP in 80 or '81 and we played the a song from that LP in a party. I can't remember the title of the song (I think it had something to do with "love") but I do remember that it had a weird rhythm, not salsa, not disco, not anything really danceable. We tried it out and it was a complete disaster. We didn't get booed but we did get a lot of "What-the-hell-is-that?" kind of stares. We gave the LP away a day or two later.

2) I remember this one night when we got hired to play at a girl's 15th birthday, which is a big occassion for Hispanic girls. This girl's parents were Sirian and in the middle of the party they asked us to play this cassette with Sirian music on it. The audio was awful, and the songs were old folk Sirian songs from the 40's and 50's. Up to that point we had had probably 500 teenagers dancing. The moment we played that tape, everybody stopped dancing and all we got was about 4 or 5 couples in their 60's and 70s. I just couldn't wait for the darn tape to end but, as luck may have it, it was one of those 120 minute TDKs, so we had to endure that crap for a whole hour.

I got two good things out of that night: A pretty good check with a nice tip. At that time, it came up to about $750 --a small fortune for a kid like me-- and a date with the birthday girl's female cousin who was absolutely beautiful. We eventually dated for a while but that's another story...

[markydefad]

I have a tape of the "Reflections" party from Trocadero wherein a great DJ (Bobby Viteritti) tries to mix New Wavey-hyperfast Gino Soccio material into the mix:

"Runaway" between "East To West" by Voyage and "I'm Ready" by Kano AND THEN

a few songs later,

"S-Beat" between "Hold On I'm Coming" by Karen Silver and "Party Boys" by Foxy.

YOU CAN SEE PEOPLE FLEEING THE DANCE FLOOR BY LISTENING TO THE MIXES!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure I was there...cause I remember people just giving up. (Or maybe someone else attempted this mix at another time????!!!!!) Strangely, when Bobby V. gets rid of "S-Beat" he has "Party Boys" pitched down almost to Quaalude speed and then proceeds to play the record out at that odd speed. Not one of his better nights? Who knows?

[jazz_pilgrim]

When I was Dj-ing at Uni, I played the JB's and "Rock Groove Machine". I remember all the students, who were mainly into stuff like The Police, Blondie etc were booing it and there were shouts of "Get It Off!" etc.

There's no accounting for bad taste, is there?

[sammyperez]

A couple of years ago I was playing at a club frequented by people in their 20's. I was playing mainly current R&B and the song I was playing at the time was Faith Evans 'Never knew love like this'. Well thinking I was going to educate these people I mixed in 'Chic Cheer' by Chic which is the song Faith sampled from. Big mistake! The twenty-something crowd cleared the floor and suffice it to say, my idea of doing the same with 'Mo money, mo' problems' by The Notorius B.I.G. and Diana Ross's 'I'm coming out' went out the window. I can't stand playing for crowds that don't appreciate the fact that there was a history before today's music scene. Expand your musical horizons.

Easy,

Sam "ALL JAM"

[Robbie]

What's even worse is that the young people who hear these songs today and think the music is original have no idea they're hearing songs that are copying off of records 20+ years old. I remember years ago hearing a mix of "Good Times"-Chic into "Rapper's Delight"-Sugar Hill Gang. It sounded great!! Okay, so the songs were released around the same time but idea is still the same.

[NickNack]

I remember doing this twice. (I'm sure it could have happened more but why hold on to nightmares. ) This first time I did it with intent. I played "Jaws" by Lalo Schifrin. Reason: I wanted the drag queens off the fucking dance floor. To be more precise -- I wanted them to share the dance floor with others who wanted to dance. The song worked. This was followed with "Aggravation" by Martha Velez (message: don't screw with me); segue with "Love Is The Message" (message: you know I love ya!)

The second time I remember was when I first played Human League, "Don't You Want Me Baby". Dance floor cleared in a heartbeat. This was before we were issued the extended remix and could work both versions. The crowd eventually came around.

_________________
Dancin'... A Thing To Free Your Mind

Nicky

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: NickNack on 2002-06-02 21:06 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: NickNack on 2002-06-02 21:08 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: NickNack on 2002-06-02 21:09 ]</font>

[nrgbeat]

I used to go to a club that played a lot of Top 40 dance. Stuff like Whitney Houston, Expose, Rick Astley and so on. If it was played on the radio, people danced.

One night the dj played a song by Ten City(not your usual Top 40 fare), I believe the song was called "Right Back To You" and the floor cleared within seconds.

[sammyperez]

Nrgbeat:

Your story is a perfect example that the majority of the people are clueless when it comes to music.
I love Ten City and 'Right back to you' may be my favorite Ten City track. Figures the majority would be dancing to the top 40 crap, but as soon as you put on a great house record like this, that is very danceable by the way, the majority would get off the floor. Anyway, those people don't deserve to appreciate a voice like Byron Stingly's.

Easy

Sam "ALL JAM"

[sirius]

Anytime if people don´t know the song!
That´s the truth...
Cosmic Love & Kisses From SIRIUS & DARKTUNES

[zeca azevedo]

Hi nrg and friends,

well, once I played HEART OF GLASS by BLONDIE at a party thinking that people will like it, because it was a hit, etc. Much to my surprise, as the song started, people moved away from the dancefloor. What a disapointment! I love the song, and I never thought people will not know it. One can never underestimate people's idiossincrasies when it comes to music.

Other song I played and killed not 1, but 2 parties: HEROES, by DAVID BOWIE. I was trying to be "poetic", you know.

Peace (paz)
zeca azevedo

[markydefad]

Hey Zeca,

I LOVE BOTH "Heart Of Glass" and "Heroes".

We have much in common.

And you are a brave soul for officially having the balls to state you HATE Eurodisco!!! I'm LOL (that's laughing Out Loud)

Keep up the good work.

[zeca azevedo]

Hey MARKY,

well, I think we are soulmates. I'm a lover, not a fighter, and I don't mean to offend anyone here with my musical tastes or my words, but hey, once or twice is good to shake my groovy thing and laugh a little. As I said on other posts, I have my share of favorite crappy tunes as well as others, but I KNOW that they are crappy tunes. Anyway, thanks for your support.

Let's open a new topic - I HATE EURODISCO HATERS - the guys will LOVE this one! (LOL)

Peace, not war.
zeca azevedo

[keefelc]

On 2002-06-01 16:14, markydefad wrote:

I'm sure I was there...cause I remember people just giving up. (Or maybe someone else attempted this mix at another time????!!!!!) Strangely, when Bobby V. gets rid of "S-Beat" he has "Party Boys" pitched down almost to Quaalude speed and then proceeds to play the record out at that odd speed. Not one of his better nights? Who knows?

Mark, actually, Miss v probably was on bad quaaludes at the time of that dreadful train wreck! Anyway, now you know why we used to go outside to sit in the car for the longest time. We didn't want to subject our ears to the "pop disco" (that's what we would call it) part of the evening.

[NickNack]

On 2002-06-02 21:14, nrgbeat wrote:
I used to go to a club that played a lot of Top 40 dance. Stuff like Whitney Houston, Expose, Rick Astley and so on. If it was played on the radio, people danced.

Interesting. Many of us dj's back-in-the-day prided ourselves AND the patrons of the clubs we worked for NOT wanting to hear Top 40. Especially in the after-hours clubs. This was considered music for the 'tourists' and believe me, too much radio music on the turntables and your regulars would READ you. It was all about introducing new music. Granted, some went overboard and would play nothing but new music which could be as bad as too much Top 40. As the crowd recognized nothing, the floor eventually cleared.

Anybody else share this experience?

[Mixmachine]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mixmachine on 2002-06-04 16:49 ]</font>

[Dancer]

I Remember This One Time I Managed To Get A Promo Copy Of Mystic Merlin (Just Can't Give You Up) Way Before it Had Any Radio Play At All. Took It To My Local Nightclub Gave It To Steve (Residential DJ) Begging Him To Play It At Some Point. Eventually He Gave In And Played It. About 15 Secs Into The Record, The Dancefloor Cleared Except For Me And 2 Others. But 2 Weeks Later Same Record Full Dancefloor.




--------------------------------------------
Keep Moving Too The Groove
Dancer

[Jimmy-Michaels]

HATE EURODISCO??????? Aww man...,
What do you concider eurodisco? I've gotten many oppinions on what some called eurodisco that wasn't. Maybe you like some and just don't know it's Eurodisco. Maybe?

DJ Jimmy M

[nonkel808]

When you play to an audience who's not really into disco music, then all they want to hear is the disco-hits. And when the 12" version last longer than 4 or 5 minutes people start dancin less enthousiastly untill you mix the next song, prefferably a big disco hit.
Its really a shame because people have no patience to wait for the fantastic breakdowns on these disco 12"
So if you play to much extended version of disco songs, people will clear the dancefloor. AAAARGH that sometimes really annoys me!

[Blaxman]

On 2002-06-05 08:44, nonkel808 wrote:
When you play to an audience who's not really into disco music, then all they want to hear is the disco-hits. And when the 12" version last longer than 4 or 5 minutes people start dancin less enthousiastly untill you mix the next song, prefferably a big disco hit.
Its really a shame because people have no patience to wait for the fantastic breakdowns on these disco 12"
So if you play to much extended version of disco songs, people will clear the dancefloor. AAAARGH that sometimes really annoys me!

That's it Nonkel!! You wrote exactly what I feel about it. It's really disapointing if you are forced to play those crapy mainstream hits just to fill up the dancefloor. Really disapointing! :sad:

And the worst, if you played a hyper-super-beautyfull-hard-to-find-12inch track and the peolple goes out.........

I'm sure it did happen to everyone here. At least one time.

Peace.

_________________
SENHORES DO GROOVE - BRAZIL

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Blaxman on 2002-06-05 09:10 ]</font>

[The Lord of Flatbush]

It can also be helpful if you play a song from the breakdown.

For example, The Beat Goes On - Ripple from the first breakdown is a nice spot to mix into. Otherwise, having two copies of the same song would make mixing easier for the individual or re-edits of those hits.