10. Pumped Up Kicks (Skeet Skeet Remix) – Foster The People
Really didn’t like this song when it came out, but it grew on me–especially this particular remix version.

9.  Honey Bee – Blake Shelton
We’re in Iowa, so a little bit of country is mandatory–this is one my favorites of the year.

8.  Give Me Everything – Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo
This starts out a little bit weak in terms of dance-ability, but once it builds to the beat it’s hard not to start dancing–a great party song!

7.  Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera
Good song–just wish the video didn’t feature so much nude colored spandex so I could play it at school dances with our big screen video system.

6.  Last Friday (T.G.I.F) – Katy Perry
Call this one a guilty pleasure… hard not to sing along.

5.  Tonight Tonight (Andrew Goldstein Remix) – Hot Chelle Rae
This is a song that I really liked when I first heard it, but felt it was a little bit weird to dance to.  This remix version fixes that, without ruining the feel of the song like some remixes do.

4.  Country Girl (Shake it For Me) – Luke Bryan
Best country dance song since “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy”?  That’s a pretty bold statement, but I’d say it might be at least debatable.  Gets me tapping my toes every time!

3.  Tonight (I’m loving you) – Enrique Iglesias featuring Ludacris
This one came out earlier in the year so it’s somewhat less popular now… but it’s hard to argue with a great dance beat + Ludacris.

2.  Where Them Girls At – David Guetta featuring Niki Minaj & Flo Rida
Another big dance beat with super-catchy vocals over the top–really sort of underrated IMO.

1.  Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
If you hung out with me at all this year, you probably had this one figured out from the beginning.  I knew this one was going to be big when I first heard it… I know I forced more than a few people to listen to it if they hadn’t heard it yet, and it was high in the rotation to get played at practically every event I DJed. Though it’s getting to the point of being a bit overplayed now, it’s still far and away the best new dance song of the year.

Sidenote: I’ve been a Seattle Mariner’s fan for years, and one “Party Rock” hilight for me this year included seeing the grounds crew at Safeco Field drop their rakes and do the dance around 2nd base during the 7th inning stretch!  Totally random and totally awesome!

Agree? Disagree?  Agree to disagree?  Comment and let me know what your top 10 are!

Another argument for a curtain-enclosed photo booth–fits 3 people inside comfortably, handicap accessible, or pull the curtains back to fit a large group of people or your favorite giant-headed mascot!

Wedding Song Selection Strategy

• During cocktail hour and dinner we focus on playing upbeat, classy background music.  We want people to be tapping their toes–not falling asleep as their bored to death by “Elevator Music Hits Vol 3″ or a Kenny G album on repeat.  We give our clients the opportunity to provide some input into what they want, but in general we do a lot of big band and crooners (such as Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra) as well as more modern artists with an upbeat but laid-back style (Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Harry Connick, Jr.)
• When the dance starts we normally start with older music at the beginning and work toward newer.  Often older guests won’t stay for the entire reception so they appreciate hearing a few songs from their era earlier–whereas the younger generation often want another drink or two before they start dancing anyway.
• Guest demographics–and what people are dancing to–play a large role in determining what we play at a wedding.  If the majority of guests are 20-25, we’re probably not going to play a bunch of Patsy Cline–and will likely get into newer music fairly early in the evening.  Likewise, if almost everyone is 40+, we aren’t going to play Lil Wayne or T.I. unless it’s specifically requested.
• When a song gets people on the floor, we try to play a few more of a similar style.  If something isn’t working, the next song will likely be a different musical genre.
• Slow songs are inserted every few songs to give guests a chance to catch their breath, and to break up sets of dance music.  With picky crowds (which is to say not many people are dancing, or guests will come out for one song then immediately leave the floor) we often play shorter dance music sets with more slow songs.

Prom/Homecoming/School Dance/College Party Song Selection Strategy

• Typically for these types of events we work of a more limited playlist–which is to say songs that are popular now, songs that were recently popular AND are good dance tunes, and what we refer to as “Party Classics”.  Party classics refers to older songs that pretty much everyone who listens to music will recognize–songs like You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC, Love Shack by B-52s, Cotton Eye Joe, Hey Ya by Outkast, etc.
• For schools we focus much more on song transitions and building energy through each set, using beatmixing whenever possible to seamlessly blend from one song into another.
• Much like our dinner music strategy for weddings, we try to keep things upbeat.  As much as possible, we play uptempo pop and dance music.  We try to find dance remixes of popular rap songs.  After all, it’s called a dance–not a “grind”.
• Again, we use periodic slow songs to break up our sets of dance music–typically for most school dances the dance sets will be longer and there will be fewer slow songs than at a wedding, but it all depends on the flow of the night and what people are dancing to.

A Word Regarding Requests…

• In almost all cases we accept–and encourage–student/guest requests during the event.
• The order we receive requests is not the order we play them.  We treat requests as suggestions and try to integrate them into our sets where it makes sense–but we’re not going to kill a packed dance floor with an obscure ’70s pop song just because one person wants to hear it NOW.
• We do not have a song book or list for people to look at–we think song ideas that come from memory are more likely to be playable.  The common scenario is that someone looking at a song book sees a song and says “I haven’t heard that in FOREVER–let’s request that.”  In many cases there’s a reason they haven’t heard it in forever–because it’s not well known, or isn’t a very good dance song.
• If someone wants to make a request but doesn’t know exactly what they want, we will work with them to find something from their desired artist, era, or style by suggesting something that we think will go over well based on past experience.

The Trump Card

• In all cases, the wishes of the client–whether that be the bride and groom or a school–take precedence over anything else.  It is ultimately your event, and you have the final say in what is and isn’t to be played.
• If something is on the Do Not Play list, we won’t play it unless it’s cleared with you first–even if it’s requested.

Nearly all photo booths are set up to use 4×6 photo media–which if you are doing a traditional photo strip gets cut in half (either by the printer or manually with a cutter) to yield two 2×6″ strips.

In many cases, our competitors advertise “unlimited prints”, but what they really mean is unlimited sessions.  You can go through the booth as many times as you want (as time allows) but you only get two photo strips per session.

What happens if a group of more than people go through the booth?  Only two of them get photo strips to keep–and the rest are left with nothing and have to go back through the line.

Or even worse, what happens if you’re also putting together a photo booth scrapbook?  Guests are forced to choose between keeping a strip for themselves and putting one in the book for the guest(s) of honor.

When we say our photo booth packages include unlimited prints, we mean it.  We print extra copies so if a group goes through the booth each person gets one–no matter how large.  And if we’re doing a photo booth scrapbook, we print an extra for that, as well.

We want everyone who uses our photo booth (guests and clients) to be as happy as possible, and artificially limiting the number of prints by only allowing two per session just isn’t good customer service. Yes, perhaps we’re not sapping out quite as much profit as some of our competitors, but we think our way is a whole lot better.

After over 10 years of providing DJ entertainment for celebrations, dances, and parties of all types–and more recent forays into things like balloon drops, decor lighting, and photo booths–we’re jointing the 21st century and setting a up a blog to make it easier to share some of what we’ve learned. Hopefully we can share some of “the rest of the story” and help you understand the nitty gritty details of the services we offer. Informed customers make informed decisions–and we think that goes a long way to being a happy customer. Check back soon for updates!

P.S. – If you’re not a programmer “Hello World” is a bit of a throwback to my second life as an electrical engineer. Get in on the joke here