I was asked by someone on Facebook if, as a wedding DJ, I’m sick of the Macarena.
Honestly, I’m not. I explained that even though I have led thousands of wedding guests in the Macarena over the years, I almost never get tired of a song that fills a dance floor with wedding guests.
When I’m not working as a DJ, I despise the Macarena, and I think that all of the songs that cause people to dance identically are stupid (including country line dancing). The purpose of dancing is not to establish military-like uniformity but to express yourself through rhythm and movement.
If you want to dance in perfect unison, audition for a musical at your local community theater.
I like to imagine that if aliens were to land on the dance floor in the midst of a Macarena, they would determine that Earth has no intelligent life and leave immediately or vaporize us in fear that uniform dancing might spread to their planet. .
Truthfully, however, the Macarena is almost never played anymore. If a bride and groom don’t ask for it, we don’t play it.
No, the songs that I despise as a DJ are the songs that clients request that never result in bodies on the dance floor. These are songs almost always requested by brides, and are often found on movie soundtracks.
The worst offenders are “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
“I Say a Little Prayer” took off after it was featured twice in My Best Friend’s Wedding, and it’s been requested ever since. It doesn’t matter what version of this song is requested. It never works. It’s a sing-along song without an adequate beat to inspire dancing.
At best, women stand on the dance floor and sing it to each other.
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is essentially the same song. It’s a excellent sing-along, but it’s stuck somewhere between a fast song and a slow song, leaving wedding guests uncertain about how to handle it.
Usually they just head to the bar.
Both of these songs are also likely to drive most men off the dance floor, which cuts the possible dancers in half. For a song like “I Will Survive,” this is fine, because women will undoubtedly dance to this song, but the same can’t be said for these two songs.
Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” is similar to these songs. It’s somehow become a female power anthem that is hard to dance to and usually result in women half dancing, half talking on the dance floor, waiting for the next song to arrive.
“Gold Digger” is also a song that shouldn’t be played at a wedding unless ironically, both because of the lyrics and because it’s also hard to dance to.
When it comes to being a wedding DJ, the songs you want to hear in real life are very different than the songs you play for wedding guests. But as long as the dance floor is full and people are happy, I’ll play just about anything with pleasure.
