Music Selection
Amount of Music : Before you can even begin to play
music at a school dance it is important to have a large selection of
music prepared ahead of time. If you are not taking requests the general
rule of thumb is to have at bare minimum enough music to play the
event, plus an additional hour or two so if certain music is not working
well you have enough additional music to fall back on. (NOTE: One Hour =
Approx. 12-20 songs).
- If you will be taking requests it is important to have enough music to make the odds of you having the requested songs pretty good. One way of doing this is taking the Billboard Annual Top 100 charts for the last 3-5 years and trying to obtain all of the songs listed plus at least one other single from each of the artists.
Type of Music : When you accept the gig be sure to
ask the event coordinator what type of music has been played at these
events in the past as you want to ensure you have appropriate music for
the venue and the crowd.
- For example: If you know the dance is a Ho-Down themed event it is important to be well stocked on Country music, if the event is a Valentine's Day dance extra slow songs may be in order, etc.
- Make sure to bring a variety of musical styles however just in case the crowd becomes tired of a certain genre or you start getting requests for something different.
Radio Edits : Always ask the event coordinator how
much tolerance there will be for objectionable language. Many schools
will allow a small amount of inappropriate language, others will allow
for none.
- Search out songs that have (Radio Edit), (Radio Mix), or (Clean) in the song title this will tell you that the inappropriate content has been censored or removed.
CDs, Vinyl, or Computer
You will need to decide if you will be using CDs, Vinyl or a Computer to DJ
CDs
- Pros : Readily available in stores and online, can be burnt at home with music from iTunes or Napster.
- Cons : CDs are heavy, you will need at least two CD players to easily transition between songs, It can be time consuming to find a single song somewhere among 300 CDs.
Vinyl
- Pros : Sounds richer on louder sound systems then CDs, has better bass definition.
- Cons : Vinyl is also heavy, most record cases can only carry 75 records, you will need two turntables which are quite expensive, a lot of newer music is not available on vinyl except from specialty stores.
Computer
- Pros : You can carry a lot of music on a single computer, it is easy to search for songs, and you can always insert a CD if someone brings one for you.
- Cons : If your computer crashes the music will stop until you get it restarted.
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