At Ogle Entertainment we believe in playing music that our clients will love. Over the years, we have developed a document that helps guide our clients through the process of selecting the music for their wedding or special event. This document helps to ensure that the DJs are able to play the music you love and use their expertise to put your favorite songs in the right spots throughout the event. Having songs played at the perfect times can add impact and be a great enhancement to keeping a celebration rockin’! Some of our clients know music very well, others not so much. We are not here to judge people, we want to know what they expect. This is why we send out a song list that acts as a utility for our clients, whatever level of music love they have, to be able to get their music IN WRITING. So when developing your song list, whether you use Ogle Entertainment or some other service, here are 5 tips to helping a DJ work through your list on the night of your event. Remember that roughly 80-120 songs can be over a 4 hour period.
- Use Asterisks or Stars to show emphasis on songs that you love. Once you have completed listing the songs you want, read back through and place an Asterisks on the songs you really like. This will allow your DJ to use these songs as the cornerstones of the set.
- Divide your list into a “Dinner” and a “Dance” list. This will allow your DJ to distinguish which songs should be saved for the dance section of the night, while guarding against a great dance song being wasted during dinner.
- Short Notes for certain songs are a plus! Hypothetically, let’s say your Mother may love the song “We are Family”. So you would include this on your Dance List and out from it make the note “(Mom LOVES this Song)” When a DJ sees your Mom head towards the dance floor with all her friends he can play this song and it will enhance her experience! She will think the DJ is reading her mind!
- Keep the songs in the Dance List as main stream as possible. While you may have super eclectic, awesome taste in music, you can express this appreciation of non-main stream music during dinner with great success. If you want your guests to dance you HAVE to give them something they recognize. This doesn’t mean you have to choose cheesy music, just recognizable music. The more your guests recognize your dance selections, the more inclined they will be to dance. Dance Floors are all about snow balling energy. A DJ builds a group on a dance floor, and this is only possible in a diverse room, if he is armed with songs that the group will respond to. A great example of this would be the songs “Blame it on the Boogie” and “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. Which song do you think people or more likely to dance to?
- Keep your “Do Not Play” list to 10 songs or less. We should be solely focused on what to play. If a DJ is flipping through a list of 100 DO NOT PLAY Songs all night, it is not efficient and energy will be wasted.
Having an awesome dance floor is the ultimate addition to your event. Having the best possible music played doesn’t happen by accident. Your careful planning will make sure that your friends and family will have the time of their lives. If the thought of designing your own list becomes a point of anxiety, please let us help! Our song list, sent to every client, should help you through the process of selecting the music played no matter what level you are in the music selection game.
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