Songs that you would like to hear at a wedding??

I need to start a list for my DJ. What are some some your would
Love to hear the DJ play that makes you wanna bust a move

I just went to a wedding with an awful DJ. Did you know people will dance to Journey?? I sure didn't. He also played Juicy by Biggie, another song I didn't know people could dance to.

Stuff I enjoyed dancing to:
Basically anything annoyingly dancey/top 40s/club music from 2002 onward. He played like pit bull/Neyo/Ke$ha stuff, which I'll turn off on the radio but be so into at a wedding. Oh, he also played only edited/censored music, which would have been fine except it was a night wedding with zero children there.
Golddigger by Kanye West
Dammit by Blink 182
Call Me Maybe

If I was doing my wedding playlist it would be Santana and really "ghetto" hip hop that will horrify our families. Probably some Michael Buble and Andy Grammar. Probably a lot of world music that will also horrify our families. And Yeah by Usher Ludacris and Lil Jon.

It's a slow song but one of my favorites..

Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

first rule of thumb... you can't please everyone. SOMEONE will dislike something about the music

As for censored stuff... I think that's just a given at a wedding. My grandma doesn't want to hear cursing in the music.

You pretty much need to know your audience. The classic stuff like the bird dance, macarena, cotton eye joe, time warp, etc... stuff that has a group choreographed dance to it is always popular and gets people up. People like group dancing and not being the only fool out there cutting a rug lol.

My sisters wedding pretty much only had the bridal party up dancing because most people don't want to be dancing to "Back dat a$$ up" at a wedding. People don't twerk at weddings lol or... sober people don't.

I wanted a wide array of mysic from the 60's through current. Something for everyone. Most of our guests were adults between 50-70 and they would not have enjoyed hearing the new stuff. The night of my wedding, one of my guests told the DJ only to play 80's on. I was mad, but it was my wedding and nothing was going to bother me that night! I said that was fine.

It was awesome. He played a LOT of stuff and everyone was up dancing at one point or another. I also had him do the traditional music, like the cupid shuffle, boot scootin' boogie (was the first and only country song he'd ever played at a wedding, he had to get it just for us lol). He played a couple other line dancing songs and also a dedication to my Uncle - the YMCA.

I have heard so many people that were guests that said my wedding was the best they'd ever been to. They had a blast dancing.

I think because I included a lot of stuff that everyone knew, and hubby and I were out on the dance floor the whole night, they could cut loose and be goofy too.

So, I say pick some of your favorites. Take your guests ages into consideration and maybe pick well known songs from each time period.

Ok - this might be a dumb question, but is "back dat a$$ up" an actual song or is that just a generic phrase for generally sexual "booty poppin'" club music?

I kind of disagree with Tanya, but I think that it's really going to depend on generational differences and regional differences, too. The last wedding I went to (with the crappy DJ), had around 120 guests and I'm betting 100 of them were under the age of 35 max...most were probably under 30. All white kids who grew up in New England. If the DJ played Cotton Eye Joe, I bet NO ONE would have gotten up....but typically that's a pretty safe dance song. The DJ played a handful of what I might consider "Back Dat A$$ Up" songs, and that's the only time more than a few people were up dancing. He'd play stuff like September by Earth Wind and Fire or "Twist and Shout" and like 8 of the bride/grooms aunts would dance and then he'd play something by Pit Bull and 50 people would get up. And then he'd ruin it by playing a Queen song. WHO DANCES TO QUEEN???

But, I have a feeling that at the wedding SoCrafty describes, the opposite might be true, lol. The people who went to my FIL's 2nd wedding he had at age 52 are going to have drastically different taste in music than our 25 year old cousin's guests. A wedding in LA or NY is probably going to play pretty different music than a wedding in a small town in Georgia.

I think you need to play the music YOU and your husband like, with guests in mind. I'm not going to be playing my favorite mongolian throat singing album at my wedding, even though it's what I'd want to hear, because NO ONE except me and my two best friends care about that. But there's also pretty much no chance in heck I'm playing any song that came out in the 70s or 80s, because that's before my time and I probably hate it and I don't care if it's what my 7 aunts and uncles want to hear/dance to.

I think group dance songs SHOULD be safe depending on your audience. If your wedding is half your indie music snob friends and cousins, they probably aren't going to do the Electric Slide. But when I worked for a DJ company stuff like that usually got someone in a mixed-age crowd going.

I think playing songs from when you guys were growing up....like the songs you danced to at your middle school dance or prom or sang on the bus with your friends every day in 5th grade are a good bet, or the songs you listened to a lot when your first met. That might not be the best idea if the wedding is all older family though.


As for censorship.....I've only been to a few weddings and I don't really remember if the music was censored, but working for a DJ company I think we always asked...and usually unless it was a wedding with a lot of kids in attendance the bride asked for unedited stuff.

I didn't know you'd had to make a list for the DJ. Can you just give him an overall idea? I wouldn't think of it necessarily as "songs I'd like to hear at a wedding," but more typical songs you'd hear at a party. For me, that would be a mix of oldies, a slow song here and there, top 40 stuff. I'd probably put the brakes on anything too hip hoppy.

It's a real song lol. It's by Juvenile... it's "old" lol.

yeah... pretty much this

I would love to hear Frankie Valli's Can't take my Eyes off You as a slow dance song.

I'm gonna be the oddball and put out some non-mainstream stuff, but Mariana's Trench has some great stuff (like Desperate Measures, etc). I mean, probably wouldn't want to do Haven't Had Enough as while it may be catchy, it says "testing testing, I'm just suggesting that we aren't the best thing" lol. Desperate Measures is catchy and totally a wedding-ish song. IMO.

The Ready Set, Never Shout Never, and Rocket To The Moon are all romance-y bands and pop-y enough to dance to. Melt The Sugar by The Summer Obsession is a cute song, very addictive. Endlessly by The Cab (as well as a few other songs on Symphony Soldier) would be a great slow dance song.

All that stuff is what I'd label as "pop", but you probably will never hear any aside from The Ready Set on the radio.

ETA- Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin because how can you not.

Dark Blue is a suuuupppper dark song to play at a wedding.

I'm sorry. I honestly never took it as something dark, but songs can mean different things for different people and interpreted differently.

It is? Never heard the song but looked up the lyrics and listened to it. I'm missing the super dark part lol though I don't know how you dance to it

Maybe I just think it's really dark in the context of the album and video and knowing a fair deal about the artist's life and music? But generally for my wedding I'd steer clear of songs about waiting for an ambulance while everything around you goes dark....i do find it pretty dancey nonetheless.

Shake it off
shake it off
off
off

Yep, this.
Our wedding will have an age span from like 2-85, so if I only played top 40s the older generation would be bored. And I KNOW my grandparents like to dance - just not top 40s because it's not their music.
I would just throw in something for everyone..

Impossible to answer as everyone has different tastes!!!!

I like a mix of old cheesy crap everyone knows the words to and some modern stuff. But not necessarily chart toppers. Things like Kings of Leon, elbow, all manner of stuff!!!! Definitely a few cheesy dance classics, get my rave on hahaha

I have to be drunk to dance anyway. So by that point I'd maybe not care. Definitely no old people music. No jazz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No rnb. No ballads (unless it's meatloaf hahaha).