A DJ’s worst nightmare is an event where no one is dancing. I’ve had them early in my career and they still haunt me to this day. With a few simple tips, you can break a party open and get people on the dance floor. Here are my 14 best tips to get and keep your guests dancing.
1. Talk to People
It starts with your client. Of course, you should be asking them what kind of music they want to hear. But you should also be asking about their guests. What kind of music do their guests like? How many people will be there? What are their ages? Where are they from? Answers to these questions will give you an idea of what music to bring.
You can also talk to the guests who show up early. Introduce yourself as the DJ and ask if they have any songs they’d like to hear. This will give you a starting point for the music.
2. Pack More Than You Need
You never know what kind of audience you will have until you meet them and get them dancing. I am constantly surprised at what people like to hear. Sometimes it’s exactly what I would expect, and sometimes it’s completely different.
The best way to stay calm is to be ready for anything. Prepare your playlist well in advance, and think through what else you might need based on what the crowd could want. I usually prepare about twice the amount of music I will need for a given event. 75% of that music should be right in line with what I expect the crowd will want, based on the event type, ages of guests, location, time of day, etc. I make the last 25% an assortment of other directions the event could go. I bring a mix of less-well-known stuff that I love, some throwbacks, some local or cultural favorites, and just general riffing on what the client has requested.
Don’t pack too much music or you’ll overwhelm yourself with choices. Stick to no more than double the amount of music you will need. For example, a four-hour event needs no more than eight hours of music total. Any more than that and you will get stuck in the weeds digging for music. But, spread out your choices over multiple genres and eras so that you can quickly pivot in any direction.
3. Figure Out What They Want
Once you get started and play a couple songs, check the crowd’s reaction. Are they with you? Are they dancing? If so, give them more of the same, with a few surprises sprinkled in. If not, change it up. Try a new genre or a new decade of music. See what kind of response you get. Try one of your guaranteed floor-filling tracks. If you get a big reaction and a rush to the dance floor, you know you’ve picked the right song. Be ready to follow it up with something similar to keep them on the floor.
4. Pay Attention
You need to look for subtle and not-so-subtle clues that your audience is feeling what you are putting out there. Head bobs, toe taps, and swaying are all good signs that you are heading the right direction to get started. Once you have them dancing, keep it going by noticing what people like and what they don’t. As your crowd builds, you can try different songs and see how they react. You will get a ton of information that way and can use it to pick what to play next.
5. Take Requests
You should also take requests from the crowd. I make this easy by putting out a request sheet on a clipboard. This is much better than taking requests one at a time. I can never remember them, or I will get the same request over and over. And, you never have to turn anyone down directly.
If you get someone insistent with a request that just doesn’t work, find a way to be firm but polite. I used to use “I don’t have that, sorry!” all the time. With instant streaming, that just makes people say, “Here, I have it on my phone!” Nowadays, I’m being more direct but still polite. “Hmm, that doesn’t really work with the party vibe. How about something from [similar artist/genre that works better]?”
I’ve had drunk people and teenagers insist that everyone will love the song they picked. You are the DJ and you know better. I’m even more firm when I need to be. “Dude, Death Metal isn’t gonna work at prom. Pick something else.”
For the most part, you will get really good suggestions people want to hear. If I’m really struggling with a dance floor, I’ll tell a requester that I will only play their song if they promise to dance. That usually gets things going.
5. Break a Stubborn Dance Floor
Sometimes I can throw my best stuff at a crowd and get nothing but an empty dance floor. This is when I deploy a method that I learned from Phil Morse at Digital DJ Tips. Basically, you find the person in the crowd who is itching to dance. They are bouncing in their seat, tapping their toes or singing along. Focus on that person and play whatever it takes to get them to dance. Once you have them dancing, pick the next song that would appeal to a few more people, and then a few more, and so on until you have the whole crowd dancing.
6. Recovering From a Crash
Sometimes you’ll misjudge a dance floor and play a song that makes everyone scatter. That’s okay! It happens to everyone. Just pick back up with what you know worked before and get them to come back. I read a DJ quote that said something like, “If you’re not killing a dance floor at least once a night, you’re not trying hard enough.”
Don’t let a empty dance floor freak you out. Go back to what was working just before you crashed and burned. If you had them dancing before, you can get them back. Keep trying what worked before and whatever new angles you can add until you rebuild your dance floor.
Also realize that there will be ebbs and flows throughout your event. You can’t keep the whole crowd on the floor for the whole night. You would have people passing out on you. You will also have times when people just decide this song is not as amazing as the last one. Or, a group of girls needed a pee break, and the guys followed them. It could be any number of reasons. Don’t take it personally.
7. Sometimes It’s Out of Your Control
Sometimes you just can’t get your crowd to dance and it’s not your fault. The feeling in the crowd can be a big factor.
I was playing a corporate Christmas party once, and no matter what I played, I couldn’t get anyone on the dance floor the whole night. I apologized to my client contact after the event that it was a bit of a flop. She said she thought it went great! When I asked her about why nobody was dancing, she told me that this was a brand new team and they didn’t know each other very well. It was their awkwardness with each other that held them back.
Another time I worked a wedding where the best man threw the wedding cake at the bride. Understandably, the bride yelled at him and stormed off. This was all before dinner was even served. I knew immediately that there wouldn’t be any dancing that night, so I just kept playing background dinner music for the rest of the evening. The guests finished their dinner, quietly left and the whole evening ended pretty quickly. You can never predict these situations, but you can remain professional throughout.
8. Have Never-Fail Tracks for This Crowd
Once you’ve played for a certain type of audience a few times, you’ll learn certain tracks that will almost always fill a dance floor. Some of these will be very specific to the culture or tastes of the people in your crowd. I’ve amassed a list of songs that kill for weddings, which is different from my college party list, which is different still from my corporate events. Great tracks will also depend on the age and background of your audience. Working in Florida, I’ve learned a number of songs that are huge hits for my Hispanic guests.
When you are working a new crowd, make note of those songs that fill the floor, and try them at similar events later. When in doubt, ask your client or other guests to pick a song they think everyone will dance to. Ask around at enough events, and you’ll build a great list of can’t-miss hits.
9. Line Dances Always Work
Any line dance or other song with a specific dance associated to it is a great way to get a lot of people on the dance floor quickly. Examples include The Cha-Cha Slide, The Hustle, The Electric Slide, Macarena, The Cupid Shuffle and many more. Anything that’s easy for everyone to dance to tends to be very popular.
Once you get that big surge of dancers, be prepared to follow up with another hugely popular song to keep the momentum going. There’s nothing worse than having your whole dance floor disappear after a line dance. You were so close to getting it to stick! Give them a big track so that they can continue shaking their butts, and your dance floor will stay put.
10. Give Them More of What They Love
Once you’ve figured out what your crowd likes, just keep hitting them with more of the same. This doesn’t mean the exact same artist, but keep in a similar genre, era or just overall feel. Keep your BPM about the same, and you can smoothly transition into the next song. If your crowd loves the next song, you’ll see it right away.
Be careful about playing too much of the same music, though. It can get really tiring quickly. Make small variations in what you are playing and evolve your set over time. If you get too far from what your audience likes, you’ll know it as soon as the dance floor thins out. Go back to what worked best at that point.
11. Mix It Up
While you want to stay with the music you know people like most of the time, there are also times when it makes sense to go in a completely different direction. Slow dances at a wedding or prom are a great example. Once you’ve got your crowd whipped into a frenzy, kill the tempo and smash those sweaty bodies together. They’ll love you for it.
Also take time to play to other segments of your audience. I like to mix in some popular Oldies for the older generations in attendance. If you’ve got folks who like a specific style of dance, like Bachata or Swing, that’s a good genre to mix in. You’ll basically be rotating your dance floor and giving some new people a turn. Once you have this new group of guests dancing, try to find a transition song that everyone will like to make your dance floor even bigger.
Take this concept and be artistic with it. Find those moments when a radical shift in genre or BPM makes sense and experiment with them. The worst thing that can happen is that everyone leaves your dance floor. No big deal! Just go back again to what worked before and coax them back out.
12. Gimme a Break!
Sometimes you can give your crowd too much of a good thing. You are going to exhaust them if you play nonstop bangers. Find those times to play something more chilled out so people can take a break. I like to use really popular tunes that aren’t so great to dance to. That way people are still hearing a song they like while they get a break from dancing.
This is also a good spot to slip in the requests you have from your client that aren’t as popular, or as danceable. You’ll get the credit for playing a song special to them, and you don’t hurt your dance floor because it was going to break up anyway.
If you are working a bar or club, this is critical because the owners need people to go to the bar and buy drinks. More sales means a better chance you get invited back.
13. Streaming is a Life Saver
My Spotify Premium account has saved me at more than one wedding. It’s a great way to play music you wouldn’t have ever thought of bringing. And talk about pleasing your audience. You can get them exactly what they want right now!
My most memorable usage was at a wedding in 2015. I had a Spanish-speaking guest who came up to request a specific artist for his wife. We were really struggling to communicate over the loud music and fighting a language barrier. Finally, I just had him come around to my laptop and type the name in my Spotify search box. We found the artist and he just said, “Any!” I picked a song to play next and he, his wife, and their entire side of the family rushed the dance floor.
Just be careful playing songs you don’t know well if you have a clean music policy. I find that Spotify does a good job tagging very explicit songs, but they are leinent with some less offensive curse words. I always make sure I pull up the lyrics online for any songs I don’t know.
14. Trust Yourself
Finally, you are the expert. You probably have years of experience. Even if you are brand new, you decided to become a DJ for the love of music, or the thrill of rocking a dance floor. You have this stuff in your DNA. Be confident in your skills.
If you ever get nervous or frustrated, just stop right where you are. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and focus. Imagine you are assembling the greatest party mix of all time. What song comes next? Chances are, you already know it. Trust your skills and your musical knowledge, and you will kill it every time.
In Summary…
Use your knowledge, use your client and use your request list to get a dance floor going. When all else fails, find that one person who can get it all started. Once you hit on songs that please your crowd, find similar tunes to keep the party going. Don’t be afraid to mix it up once you have their attention, and watch their energy so you know when to slow things down. If you stay calm and use your skills, you can get almost any crowd moving.
