At half time I realised that I haven’t noted down the play
list for the tracks played over the stadium PA. Not that I would have been able
to do so if I was alert to the task, the songs seemingly being current or
recent pop hits, presumably by pretty young things destined to be forgotten by
the end of this posting. I’m not sure who selects the tracks, but I’m
reasonably aware that a certain tension must go into this. To which part of the crowd’s “demographic” do
you aim your selection? Personally, I
don’t care. In fact, I’d rather there is
no music. Sport, true sport like
football shouldn’t rely on music to create atmosphere. This is something that is created by the
combination of the players on the field and the fans in the stands. One is a
true reflection of the other; the crowd, for example, will not be at fever
pitch during a one sided match and no amount of music played pre or post game
is going to influence the overall mood.
In fact, this is when people are most likely to complain about the
presence of music, especially if played at maximum volume.
But a wedding and the attendant reception are different
beasts. Let’s take the wedding ceremony
first. Have you ever been to a memorable
wedding where music didn’t play a role?
I struggle to think of one I’ve attended where this was the case. Weddings or commitment ceremonies are
supposed to be celebrations of a couple’s mutual love in front of a selection
of family, friends and the occasional hangers on. Music should fit right on in. Taped music has been played at every
non-religious or Registry ceremony I’ve ever attended. And so it was on Friday night, when the
wedding was held in a marquee at the reception venue. The bride entered the marquee to the strains
of Guy Sebastian’s first hit Angels Brought Me Here. It’s a bit of a schmaltzy tune to be tune,
but a wedding is the one time I’m prepared to put my critical facilities behind
me, unless a really inappropriate track has been chosen. Mind you, if you’re planning to do this
(especially if that tune were to be, say, Sepultura’s Roots Bloody Roots), I’d
love an invite or to see the vision. But,
I digress. By the time the Sebastian
tune has finished, I find myself marvelling at just how well the lyrics seemed
to fit the occasion.
Of course taped music wasn’t used at my wedding to “M”. We engaged a female singer who was able to
play the church’s organ. We met with her
and selected a nice program, or rather “M” did.
My only contribution to this process was to automatically veto anything
written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Well,
there are some things that are too schmaltz, even for weddings at least in my
mind. On the day, the music was just
about the highlight of the ceremony. It
was the one extravagance we permitted and it was money well spent.
But where our Wedding and Friday’s were identical was in
relation to the reception. At both we engaged a DJ to spin records (alright,
program mp3’s) to tempt people onto the dance floor. In both instances, the DJ was someone
employed by the wedding venue. And in
both instances we put our faith in the DJ figuring that they will know what
works through their personal experience.
This was a lesson I learnt from our reception DJ. I spoke to her whilst finalising terms for
her engagement and the only time I queried her was when she indicated that the
first track she’d play after the bridal waltz was A Hooked On Classics mix of
early 50’s/60’s rock hits. She told me
to trust her as it always worked and, incredible as it may seem, she was right
on the money. The dance floor went from
just the six of us (that’s is “M” and I and our parents) to jam packed!
The only music which the DJ didn’t select was the bridal
waltz. On Friday, that tune was the
Bryan Adams and Barbara Streisand duet I Finally Found Someone. Lyrically it’s a fine choice but was it really
appropriate given the couple was together for 10 years previously? At our wedding, “M” talked me out of my
original choice, Bruce Springsteen’s beautiful If I Should Behind. In this song
the singer declares his eternal love to his wife, urging her that “if I should
fall behind, wait me for me”. I figured
the lyric would apply to both sides in times of trouble but “M” vetoed it,
pointing out that it could be interpreted that
I was expecting to fail. I think
she also sensed I put it up because I wanted to fit Bruce into the day, and in
this respect, she was correct. In the
end I selected an instrumental (Love Me With All Your Heart by Chet Baker And The Mariachi
Brass) for the actual waltz so no
one could read anything into the lyrics
and followed this with Van Morrison’s original version of Have I Told You
Lately? for when we invited our parents to the floor.
As for dancing selections, it would appear that unorthodoxy
rules. I’ve already indicated how our DJ
started her set. Friday’s DJ started
with Marvin Gaye/Tammi Temmell’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough followed by Ray
Charles’ Hit The Road Jack. Very
effective indeed. He also pulled off
some interesting segues, the best of which was taking perennial dance floor
favourite, The B-52’S Love Shack and mutating it into The Jackson’s Can You
Feel It by marrying Keith Stickland’s inspired guitar work on the former to a
lone guitar scratching you can pick up at key points of the latter. But of course there are songs which must be
played at all costs as they appeared at both receptions such as Love Shack,
Nutbush City Limits (where did that
dance come from?), The Macarena (will this track ever die!), Lionel Richie’s All Night Long and many many more. The only difference seemed to be that our DJ
managed to keep large numbers on the floor.
In fairness, this might be due to the other reception being on a Friday
night. As I overhead one of the guests
say, it’s difficult to go flat out on a Friday night when you know you’ve got
to get up early the following morning to do shopping, get kids off to sport,
etc. Having said that, Friday’s DJ did
attempt to incorporate the hits of the day all of which flopped and one – Robin
Thicke’s Blurred Lines – managed to empty it completely......
..... all of which proves absolutely nothing other than demonstrating whilst
everyone would like to be the DJ, the task would appear to be a thankless and
difficult one. Sort of like trying to
select music to play at a stadium.
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