Recipe for the Best Party You’ll Ever Have

/BY JASON KAGAN/

//SPECIAL FOR THE AJT//

 

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The K Razy Boyz – dJ entertainment

What is the recipe for the best party you’ll ever have? Most would say the main ingredients are good food, great music, and a warm sense of love from family and friends.

Every ingredient is equally important, and attention to detail is paramount. So what of the music? What is its role, and how do I know what to play at my party?

Music is the only constant and the biggest variable. We eat for only a small portion of the night, and when we dim the lights to dance, the decorations fade away into the ambiance. Music is the heartbeat. The pulse. The energy, the flow and the life force of every party.

Music tells the story of your party from beginning to end. It takes your crowd on a magic carpet ride and drops you off safely on the ground at the end of the night.

As you begin the journey of planning your awesome simcha, here are a few things to keep in mind while thinking about the music at your party:

 

1. What’s your favorite music? You’re going to have the most fun when you’re listening to the music you love. Giving a DJ a few song requests is the most direct way for him to find out what you love. You’re literally telling him what you want to hear. Any good DJ’s brain is like Pandora – every song request triggers ideas of other songs you might also love to hear.

Whether or not your favorite style of music is the same as everyone else’s, it’s up to the magic of the DJ to mix it all up and have people experience music differently.

 

1. The generation gap. What is the average age of your crowd? Ten years ago, adult requests would include the motown and 70s classics, while the children only wanted to hear that day’s most popular mainstream pop and hip hop tunes.

Today, the children haven’t changed, but as we drive our kids around their daily activities, we all listen to and enjoy the same music. Top 40, mainstream and pop music genres are blending into a universally accepted genre of “dance music” that everyone can relate to on a dance floor.

More and more, the kids are starting to appreciate the throwback songs, while the adults are also enjoying all of the party anthems of the new generation. As global music unites us as a dance floor, the generation gap is slowly starting to close and parents and children are grooving to the same tunes.

 

1. A party is a progressive, evolving mashup of music that tells a story of the night. “Remember when we saw great grandpa Freddie dancing with his oxygen tank to ‘bird is the word?’”  Your party is a canvas with music painted onto it. Your crowd is an empty slate of dance energy who want to be dazzled and swept off of their feet and are just waiting for the right trigger.

Sometimes it’s the line dances, sometimes it’s the sing-alongs, sometimes it’s as simple as the most current party anthem, and sometimes it’s the perfect timing of when to play “Shout” or dance the hora. The magic is in the mix.

Let’s take bar and bat mitzvahs for example. Some of our kids visit two and maybe three events a weekend. At 50+ events per season, they’re jaded, and even the most popular music can become less than exciting. Or does it?

How many times have you made the comment that the song you love “is so overplayed on the radio” But when you hear it mixed in such a way that it takes you by surprise, it’s thrilling and exciting again, and you sing-along as though it’s the first time you’ve ever heard it and somehow you know all of the words.

 

Parties are inspired by love and passion. Knowing your crowd is important; and planning the right music is a big factor in grabbing their attention, captivating them, and taking them right where you want them.

From the beginning to the end of your celebration, the energy of your crowd dictates the magnitude of a great party, and a carefully formulated playlist will manipulate and mold the energy of your crowd.

Good music is not a lucky accident – it’s an art and a science – a carefully formulated plan of attack to maximize the full potential of every dance floor.

 

Jason Kagan is owner and director of The Krazy Boyz Show a DJ and event entertainment company. For more information he can be reached at  www.KBDJS.com   (770) 826 – 8263