Interesting Phenomenon

So Jared and I deejayed a dance for a youth conference last night.  Overall it went pretty well despite the relatively low turnout. 

I tried out some new software I threw together just before the dance.  I always have one of my laptops with me to play music, but this time I brought and placed another laptop down on the edge of the stage for the kids to browse my music collection and make requests.  It solves a real problem for me because taking requests verbally (1) isn't that fun (some of the kids get really obnoxious when I don't play what they ask for), and (2) is harder because I can't always remember the requests. 

Using the computer presents a new and interesting problem.  Because the kids don't have to talk to someone they don't know to make a request they aren't afraid to request songs that they wouldn't request otherwise.  The anonymity makes it easier to ask for things they wouldn't normally, or shouldn't.  Like MoTab, or songs by the Muppets such as "Rubber Ducky" or "It's Not Easy Being Green," or music that just isn't appropriate for a church-sponsored activity (much less their own ears and minds).  They think they're being funny I guess.  I'm not annoyed by it, but I'm not amused either.  Maybe I should have played the songs, and announced that they were requests.  (Note #1 to self: this could backfire.) It also makes it easier for them to make the same bad requests without fear of rebuke.  (Note #2 for self: add "user rebuke" feature to this and other software.)

So among the list of around 75 requests that were made, about 2/3 of them aren't danceable, and among those 50, about 35 were songs that most of the kids wouldn't know (do kids these days know or appreciate Styx? I didn't think so!).  And if my DJ experience tells me anything at all, its that people don't dance to songs they don't know, no matter how good of a beat they have.

Bottom line, though, is that having the extra computer there made my job a whole lot easier, and only took an extra 2 minutes to setup, so should I stumble across any more deejaying jobs anytime soon I'll probably use this new system again.

P.S. I'm very pleased that it is once again cool to play 80s music at dances; it goes over very well.  They are much easier to dance to than most of the stuff that is popular now, much of which isn't suitable for church-sponsored dances anyway.  It's just interesting to me that the kids weren't even a twinkle in their parents' eyes when this stuff was popular but they enjoy it anyway.  If music from before I was born was played at dances when I was their age it would have been a definitive way to get everybody to leave.