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Prom Strutt

TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
edited March 2006 in Strut Central
Anyone here have any expirence DJaying a highschool prom?A month ago i got a call asking if i could DJ the local highschool prom, i thought it was a big honer, and they got a decent budget to work with. so i can get real paid and still have a budget to hire a friend to bring a massive JBL soundsystem & lights.I heard Grandmaster Flash say in an interview that DJaying for high school kids is the toughest audience, and it makes sence...they arnt old enough to be nostalgic about anything. The main reason I bought SERATO was so i could be flexable enough to play this prom.so is there any advice to what the kids are into these days? i can do the 19-25 audiences just fine, i'm just not sure about these 17/18 year olds. YSI links are welcome and enchoraged in this post.
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  • HollafameHollafame 844 Posts
    http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    true

    also... www.digiwaxx.com

    any other DJays with a prom gig this spring?
  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    old enough to be nostalgic about anything.

    The Worst Singles of All Time
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    that list makes mambo #5 look good
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    Play "Stairway to Heaven"... twice.
  • CousinLarryCousinLarry 4,618 Posts
    No one has any comment on hard knock life being on that list. I personally wouldn't put it near a list w/ who let the dogs out and mambo #5. And why the hell is who let the dogs out $24.99. WTF
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    i might try to get away w/some boyz II men "end of the road" or "ill make love to you"

    or maybe playing my middle school jamz have no effect on todays youth and i should stick to billboard...i got bills to pay
  • AaronAaron 977 Posts
    Shania Twain.
  • SwayzeSwayze 14,705 Posts
    I do school related gigs all the time. Once they get your name in their database, you got easy work for life.

    Should be easy, just approach it like you were playing at a top 40 club.
  • DJCireDJCire 729 Posts
    just approach it like you were playing TOP 40 ALL NIGHT


    I've done some Sweet 16's (not the MTV kind) and some Quincinera's (sp) and out here (Southern Cali) its all about Power 106's current playlist www.power106.fm - but I also played a couple jammy's from just a few years back (Dre, Snoop, etc.) and it still rocked. Don't forget some Chris Brown and I think you'll be good. My suggestion, just look up Billboards Top 100 for the past year.........
  • CaMKIIaCaMKIIa 269 Posts
    dont forget to play smells like teen spirit for the kids who dont like rap (at our homecoming freshman year, i was really happy the dj honored my request to play "jesus built my hotrod"...others weren't).
  • ayresayres 1,452 Posts
    Funny timing. We were having the same conversation at the Hollerboard but it was for K-8. I said you should play Laffy Taffy 4 times. Chris Brown, D4L, Dem Franchise Boys, Bow Wow, Black I Peas, Gwen Stefani, B2K, Kelly Klarkson, Sean Paul, Lil Jon, Beyonce, Pussycat Dolls, 50 Cent, Nelly, Busta, Kanye, Usher, TS - Lean Back, J-Lo, Gorillaz, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Ashlee Simpson... pop stuff less than 3 years old. also real silly stuff like "I Like to Move It Move It," "Who Let the Dogs Out," "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," "The Venga Bus" (this might backfire on older kids though)

    Look at the songs that are on the Kidz Bop cds (these are covers of popular songs with kids singing) and play the real versions, and look at what is on Now That's What I Call Music going back about two years. This the type of stuff that kids like.
  • DJCireDJCire 729 Posts
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    No one has any comment on hard knock life being on that list. I personally wouldn't put it near a list w/ who let the dogs out and mambo #5. And why the hell is who let the dogs out $24.99. WTF

    I noticed that and determined the list was not valid--as with most Amazon.com listmania shit.
  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    that list makes mambo #5 look good

    I stand by Mambo #5 OG Prez Prado.
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    Funny timing. We were having the same conversation at the Hollerboard but it was for K-8. I said you should play Laffy Taffy 4 times. Chris Brown, D4L, Dem Franchise Boys, Bow Wow, Black I Peas, Gwen Stefani, B2K, Kelly Klarkson, Sean Paul, Lil Jon, Beyonce, Pussycat Dolls, 50 Cent, Nelly, Busta, Kanye, Usher, TS - Lean Back, J-Lo, Gorillaz, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Ashlee Simpson... pop stuff less than 3 years old. also real silly stuff like "I Like to Move It Move It," "Who Let the Dogs Out," "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," "The Venga Bus" (this might backfire on older kids though)

    Look at the songs that are on the Kidz Bop cds (these are covers of popular songs with kids singing) and play the real versions, and look at what is on Now That's What I Call Music going back about two years. This the type of stuff that kids like.


    thanks for the help, the kidz bob version of "Float On" is

    i might lurk over to the hollerboard to pick up some more songs.
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    this thread is crazy delicious.

    I'm feeling how no one is acting all "too cool" to deejay a prom and people are even busting out holy grail info.

    I dj'd senior party with a friend once (it's like a promo but at a family's house instead of at the school). My boy played the clean version Ying Yang Twinz "Get Low" and the entire class was singing along...but THEY SANG THE DIRTY VERSION INSTEAD

    I felt mad embarassed and thought "damn, maybe this rap shit is kinda fucked for young kids" but then remembered sneaking into an old friend's basement and listening to his dad's 2 Live Crew records ("GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE BITCH")
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    this thread is crazy delicious.

    I'm feeling how no one is acting all "too cool" to deejay a prom and people are even busting out holy grail info.

    honestly i'm pretty geeked about being asked, i'm not even entirly sure about how they found my number. readers of the local paper just voted our dance night best place to dance/meet men/meet women/hookup/makeout (seprate catagories) but i thought it was more of a suprised/honered to end up at the high school prom.

    i got school loans, car payment, rent, bills...no such thing as "too cool" to get paid, i'm thankfull for all the help i'm getting in this post.

    like i said in the first post YOU SEND IT LINKS are welcome.


    also, what about the school dance songs that were big back in my time like "too close"....or "end of the road"/"i'll make love to you"....if i can't get away with playing those boyz II men songs at prom i'll have ot serato them at my regular night just to get it out of my system.
  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    Anyone here have any expirence DJaying a highschool prom?

    A month ago i got a call asking if i could DJ the local highschool prom, i thought it was a big honer, and they got a decent budget to work with. so i can get real paid and still have a budget to hire a friend to bring a massive JBL soundsystem & lights.

    I heard Grandmaster Flash say in an interview that DJaying for high school kids is the toughest audience, and it makes sence...they arnt old enough to be nostalgic about anything. The main reason I bought SERATO was so i could be flexable enough to play this prom.

    so is there any advice to what the kids are into these days? i can do the 19-25 audiences just fine, i'm just not sure about these 17/18 year olds. YSI links are welcome and enchoraged in this post.

    well if you were to dj at my school (oakland tech.) you'd just have to play all the hits off of the local "urban" clear channel station KMEL to get most, but not all of them going.

    Hardly anyone does that however. Every year I hear complaints about the DJs playing techno and "Rock Lobster".

    And kids actually are nostalgic for certain older tunes. Poison by Bel Biv Devoe gets used almost every year in dance competitions for homecoming and other events. There's a couple other older tunes kids get down to as well.
  • djannadjanna 1,543 Posts
    yeah, I picture a more hip hop than rock crowd at the dances, but it is prom, so maybe you need to play some stuff for the emo kids too.

    plenty of G Unit, Tupac, Young Jeezy and, of course, Mac Dre's "Thizzle Dance"
    and some "Gasolina" for your Latino/a population. What kind of school is this?
  • jaymackjaymack 5,199 Posts
    all i gotta say is PROMO ONLY!!!!
    urban club.
    urban radio.
  • DUNE493DUNE493 223 Posts
    Go get some MAXELL TAPES and record all the crap thats on the radio.LOL
  • Scratch_n_SniffScratch_n_Sniff 353 Posts
    I DJed for some High School kids lat weekend (although they were model UN, so definitly nerdier than your average high school crew). They didn't really get down to anything outside popular radio. I got harrased for not having any "line dance" material like the cha cha slide. They also didn't know anything about southern rap. I was playing Mike Jones and a girl came to the booth to beg me to play "music that we know". I was like:

    Old stuff that went over well:
    Salt n Pepa
    Maddonna
    Michael
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    (although they were model UN, so definitly nerdier than your average high school crew)

    Model UN students are like "PLEASE nothing we would have heard outside
    of a classroom environment!"
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    Play "Stairway to Heaven"... twice.

    must have gone to my high school.
  • GrafwritahGrafwritah 4,184 Posts
    I dj'd senior party with a friend once (it's like a promo but at a family's house instead of at the school). My boy played the clean version Ying Yang Twinz "Get Low" and the entire class was singing along...but THEY SANG THE DIRTY VERSION INSTEAD

    I felt mad embarassed and thought "damn, maybe this rap shit is kinda fucked for young kids" but then remembered sneaking into an old friend's basement and listening to his dad's 2 Live Crew records ("GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE BITCH")

    But you're DJing a Senior party, right? Like 17-18? It's not like you're talking about 10 year olds. Why wouldn't they know the regular versiON?
  • djbrigidopedjbrigidope 166 Posts
    i did a highschool berfday a few months ago in berkeley kids. id have to say highschool kids are a little more sophisticated than alot of djs think... well at least here in the bay area.

    if you can take them there... you can drop all kinds of surprise ass hits.
    earth wind and fire- september (soul food made it cool), micheal jackson- dont stop till you get enough (rush hour 2 made it cool)... and PYT is just dope across all boards.

    i did a gig for some high school kids a while back and dropped luke-scarred... kids went shitasticles.

    just ask the kids for a play list of things they want to hear... you dont have to play all of it... just to get a feel of what they are listening to. but you will have those kids who will ask you to play some rare ass indy rock goth industrial record because:
    a) they know no one will like it
    b) they kow people will yell at you for it
    c) there were only 5 copies of it pressed and they have 4 of them.

    -kids are like that.

    but yeah... proms are cool.

    just make sure you have the slow joints that are popular... because if you can't feel up your date during a slow song... it wasnt a real prom.
  • OXYCONTINOXYCONTIN 115 Posts
    Go get some MAXELL TAPES and record all the crap thats on the radio.LOL

    yeah. with the commercials too!
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    I dj'd senior party with a friend once (it's like a promo but at a family's house instead of at the school). My boy played the clean version Ying Yang Twinz "Get Low" and the entire class was singing along...but THEY SANG THE DIRTY VERSION INSTEAD

    I felt mad embarassed and thought "damn, maybe this rap shit is kinda fucked for young kids" but then remembered sneaking into an old friend's basement and listening to his dad's 2 Live Crew records ("GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE BITCH")

    But you're DJing a Senior party, right? Like 17-18? It's not like you're talking about 10 year olds. Why wouldn't they know the regular versiON?


    Actually it was 8th graders going into high school.
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    also any good sample contracts floating around, whats a reasonable amount of time to give them to cancel as in "if you cancel without _____ notice i keep half the money"
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