I don't understand my band or demographic. New Top 40

[CEB]

I don't understand this. We built this to be a non stop dance extravaganza. We are packing venues We are holding our crowds all night long. We are getting paid well and getting a lot of gigs on the books.

 

The crowds are not dancing near as much as they did for my top-40 country band but the crowds are large, they drink and do not leave. But the low dance rate bugs me. Maybe we are over doing the light production and people think it is a concert. Hell I don't have a clue.

[wjwilcox]

You're busy. You're paid well. You're popular. And the problem is?

[CEB]

We are trying to select dance songs and we feel like they are not working so we keep turning over new material trying to find stuff that works. It is a ton of work.

 

But we are the only band in the area doing really new pop. It seems like anything in set 3 goes over. People only dance when they are really drunk. New Country music fans party all night. Last time I played current pop I was doing Heart, Starship, Journey etc.....

 

A dance band playing to a dead dance floor feels like a failure.

[mcgoo]

I'm with Mr. Wilcox. It appears you've stumbled on a happy accident. If you keep trying too hard to fix it, you might actually break it.

[Adan]

How are you selecting songs? If I was in a project like that, I'd go out to dance clubs where your target audience hangs out and see what DJ selections get people dancing. If that doesn't work, then there might be something wrong in your execution?

[Skinny]

A dance band playing to a dead dance floor feels like a failure.

I get what you're saying, CEB. Our band was the same way sometimes. There were many nights where the place was packed, but nobody danced. We started to say to ourselves, "Maybe we are just a band that people come to watch."

 

It does suck when you are kickin' ass on stage, playing popular dance-able music, and everybody is sitting down.

 

But, like other said here, I guess you should just keep doing what you're doing (having fun, putting on a good show, and making $$)

[Baldwin Funster]

People don't dance, Women dance. Then men try to dance with them. Tune your set to songs women like. Go see other dance bands and steal their set list.

[Philip Clark]

People don't dance, Women dance. Then men try to dance with them. Tune your set to songs women like. Go see other dance bands and steal their set list.

 

+1

[DanL]

We gear it so set 2 has the heavy dance stuff. By set 3 they dance to anything. Set 1 has the "ooh, check out that band" songs and will ramp up with some dance stuff in the 2nd half of the set.

[Adan]

The reason I say go to DJ nights, not other dance band nights, is because dance bands are usually behind the curve, they are playing catch up regarding the latest dance hits. DJs will be right on the cutting edge of what's making people dance.

[CEB]

The entire night is geared towards women. This band does no saugage fest material.

[ProfD]

Kas nailed it if you're really interested in making people dance. But, as others have written, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

 

Surely, you may get more satisfaction out of seeing a gyrating bodies on a packed dancefloor but the main objective is to get paid. It appears that is happening.

[CEB]

The reason I say go to DJ nights, not other dance band nights, is because dance bands are usually behind the curve, they are playing catch up regarding the latest dance hits. DJs will be right on the cutting edge of what's making people dance.

 

I don't go out much. Thanks that is a great idea.

[CEB]

We gear it so set 2 has the heavy dance stuff. By set 3 they dance to anything. Set 1 has the "ooh, check out that band" songs and will ramp up with some dance stuff in the 2nd half of the set.

 

Thanks.

[EscapeRocks]

CEB,

 

That happens with us. Its usually venue specific.

 

We always have a packed house, no one leaves, and the crowds are enthusiastic.

 

Concert venues aside, sometimes people get up and dance all night, sometimes they sit and enjoy the show.

 

We stopped worrying about the "no dance" nights, especially when the crowds are there and enthusiastic regardless how they show it.

[Bill H.]

Speaking as a DJ, it has been tougher to get the new crop of post millennials dancing than the millennials who preceded them. They often leave the floor empty during the first half of the night. After midnight we're usually rollin' though.

 

Stuff that works the best (that I think a band could pull off) are the tracks that combine elements of hip-hop with pop in new and interesting ways (Fancy, Problem, Talk Dirty To Me) along with some latin influenced stuff like Bailando (which is huge right now and can be done in English). 95-100bpm is the tempo of choice these days.

 

For uptempo stuff "I Love It" still packs the floor with screaming ladies. So does (incredibly) "All About That Bass". I was embarrassed to put it in the mix at first, but now I don't even flinch.

 

Most of the night I'm doing hip-hop. I'm not sure if checking out DJ rooms is going to help you much.

 

Anyway I do sympathize with you somewhat because I'm running into the same problems with the current crop of under 25s. They are a lot pickier than their older counterparts.

[SpaceNorman]

David's (EscapeRocks) post pretty much sums up how things seem to go for us these days as well.

 

For all sorts of reasons - I've come to the conclusion that using the dance floor as the primary barometer of crowd response just doesn't work like it did. I suspect that the fact that we're typically playing to older crowds than back in the day when the dance floor was the only thing that mattered has a lot to do with it ... but even that is just supposition on my part.

 

Like David and others have said - if the crowd is sticking with you through the night, giving any indication that they're listening and are engaged (whether it's "chair dancing" while you're playing, clapping and/or cheering when you finish songs - just doesn't matter) - and keeping the waitstaff busy serving drinks - you're hitting the target.

[EscapeRocks]

Like David and others have said - if the crowd is sticking with you through the night, giving any indication that they're listening and are engaged (whether it's "chair dancing" while you're playing, clapping and/or cheering when you finish songs - just doesn't matter) - and keeping the waitstaff busy serving drinks - you're hitting the target.

 

This x100000

 

I'd like to add..... and when the venue keeps wanting you back since they're making money with you there--- you're hitting the target.

 

 

I, too, had to adjust my thinking as it can be a strange feeling to be rocking hard onstage, without people up and standing/dancing right in front of you. I finally learned to judge by the crowd reaction, and full house even at last call.

 

CEB, if the crowds are there and liking it, and the venue likes you and pays you, then just go with it. That would be my only advice on this subject.

 

Oh, lastly: we have learned which clubs will have which kinds of crowds, dancers or show watchers. We keep from stressing about it that way

[J. Dan]

The younger crowds are less secure and need more liquid courage before they get out there. It's like the high school dance with all the girls lined up on one side and the boys lined up on the other, and eventually somebody gets out there and dances, and the rest trickle in. If you can get them there a little earlier drinking before the show, that'll help. If you can seed the crowd with a couple groups of girls who get out there early, that helps too. We had some regulars who came to every show and danced from the first downbeat - that helps get the rest of the crowd going.

[CEB]

Thanks everyone. A lot of good feedback.

 

Thanks again!

[Shamanczarek]

I play in a band where the members are 50+. We play to packed houses of twenty-somethings in NYC and the Jersey Shore doing 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's Pop/Rock. Our sets are non-stop where we segue from one song to the next. Some songs are played seriously while much of the light weight Pop is done more tongue-in-cheek typically doing only a verse and chorus.

 

The kids hit the dance floor immediately and stay there all night. It amazes me to see a young audience singing along with things like Runaround Sue, Sugar Sugar, Knock Three Times, Daydream Believer, etc. We also do Beatles, Stones, Springsteen, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Journey, Bon Jovi, Four Seasons, and lots more. It all goes over great and we usually do at least a couple of encores at the end of the night.

 

I think younger audiences have shorter attention spans and it's not so much the music we play as not playing any song too long and not having any down time between songs. I don't know if this format would work for anybody else but our band has been making it work for the last 15 years of it's 30 year history first achieving some success in the 80's and 90's as an all-original Power Pop band.