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The Best Wedding DJs Will Allow Brides A DO NOT Playlist

06 July 2012

My success as a professional wedding DJ have 100% everything to do with providing my modern brides and grooms exactly what they want as it pertains to the music during their wedding reception. There are lots and lots of wedding DJs out there who think all that they need to do is just load up some heavy DJ gear and their personal music collection and just "show up" at your wedding and play "their" music collection.  I've seen it play out wedding after wedding after wedding, and I am here to tell that giving modern brides and grooms the latitude to create their own playlist with the music that their guests know and love is the best way to ensure that everyone will have an amazing. Professional wedding DJs should never assume that ALL weddings are the same because that could so far from the truth. It's the DJs who tell you that ALL weddings are the same who are probably the best ones to scratch off of your list when it comes to sitting down and selecting the one who makes you most comfortable.

With my company, it's simple. "You get to choose the songs you like, but you also get to choose the songs you don't like, which in my opinion is equally as important, if not more important. Let's face it. There are songs we don't like. There are genres of songs that we don't like as well.  For me personally, I am not a huge fan of country music, so if I hired a wedding DJ for my wedding, my fiancee and I would more than likely leave off the country music from my playlist. Think about it. YOUR wedding day (up to this point in your life) will be the single most wonderful day of your life. Ask yourself this question. Do you really want YOUR amazingly wonderful wedding day to be full of songs you can't stand? Do you want your amazingly wonderful wedding to be filled with songs that make you want to run home and put your head under the covers. The songs you don't like should NEVER be heard at your wedding and the only way to avoid this from happening is to have this all-important conversation with the wedding DJ that you decide to hire. 

YOUR Do Not Play List Should Be Well-Thought Out
Depending on how far in advance you and your fiancee are planning your wedding, your music is NEVER something that should be left til the last minute. Booking your wedding DJ should be done shortly after you begin your engagement, especially if you are a modern bride and groom who are really into their music. Modern brides and grooms who are very deep into their music are attracted to the way I operate as a professional wedding DJ.  I'll say it one more time. No two weddings are the same when it comes music and I keep seeing DJs online try to convince their clients that it is the case, but ot be honest it could not be more further from the truth. Those are the wedding DJs are more interested in the "quantity" of the weddings they do (which as a result, they tend to be very mediocre), instead of doing a quality performance.  Find out which is more important "Quality" or "Quantity" when selecting your wedding DJ,  <---by clicking this LINK. 

How Do Songs Get Put On The DO NOT Play List?
If you listen to some of the first episodes of The Mike Bills Podcast, you'll learn how I got my start as a wedding DJ. It was actually in the early 2000s at a company here in Charleston, which majored in cheese. It did not take long for me to realize that being cheesy wedding DJ was NOT in the cards for me. Cheesy wedding DJs tend to play that are, you guessed it CHEESY.   But I digress. How do Do Not Play Lists get created? Well, when a bride and groom sign a contract with me for me to be their wedding DJ, they are created a portal on my website where they log in at anytime to begin selecting the music for their incredible wedding day.  For more information about being able to log in to create the most perfect playlist for your wedding, <----be sure to CLICK HERE.   I honestly believe that songs get requested over the years with good intentions. Perhaps at the time of their release these songs sound awesome and really get the dance floor nice and full.  But as the years go by and wedding DJs continue to play them, tastes tend to change and evolve and we get tired of them. One of the most popular requests by my clients is that they do not want their wedding to sound like the last several weddings they have been where the DJ acted like a moron, pigged out on food and drank alcohol. 

Some Of The Most Common DO NOT PLAY List Songs Are:
Year after year, wedding DJs keep tally on which songs are placed on DO NOT PLAY Lists. They tend to vary from year to year, but a lot of them have enjoyed places on this wedding playlist wasteland for many consecutive years now. Some songs are ok for one or two or three wedding seasons, but then brides and grooms and guests get burned out from hearing them and they show up on the Do Not Play List. 

There are so many overplayed wedding songs out there, which is why you and your fiancee need to take your time in creating your wedding playlist and to make sure that all those songs that make you cringe  don't get heard by you ever again (at least at your wedding reception). When I first started this blog, I made it a point to try to keep my clients up to date with what the most popular songs for Do Not Play Lists were, but as the years passed by, the same songs started to appear on these lists, so it would be sort of redundant to keep reminding clients of these most disliked songs.  

"Macarena" | Los Del Rio
I am pretty sure if you had the radio on back in 1996 you were doing the "Macarena". You were probably doing the Macarena at work, at school or even while you were trying to drive.  People today begin to cringe or giggle at the thought of this once Number 1 song on the Hot 100 chart. 

"The Chicken Dance"
Hopefully the reasons for NOT playing this song at your wedding are pretty self explanatory. How about we start out with the fact that you and your fiancee are not in 3rd grade.

"Cotton Eyed Joe" | Rednex
While this song has a high likelihood to be put on the DO NOT PLAY portion of your wedding playlist,  if it does get played, the DJ will probably put it on toward the end of the night so yuo don't remember how cheesy it is.

"Celebration" | Kool & The Gang
What used to be a favorite in the 80s and 90s has become old and burned out in recent years. Even people get burned out of #1 songs. It's what makes the world go around. Variety is the spice of life as it pertains to your wedding playlist.

You certainly are free to add these songs into your playlist, I just wanted to wrap up this post with a few of the more popular Do Not Play Songs in recent wedding seasons.  Most seasoned, professional wedding DJs will most likely steer clear of these songs even if you opted not to add them into your wedding playlist.  If you are interested in learning more about some of the Most Requested Songs For Wedding Reception Do Not Playlists, be sure to click the preceding link.

DJ Mike Bills prides himself on being a Classy and Elegant Wedding DJ without all the extras that other wedding DJs bring to the table. His focus is solely on the music. No uplights. No photobooths. No draping. His focus is on solely on the perfect execution of your wedding reception, through professional announcements and the best mix of music that is curated for you and your guests.  Simply put, DJ Mike Bills is a wedding DJ with a modern style

Ready To Talk To Mike Bills About Being Your Wedding DJ?
Thank you for making it to the end of this blog post, which as you can see was a VERY important blog post about one of the most important parts of your wedding music; The Do Not PlayList. Even if you find when we meet that I might not be a good fit for you, you still need to require that the wedding DJ you do hire puts together a Do Not PlayList for you. And when you are on your wedding DJ search, be sure to click over to their FAQs to learn a little more about them as well.  If you are engaged and looking to sit down and begin interviewing who the person will be to DJ your wedding, polease click the link up above and you'll be taken over to my contact form so that you can fill out some of the details of your day. At which time, you and I can get together and discuss music!

Remember to always submit a DO NOT PlayList. Consider it peace of mind and an insurance policy against a potentially cheesy wedidng DJ and getting those weird looks for your guests. Thank you once for visiting my blog and I look forward to speaking with you about your wedding!