90's Dance Band
 

Not sure if this is the right place but has anyone seen a band that does primarily 90's dance music, maybe rocked up a bit? I'm talking the cheesy dance hits (Gonna Make You Sweat, Can't Touch This, Jump, Unbelievable, Good Vibrations, Madonna, Ace of Bas, etc.). I'm thinking of getting something together like this (with guitar, bass, drums, male and female vocals)and haven't had much response. I think the genre that grew up on this music is now the late 20's early 30's crowd with disposable income that bars try to attract and women would be on the dance floor all night. Thoughts?

I agree. Some of those songs will be the next "Brown Eyed Girl, Sweet Home Alabama, Wonderful Tonight, Mustang Sally" set. It's only a matter of time.

The biggest problem I have found is trying to get other musicians that want to play that kind of music. Male drummers and guitarists are especially bad. They get a case of the snobbies thinking that kind of music is somehow beneath them.

Most of it is realatively easy to play as well. I have had a bunch of female singer responses but nothing in the way of other musicians which is kind of depressing seeing as how although my area is small, there are a ton of musicians around.

Yeah, I know. Same thing here. I'm currently in a band with a female singer, and a female keys player (and she can sing really well too), they love doing the dance stuff from the 80's and 90's.

I think the problem is guitarists and drummers find that kind of music boring. But I really don't know. Guitarists like guitar driven music. I can sympathize. And no drummer wants to play drum machine parts for 3 hours.

And some of it's just ego. :D

I WISH cover bands would play more dance stuff. I'm sick of Brown-Eyed Mustang Alabama House Blues holding the title of "classic" despite the fact that when those songs WERE classic, nobody who goes out to bars to dance NOWADAYS, was even born yet.

There, I said it. I'll play em as a bass player if I have to, but I'd rather dance to 80s or 90s or heck, disco, funk, etc.

I've played some 90s Eurodance in Europe, so YMMV, but I think it's a great idea and a huge untapped market. Even a lot of people who are 20-23 remember these songs.

La Bouche and 2 Unlimited are consistently instant crowd favorites, even at a five-star hotel full of rich foreigners over 40. Planning to try some Right Said Fred next gig. I've also played some Mr. President and Dr. Alban, but to less wild reactions, so you can probably skip those.

Also see the setlist for BassAgent's 90s cover band. It ranged from Madonna to Eiffel 65.

See a lot of 80's cover bands this decade so, 90's cover bands should be blooming in about 7 years. Like cars, songs take 30 years to be classics and cool to own-perform.

Ya know what. In my new act I think it would be great fun to adapt and rockout a bunch of these songs. Keep the suggestions coming.

For guitarists who complain about 90s dance being "boring", suggest "Captain Jack" and ask them to play the arpeggiator parts note for note. That would be an actually valid excuse to shred.

Like anything, it gets harder if you don't just play through the chord progression (half the time it seems to be i-VI-VII) and really want to capture the vibe of the original and play things as close to note for note as possible, but arpeggiators are often the hardest parts.

From a marketing perspective, I'd be real careful with this. Much of the age group you're after might have just started families and have commitments elsewhere. Go out to the clubs you want to play at, on the nights you're looking to play, and study the patrons to get an idea of who your "customers" are going to be. Then decide.

There's a lot of truth to this. We've tried to interject a lot of this type of music into our setlist, but we have to be real careful where we play it. As Craig said, most of the people from that generation are at home with the kids, rather than out in bars.

It's really tough to get a group of "younger" people to get involved with whatever you may be playing when they see you as "older" and not-hip. Whether that age difference be 10 or 20 years. I have seen many of them ignore our set, even when it is at a decent volume.
They seem to have much more patience when they see a bunch of 20 somethings playing (even if it is crappy originals). Just my two cents on what I have seen.
Depending on where you play this could flop big time or go over big.
One curious thing you don't mention keyboards, but for most of the over processed 90s dance stuff, you are going to need a REAL good keyboard player. (unless you are just planning on doing the chord changes only)

I agree that probably your problem is that there aren't a lot of musicians who are champing at the bit to play that stuff. If you have a crew of friends you can talk into it, good, but it's going to be hard to recruit over CL or anything. You might think about starting off with more instrumental but danceable tunes from the period - RHCP, No Doubt, Spin Doctors, that kind of thing - and then work some of this more straight dance-pop songs in. Might get more response.

My wife's cousin Ryan plays in a band that does a good mix of stuff, there are quite a few of those 90's tunes mixed with some 80's, some other stuff. These guys are awesome to see live, very fun and interesting performance. I think it might be the type of band you're talking about.


http://gogadgetgoband.com/index.htm


Check the song list.

They are very popular around here and never seem to be stuck for a place to play whenever they want. They are usually booked for months ahead of time, all year long.

Much with the concept of the band, they have "uniforms" which consist of white shirts and red ties.

Actually, you can find some clips of them on Youtube if you are so inclined.

That looks like a pretty reliable party list.

Looking at that list, if you're only gonna do one 90s dance song "Ice Ice Baby" is probably it. It always shows up on those 200 most requested songs lists.

I guess that means I should stop talking about how it's worth learning and start memorizing the lyrics, huh?

True, but these are also the group that will be getting married, attending weddings, and attending more 'upscale' social events for date night.

Believe it or not, my Ska band has weddings booked for good money.