Good Dance covers for 20-30 something crowd?

[WarriorJoe7]

Hey I am not into dance music or anything but my current band just broke up (amicably, people have just spread out all over the place for the summer or permanently.)

So I really don't care what kind of music we play but I want to play music that people can dance to.

I am traditionally a rock player (though the last group that just broke up was rap over funk, r&b, hip hop... maybe about half our stuff was danceable. Enough to know that I want to go full out dance. It was original stuff so we played some great shows but it's hard to build a following, hence cover band or mostly atleast.)

Anyways, What songs should I look to play for the college and 30s crowd? I hear some of the stuff that the DJs play but i don't know artists or names of the song.

I need to get an idea because I need to start listening to this stuff and when I place my next ad looking for a band I want to be able to say that I play some of this stuff.

[nsmar4211]

I'd like to know this myself *subscribed*

A lot of the "popular" songs that I see people dancing to (as spun by a DJ......) aren't anything you'd do with a band. My group has been actively seeking dancing songs a band can play that are newer than 5 years old. Not much luck!

I was amazed at the age range of the people dancing to *cough* Mustang Sally last night when I was watching-everything from 21 year olds to errrrrr "Please Don't Wear That" year olds ! I mentioned that to my old bass teacher (the bassist) and he said a two step type beat will get all the girls dancing every time. Hrmmm....must find a way to make newer songs fit to a two step.....

[KrispyJones]

rocknroll classics work at any age .... we have people dancing from 10 to 80....

play elvis johnny cash buddy holy etc....

[WarriorJoe7]

Yeah I noticed that rock and roll classics work too. But I am gravitating away from that. I want to play modern stuff that every club seems to be playing (I know I know I agree that alot of it is crap however I want to find the good stuff and there are a couple of artists atleast.)

As far as a regular band not being able to cover these well I am formulating my ideas as I write this. Let me know what you guys think.

Ideally the band would only have a drummer and a bassist from the typical band that we are familiar with. The keyboardist would be the centerpiece musically taking the place of lead guitar, or perhaps sharing the lead with a DJ (ones that add DJ stuff and samples, not the DJs that play completed songs.) Then likely the vocalist would be black but doesn't have to be (the vocalist could also be the DJ or keyboardist but maybe preferably not so they can interact with the crowd and get them dancing.) Perhaps if the DJ was also a percussionist it could be pretty awesome.

Now basically what the typical full service DJ does would be tighter than us, however once we got our act together we could be a more interesting show IMO. I haven't seen anyone try to pull this off which is why I think it would be interesting to try.

It would be a huge stretch of the imagination but if the keyboardist or DJ/percussionist also played some funk/rhythm guitar then we could pick up alot more older dance tunes. Throwbacks!

[WarriorJoe7]

I am going to start a post over misc eagrding my last post here (about putting together a cover band for new pop stuff) so you guys can look for that related thread. However I am still looking for names of artists and songs to cover in this thread.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f30/building-cover-band-latest-pop-stuff-rap-hip-hop-r-b-439461/#post5800407

[Spinal Tapper]

Play bluegrass and play it good! That'll get em moving!

[bradjonesbass]

Brickhouse always gets them on the floor... Not exactly modern though. Check out Jamiraqoi (spelling??) for some cool danceable music with some killer bass lines. Maroon 5 is okay too. Alot of the rap stuff can be arranged and played in a typical 4-piece too. Baby Got Back, Gettin' Jiggy With It, etc...