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Top 40...anyone playing it?

#121
Yep, we try to keep it fresh and my daughter regularly pushes for my bands to do something new. When we do the tunes though, we like to put our own angle on things so we never attempt to sound exactly like the originals.

We recently played a medley of Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter to small liquor bar crowd, and nearly every woman (and even some of the men) in the place was singing and dancing. We did it more as joke than anything (I sang the tunes... which I am definitely not a female vocalist), and it went over huge.
 
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#123
SDC1-ClickClack said:
I'm really not familiar with Ms. Eilish's music, but I watched that performance the other night with admiration and it almost gave me chills. One of the best musical numbers I have seen on Colbert's show in quite some time — but probably not a good song to cover for a crowd that wants to dance, have a boisterous good time, etc.
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It's not my favorite song of hers, but she continues to impress with her vocal ability and musical style. And don't forget her brother's massive contributions.
 
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#126
Regardless, here's the Nielsen data by genre, and the chart data from Spotify on most streamed songs. It's not rock, let alone classic rock.

Screenshot 2024-06-12 135144.png
Screenshot 2024-06-12 135202.png
 
#128
51PRI said:
Strange. I've never heard of Future or XXXTentacion.
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There are lots of current artists, some of whom seem to be quite successful/popular, whom I have never heard of. I accept this, as I am not part of the target demographic audience. Also, I usually do not like a lot of the new music being released when I do hear it. Most of it is simply not my cup of tea. Everyone is entitled to like and dislike whatever music they hear.
 
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#130
I do 2 80's gigs...one is a big yawn to the audience because their set mirrors so many others.
The other has quite a fresh look on the 80's and it works better as not many bands look to cover them.
The 80's has so many to pick from. I used to say I hated the 80's..because everyone played those songs; now with a bit of thought, this new set is way more enjoyable
 
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#131
pepj said:
I do 2 80's gigs...one is a big yawn to the audience because their set mirrors so many others.
The other has quite a fresh look on the 80's and it works better as not many bands look to cover them.
The 80's has so many to pick from. I used to say I hated the 80's..because everyone played those songs; now with a bit of thought, this new set is way more enjoyable
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Any chance of posting that 80's set list that works? People who were in their teen in the 80's are now in their 60's. Yikes!
mikopita said:
Yep, we try to keep it fresh and my daughter regularly pushes for my bands to do something new. When we do the tunes though, we like to put our own angle on things so we never attempt to sound exactly like the originals.

We recently played a medley of Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter to small liquor bar crowd, and nearly every woman (and even some of the men) in the place was singing and dancing. We did it more as joke than anything (I sang the tunes... which I am definitely not a female vocalist), and it went over huge.
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And THAT's what I like most about playing current dance songs...young girls dancing. The last band I was in played a lot of that stuff.
 
#132
51PRI said:
People who were in their teen in the 80's are now in their 60's. Yikes!
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I can assure you my grandkids are not in their early sixties. Yet right there on the playlist next to Olivia Rodriguez and Dua Lipa is Musical Youth and Lisa Lisa. Actually if you're looking for old songs that ain't too corny, you could do a lot worse than Stranger Things et al. Those shows are looking to evoke an era without the done-to-death oldies radio baggage.

Also cracks me up when people say they can't play modern music coz they don't have samplers and drum machines. Like saying you can't cover Stanley Clarke coz your bassist doesn't have an Alembic. Take the hooks and play them with what you got. Sounding exactly like the record is an open invitation for a DJ to steal your gig, anyway. They always have a bigger set list.
 
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#133
51PRI said:
Strange. I've never heard of Future or XXXTentacion.
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Tangent time. XXXTentacion died years ago. But when he was first getting big, I dismissed him and assumed he'll never get anywhere, because he went crowdsurfing at one of his shows, got punched and got his chain stolen. Didn't think anybody could recover from that level of disrespect.

And I covered Future's "March Madness"... well, a Rochelle Jordan remix of it, which she retitled "Have It". That was a long time ago.

These days I suppose I'm less concerned with popular stuff since I gave up DJing, but trying to convince a singer who wants to do dark country to throw in some modern pop that's got no chance of sniffing the top 40, for example Alex Argot's "Strawberry Girl".
 
#134
Altitude said:
It’s to play songs your clientele likes. I made this list to illustrate that if your clientele is people under 30 these are the songs they know and none of these are hip hop/DJ tracks, any of them could sound great by a talented cover band.
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But are the under 30's going to see live bands? Not around here. The DJ's rule for the younguns. Several venues I play have a band and a DJ at the same time, and those places are the only ones you see many people in their 20's and only until they go see the dj.
 
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#135
Altitude said:
100% agree. Popularity of music is extremely transient right now, so I think the strategy is to see what songs that are 3 to 5 years old appear to be holding up, and add that stuff into your set lists gradually.
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That is certainly true, and it's not just music the popularity of which is transient, it is pretty much every entertainment. This is why I generally prefer to look back at old records, movies, tv shows, books and even games, rather than focusing on what is "new". What is gold stays gold forever. I was in fact going to post a similar thought, although my strategic time window is more like 20 years!
 
#136
nonohmic said:
I tried to listen to this the other n
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crazyBassClown said:
But are the under 30's going to see live bands? Not around here. The DJ's rule for the younguns. Several venues I play have a band and a DJ at the same time, and those places are the only ones you see many people in their 20's and only until they go see the dj.
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It’s location. There’s a certain club where I play in Denver that’s in the part of town where all the 20s-30s people live these days, the place is full of them. I play with the same band at a suburban Fox&Hound type place, which is sort of a cougar bar, much older clientele.

I do think a lot of the neighborhood bars that have live music where you move aside tables to make room for the drum kit - those people are middle age and above.
 
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#138
crazyBassClown said:
But are the under 30's going to see live bands? Not around here. The DJ's rule for the younguns. Several venues I play have a band and a DJ at the same time, and those places are the only ones you see many people in their 20's and only until they go see the dj.
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I don't know where the under 30's are going. Most of our crowd, what we have, is in their 50's or 60's. There are a couple of places downtown where younger people hang out, though. One of them has bands, typically all original bands that play 2 or 3 band shows because they only have an hour of material. I'm not seeing a lof of DJ work here, either. There was a few years ago but not now. I don't think the younger set knows how to dance.
pklima said:
Tangent time. XXXTentacion died years ago. But when he was first getting big, I dismissed him and assumed he'll never get anywhere, because he went crowdsurfing at one of his shows, got punched and got his chain stolen. Didn't think anybody could recover from that level of disrespect.

And I covered Future's "March Madness"... well, a Rochelle Jordan remix of it, which she retitled "Have It". That was a long time ago.

These days I suppose I'm less concerned with popular stuff since I gave up DJing, but trying to convince a singer who wants to do dark country to throw in some modern pop that's got no chance of sniffing the top 40, for example Alex Argot's "Strawberry Girl".
Click to expand...
What is "dark country?"
 
#140
Yep, lounge and cruise piano queen... but she wants to get the rock chick going too and we run with sax too.
Its tuneful, groovy and different, imv.

That set kills outside because if you want to talk or listen, its not in your face..but has dance tracks after a bottle of wine or a few.
 
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