Love-hate songs at Ceroc and modern jive nights

When we dance there’s always favourite tracks we enjoy. Not every song is good to dance to, and not every track is enjoyable. We know how dance floors can be cleared when an unpopular song is played. And the more you dance the more songs you find you don’t enjoy. There’s some which so many people don’t like, those polarising songs that have been played so frequently at modern jive nights. 

There’s so much new music out there, it’s great to explore new music and new challenges. But music still needs to work for different types and levels of dancer.

One of the main things that makes a freestyle night good, and class nights suitable for the different lessons is the music.  A great DJ is probably hard to find, although most modern jivers who’ve been around for a while may have their favourites. We might hate certain songs, but they remain part of many DJ repertoires because they fill the dance floor.

Check out why music is so important for modern jive

The DJ job

DJs have a really hard job to do.  I was once asked if I wanted to learn and do some DJing, but I don’t think I’d have liked the pressure. Of wanting to get the right tracks that people enjoy, but can also dance to. 

And how to deal with the requests when you’ve already set up your playlist. Even worse, what do you do with all the awful tracks that get requested that you know will empty the dancefloor.

They also need to mix it up with different genres and speeds to cater for beginners and advanced dancers alike. Especially if it’s a freestyle with only one room. Although many switch to slower and more complex tracks towards the end of the night which fixes some of that problem. Other freestyles cater for more specific styles of music, for example with Silc and smooth jive becoming more popular.

Why are modern jive songs so polarising

I suspect many of the tracks that people hate (and on social media, hate is probably the right strength of word for some people’s feelings for some of the tracks in this post), are because they’ve been played over and over again. When you’ve been dancing a while, it can be a bit tedious. 

For many more advanced dancers they might also have moved more towards smooth/more blues style dancing, and prefer more complex tracks to dance to. The tracks that seem to be most polarising are those played in ‘main rooms’ at freestyles. They’re easier tracks to dance to, with an easier beat to follow and obvious breaks. As well as often being well known, so more approachable for dancing to for newer dancers.

I have my own songs that I didn’t really like when I was a beginner – Estelle’s American Boy being one – and would probably avoid dancing to today.. But I have to admit there are a few on the list of polarising songs that I do still like to dance too. I refer to them as my guilty pleasure songs that I still love to dance to, even years later. Others are definitely not ones I’d choose to dance to.

These tracks can be fun, everyone gets on the dancefloor and enjoys them. They’re generally easy for everyone to dance to. And I rarely hear them at my local freestyles, so I get less bored of them. Not forgetting that some may bring back memories of great dance moments.

Having a large break from the modern jive scene also helps reduce the derision towards some songs I may previously have not been keen on.  

I’m already imagining many of you sighing at hearing this list. But we all like different things, so I’m sure many of these will be love/hate for many dancers. Especially those who’ve been around for a while.

Love/hate tracks played at modern jive nights

• 40 years – Tone Damli
• Bad Things – Jace Everett
• Black and Gold – Sam Sparro
• Bleeding Love / Spotlight – Moto Blanco remix
• Bust your windows – Jazmine Sullivan
• Candy man – Christina Aguilera
• Chains – Tina Arena
• Crazy – Gnarls Barkley
• Dance with me tonight.- Olly Murs  
• Everyone of Us – Rick Astley
• Firework / California Girls / I Kissed a Girl – Katy Perry
• Get Lucky – Daft Punk
• Grenade – Bruno Mars 
• Guitar on Fire – Alex Fox (the song everyone stamps to).
• Happy – Pharrell Williams
• Human – The Killers
• I See you Baby (Shake That Ass) – Groove Armada
• In the Air Tonight – Naturally 7
• Just Dance – Lady Gaga
• Lady Soul – The Temptations
• Let Me Go – Hailee Steinfeld, Alesso ft FLorida Georgia Line
• Let’s get Loud – Jennifer Lopez
• Livin’ La Vida Loca -Ricky Martin 
• Mambo no 5 – Lou Bega
• Mercy.- Duffy
• Misirlou – Dick Dale (also known as Pulp Fiction tune)
• Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera
• Music – Leela James
• Night Air – Jamie Woon (this was a new one to me, but popped up when asking others)
• No Speak Americano – Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP
• Now I can dance – Tina Arena
• Pump It – The Black Eyed Peas (just too fast!)
• Save the Last Dance for Me  – Michael Buble (but there are many other by him that people don’t like)
• Shaggin’ the night away – Chairmen of the Board (I’ve never heard this at a ceroc or modern jive night, thankfully)
• Somebody that I Used to Know – Gotye ft Kimbra
• Tennessee – Bob Sinclar
• The Bongo Song – Safri Duo
• This will be (an everlasting love) – Natalie Cole
• Umbrella – Rhianna
• Uprising – Muse
• Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars 
• Waka Waka by Shakira
• Wicked Game – Chris Isaak

Are any of these your favourites (or most hated songs) you hear at modern jive nights? What other tracks would you add to the list?