Depends on the party, doesn't it? You have to have at least twenty or thirty people before people will dance to techno, but five people, or even two people, will lose all inhibition as soon as James Brown orders them to.
Anybody else hear that NPR story last night, where the guy dreamt Bach was dancing to the Chacon with him? Plausibly claimed all music had a dance to it.
3: Fine. I don't dance beyond obligatory wedding dances (fat white guys flailing arrhytnically give me the hives, why inflict it on anyone else), so I'm not really an expert.
What kind of dance? "Down home girl" by Old Crow Medicine Show lends itself to a certain kind of dancing.
Ghostface, just about anything off of "Fishscales" or "More Fish." Just about anything involving Swizz Beats, who can make even crappy pop sub-divas like JoJo sound good. Lupe Fiasco. Clipse. K-Os. Simian Mobile Disco. Black Devil Disco Club. Ratatat. Velella Velella.
Ah, I see the helpful-suggestion-to-comment ratio approaches zero. So typical.
Amen to the James Brown.
Bhangra & Filmi music if that's your thing.
My roommate almost continuously pumps dancy Cuban big band music through the house, so we are sort of continuously dancing around just a bit (like no one just walks across the living room. you gotta do a step out or twirl or something), and it's pretty catchy even for non dancers who drop by.
Kids music is very catchy. You can make me hop around a lot if you have a Sesame street album.
Oh my goodness, I do love me some bhangra. Any recommendations, Saheli?
10: But you haven't given us any relevant information. Is this for the 30-plus set? The youngsters? Will there be lots of drinking? Will people need to worry about not seeming goofy to colleagues?
Just play "Safety Dance" over and over again.
11: Bhangra & Filmi music if that's your thing.
Totally true.
There's a certain set of 80s club music that's an almost guarantee for a certain set of over 25-year-old white people: Blondie, some Duran Duran, early Cure...
Fine! If you don't want dancing to banjos and tater-bugs at your party, I'll just be quiet then.
1. Human League, "Don't You Want Me"
2. David Bowie, "Under Pressure"
3. Xtina vs Strokes, "A Stroke of Genius"
4. The Faint, "I Disappear"
5. Peaches, "Set It Off"
6. Stevie Wonder, "Superstition"
7. Playgroup ft. Louie Austen, "Make It Happen, Grab My Shaft (Manilla)"
8. Blondie, "Heart of Glass"
9. LCD Soundsystem, "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"
10. Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams"
You're dancing just reading it. Fuckers're all mine.
I endorse everything in 9. Holla, J Dilla.
Sorry, I left out the part where I explain that 18 is ten randomly selected songs from my dance playlist.
Egg - Contrasong
Motor Totemist Guild - Dance of the Awkward
Tipographica - God Says I Can't Dance
Turing Machine - Rock. Paper. Rock. (actually serious suggestion)
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - particularly "Stool Pigeon".
Fair enough: mostly white people, 25-40 (of those who might dance), a little self-conscious before drinking, more relaxed after drinking; there will be good booze.
Armsmasher's list is pretty awesome. I love the Human League.
Next time we have a big wild party, we must have ogged there, and we must ridicule his response to dancing, whatever that response is.
The Faint, "Let The Poison Spill From Your Throat" (this is the only actually danceable Faint song I have encountered on 3 of their albums)
Sadly, no, Jackmormon---I'm not a very good connosieur these days at all, and I frequently don't remember names. DJ Jiten and B21 is all that comes to mind. I'll try to remember when I go home.
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"
Aw shit, Armsmasher, now you got that stuck in my head. Argh.
You might also consider Fred Frith's album of dance music, Gravity, and Richard Thompson's Strict Tempo!, containing such classics as "The New-Fangled Flogging Reel" and "The Knife-Edge" (which is actually an RT original, is great, and was cannibalized for the main theme to the Grizzly Man soundtrack, which is how I recognized that it was the work of RT).
25-40 year-old white people will not be able to resist "Tainted Love."
Sunn 0))) - "My Wall"
Fuck yeah! Who could resist "For I am Death so Ragnarock with me"?
The first and third tracks of the Aki Peltonen album I played on the accordion show are pretty dancy.
I seem to distinctly recall 18.6 and 18.8 being rather dance-making at UnfoggeDCon.
Velvet Underground, White Light White Heat.
Seriously, I was at a party once which was going nowhere until someone walked in the door with some Motown tapes. Same idea as James Brown pretty much, it's not contemporary and fits in lots of niches.
I'm ashamed to have missed Peaches and LCD Soundsystem. The Faint are pretty awesome, too.
Oh, and Le Tigre. Though I think it's now officially un-hip to like Le Tigre.
There are certain Arabic dance tunes to which I can't help shaking my ass, Amr Diab's "Nour El Ain" the most notable among them.
24: I have extensive empirical evidence that much of that demographic will hit a point around 1-2am, if the party lasts, where what they really want is Journey. Or maybe `Rocket Man'. I offer this as pure observation.
As corny as it is, at some point many parties seem to require "I will survive" in order to ... uh ... stay alive.
I am very reluctant to admit that another song that consistently has me dancing around my apartment is "Still Not a Player." I saw Big Pun once in SFO! I didn't know who he was at the time, though.
... and Bonobo. If the party involves lots of well-dressed people drinking martinis in a spacious room.
Speaking of the 80s ... New Order. Also, from a quick run through iTunes ...
Harry Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire"
Joy Division
My Bloody Valentine's "Soon"
Sly and the Family Stone
Parliament
early Who
Wir Sind Helden (warning: must allow German lyrics)
All Girl Summer Fun Band
Le Tigre
Pulp's "Common People"
Blondie
The Smiths, "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
The Chemical Brothers
Rancid, "Ruby Soho"
The Jackson 5
Wilson Pickett
Phoenix's "If I Ever Feel Better" or "Too Young"
The Pogues' "Tuesday Morning"
Rocketship's "I Love You Like the Way That I Used To"
The Rolling Stones' "Get Off My Cloud"
The Shout Out Louds, "Please Please Please"
Stevie Wonder, "Superstition"
Sublime, "Caress Me Down"
Tricky, "Black Steel"
The Beatles, "Twist and Shout" (White people, right? This is a guaranteed success.)
Outkast (again, white people)
I think the main requirement is low enough lighting that people can convince themselves that no one can actually see what they look like dancing. I'm pretty much with Chopper on this one -- I like dancing, but considering that my main dance move is the arhythmic flail I try and conceal the sight from other people.
The Jackson 5
Oh yes. And also: Thriller and Beat It and Billie Jean. Especially Billie Jean.
After the white folk are sufficiently loosened up you can move on to some Fela.
Agreed with JM on the Michael Jackson. I have also had recent luck with "Don't stop 'til you get enough" and "Rock with you".
Le Tigre
Part of the best mashup EVAR.
Actually, on further listening, I think "Rock With You"'s danceability is just particular to me, and is probably not suitable for a large-scale dancing experiment, in which I would predict its failure.
47: I've seen "Rock With You" work at dance parties.
44 definitely. Femi is also good.
44.--Wow! I've never had the opportunity to dance to that, but I'd like to.
Tainted Love made me think of The Cure's Lovecats (which then came out in my head to the tune of Love Shack so maybe that's some kind of message).
The Kaiser Chiefs make me dance, as does Ian Dury.
Somewhat aside: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings put on an incredibly dance-able live show, all over the place in little dives and clubs for little money. Catch it if you can (or buy an album for your dance parties). I'd worry about anyone who can't dance to that sort of funk/soul.
On similar lines to OutKast, what you really need for making all people dance, regardless of color or creed:
Ol' Dirty Bastard - "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"
Plus, you get the glorious moment where everyone yells out "Psycho killlllllaaaaaa.... Norman Bates!"
40: Jhupp and I apparently have exactly the same taste in music. Also:
Juvenile - Back that Ass Up
Ice Cube - You Can Do It
Prince - Baby I'm A Star, Kiss, Alphabet Street
Salt N Pepa - Push It
Kid N Play - Gettin Funky
Bobby Brown - Every Little Step
Bell Biv Devoe - Poison
Is it wrong that I think that "Fergalicious" is more catchy and danceable even than "Give It All You Got"?
Yes, though it's ok to like the original.
Grateful Dead, especially stuff from the 72 and 73 tours.
leblanc's right about "Rock with You." That whole album is (IIRC) great, as well as dance-tastic.
That whole album is (IIRC) great, as well as dance-tastic.
You too?
55: I am in 100% agreement, but I figured that the Dead open up a whole new can of worms for this. There's a great show-closing rendition of Sunshine Daydream (the "Sugar Magnolia" reprise) from 7-16-90 in Buffalo that is fantastic for this. It's not the best Dead ever, but it's eminently danceable. Also, basically any recording ever of "Franklin's Tower," "Dancin' in the Streets," "One More Saturday Night," "Good Lovin'," "Turn on Your Lovelight," or "Touch of Grey" is good.
Me too, what? Like the pre-pedophilic Jackson? Sure.
The Dead suck. The Dead are to dancing what the dead are to dancing.
61: the aforementioned can of worms is officially opened.
There are certain Arabic dance tunes to which I can't help shaking my ass, Amr Diab's "Nour El Ain" the most notable among them.
There's a tremendously awesome and danceable and inauthentic live version of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Kinna Sohna" that I recommend highly. I'm pretty sure it's the one on this album.
Not this version which manages to be so inauthentic that it is no longer danceable.
Also of course there's Gogol Bordello. "Gypsy Part of Town" is perfetc.
Finally, if you actually think people will dance to Human League songs (maybe "Fascination", but not "Don't You Want Me" or "Louise" or "The Lebanon"), definitely also include Yaz's "Situation" and a few songs from the first ABC album ("Poison Arrow", "The Look of Love", "Date Stamp").
Juvenile - Back that Ass Up
If we're getting into that sort of thing, I recommend "Shake Ya Tail Feather" by Nelly, Murphy Lee and Piff Diddy. It's one of only two rap songs I know that mentions Voltron.
60: Love, love, love it. Opportunities have been v. rare of late, so maybe it's loved, loved, loved it. But it's fun, and, unless you're in fairly specific milieu, you look like no more of an ass than most people. And, in the best cases, looking like an ass and not caring is part of the fun.
I just looked up the "Rock With You" video. Seeing Michael Jackson young and happy and black makes me want to cry.
58:I was trying to be funny, in a self-mocking kind of way. Don't dance, never did, my idea of a good time in my youth necessarily included chemically-induced paralysis and immobility.
We listened to our music in concert halls. A lost generation.
58: Jhupp's tastes have now diverged from my own.
Rancid, "Ruby Soho"
The Rolling Stones' "Get Off My Cloud"
These songs aren't danceable, they are singalongable. Also, nobody should listen to Peaches for any reason at all, and dancing is one of the least justifiable reasons when there is plenty of hip-hop music made by people who aren't humorless, sarcastic and rhythmless.
Oddly, I think the only song guaranteed to get people onto the dance floor is "baby got back" by Sir Mix-a-lot. And someone explain to me how that got to be a pseudo-feminist anthem?
And I'd agree that "Push it" is like dance-floor catnip.
Bhangra is usually a winner, especially the really hybriddy stuff like Punjabi MC.
Stuff no one's mentioned: Ozomatli, Amon Tobin's Supermodified album. For the 30-something white kids, Sisters of Mercy (also Peek-a-boo, by Siouxsie).
looking like an ass and not caring is part of the fun
I believe this is what they call "crazy moonman language."
And yet walking around with a goggle tan bothers you not at all.
Was (Not Was), "Walk the Dinosaur."
Boom, boom, shakalakalaka boom.
I believe this is what they call "crazy moonman language."
No, that sounds like this:
"Anywho, I was reading my big swimming textbook the other day"
I was hoping that you, slol, would be on my side here.
69: on further review, you were right about "Ruby Soho." I can't even say what I was thinking. But you're wrong about "Get Off My Cloud." However, I appreciate your thorough and accurate takedown of Peaches.
Ah, well. I confess I have my moments. They don't even usually require booze.
It was all lies!
M/lls? M/lls doesn't dance, does he?
I was hoping that you, slol, would be on my side here.
You know, I had typed this: "I don't see the point in dancing with abandon unless you're trying to pick someone up, or amuse children. Both of which are entirely worthy causes."
But the truth is, sometimes you just gotta move.
Although I totally disagree with a lot of you about what constitutes danceable music. This is like that Chapelle skit.
I second Amon Tobin's Supermodified. In fact, I'm listening to it now. (Not dancing though. Studying French!)
Yeah, it's actually one of the few Chappelle skits I really like. Mostly, I don't have the patience for them.
Put me down in the "doesn't dance, doesn't generally listen to dance music" category.
OTOH, perhaps my not dancing makes me unable to recognize dance music. I would not have thought of Human League as dance music.
41: Make my funk the P-Funk
Thank goodness for 41. I was starting to worry about you people.
Also, London Calling turns out to be extremely danceable.
M/lls? M/lls doesn't dance, does he?
Oh, he will.
And so the conversation turned
until the sun went down
and many fantasies were learned
on that day
Keep feeling fascination
passion burning love so strong
keep feeeling fascination
looking learning moving on
Yes. Yes indeed.
Oh lord. One thing you don't need to do with dance music is quote lyrics.
Remind me to tell you about that time I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, slol. When I met ogged.
You were nothing before I met you, Labs. And I can put you back there too.
Yer killin' me. Stop before I start quoting Asia lyrics at you.
Slol is liable to do pretty crazy stuff in the heat of the moment.
Now, if ever there was an ur-white-guy stupid-dancin' electric guitar riff, that's the one.
Tho while we're at it I feel compelled to quote the topical Human League's trenchant political analysis:
Before he leaves the camp he stops
He scans the world outside
And where there used to be some shops
Is where the snipers sometimes hide
He left his home the week before
He thought hed be like the police
But now he finds he is at war
Werent we supposed to keep the peace
And who will have won
When the soldiers have gone
From the lebanon
I need city lights
Defence and weaponry
No way of knowing
My life expectancy
I learn resistance
Like I learn to see
A living witness
A lonely refugee I'm a war child
I'm a war baby
And that's the difference
Between you and me
I'm a war child
Especially Billie Jean.
I was once at an afternoon wedding in Scandinavia when one of my companions got quite drunk and, around 10 pm, decided he wanted to dance to Billie Jean. Whatever we had instead of a DJ could not obllige. Every 20 mintues or so, he would insist, "Where' the Billie Jean!" At about 3 am we finally left the wedding, and he shook hands with the groom's dignified father for about 10 minutes begging him to come with us "To Find the Billie Jean. Find the Smooth. Criminal. We must find the Billie Jean. We must dance to Billie Jean!" The father of the groom did not accompany us, but we then crawled to about three clubs before finally managing to get to one where we could get the DJ's ear, and at about 6 am we got a DJ to play us "the Billie Jean."
We fucking tore that dance floor down.
Those 80's jackets for women, that make them look like linebackers, creep me out, though.
Smooth Criminal is an under-appreciated song. And a great nickname.
I am *so* not going to read this whole thread, but my recommendations are funk and latin. Anyone whose ass doesn't get shaking to a good latin beat is dead to the world.
I think the only song guaranteed to get people onto the dance floor is "baby got back" by Sir Mix-a-lot. And someone explain to me how that got to be a pseudo-feminist anthem?
Because it celebrates the big fat ass.
fujiya & miyagi - collarbone or photocopier
Vandermark 5 - Knock Yourself Out.
There is a skronky middle bit, but feitctaj.
One wonders what Labs means by "actual dance music". Waltzes?
I made a cd for my neighbor's party because she said there would be dancing. There was no dancing.
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Sexyback- Justin Timberlake
Slippery People- The Staple Singers
I heard it through the grapevine-The Slits
The Party's Crashing Us- Of Montreal
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House-LCD Soundsystem
1 Thing - Amerie
Express yourself-Leroy sibbles
Rock the casbah-The clash
Hey Ya -- Outkast
Ring Of Fire- Tom Jones
Holy Ghost (12" Extended Mix)- The Bar-Kays
Genius of Love- Tom Tom Club
I Want Candy- Bow Wow Wow
(Every Time I Turn Around) Back In Love Again -L.T.D.
Deceptacon (DFA Remix) Le Tigre
I think "actual dance music" is house music and stuff.
Listening to it again, I am moved to remark on the awesomeness of Turing Machine's "Rock. Paper. Rock.".
M/lls? M/lls doesn't dance, does he?
Oh, he will.
Don't you threaten me, Sir Kraab!
And that Chappelle skit is one of the best Chappelle things ever. You should definitely watch it, BPhD.
Just to be clear, I recommend it to B because of its great take on latin music.
Make my funk the P-Funk
Hallelujah. Also, my observations tell me that no honky can resist the seductive allure of The Humpty Dance.
Satan Said Dance by CYHSY
The hell is wrong with you people?
113 comments and no one's mentioned the Beastie Boys yet?
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - "Stool Pigeon"
-the most danceable song I've ever heard
114: The Beastie Boys songs all sound like THIS.
You sing a fuckin' line and you rhyme some SHIT.
I rather agree, Stanley. If people are still dancing to the B-Boys after two or three minutes, somebody is about to break something.
Hava Na'Gila always gets em up on the dance floor.
I have an unrelated question for ttaM or any other speaker of Croatian who is present:
By now she had heard enough through the walls to know that when one is having an orgasm in Croatian, the thing to scream is "Svr šavam!" though she didn't always remember to, memory having been, in the event, often disengaged.
Pronunciation? Meaning?
(The drinking was an excellent time. I decided not to be away from Unfogged all the time, just most of it.
I don't think ttaM speaks Croatian. dagger aleph would be your best bet, but I believe she's hiatusing.
His wife does, at least. I think he's said that his own Czech proficiency is minimal.
Oh rats. Got my Balkan ethnicities confused again.
(The Dagger Aleph told me, at the meetup, that she did not know what it meant and did not want to ask her Croatian granny about such a thing.)
Following up on M.Leblanc's 34, Rachid Taha's "Ya Rayah" from the first Divan album is insanely danceable.
re: 123
Yeah, I 'speak' really shitty Czech. I can understand a lot more than I can actively use. My grammar is non-existent but my pronunciation and core vocab is better.
Hava Na'Gila always gets em up on the dance floor.
See David Krakauer, "Living with the H Tune".
By now she had heard enough through the walls to know that when one is having an orgasm in Croatian, the thing to scream is "Svr šavam!" though she didn't always remember to, memory having been, in the event, often disengaged.
LanguageHat informs me that this is a typo: it should be svršavam, the first
singular present of svršavati, "to finish". So: "I'm finishing!" is what to yell out as you come in Trieste.
(If you want to pretend to be Croatian in that Italian/Slovenian city.)