I was a little nervous going into this school dance, knowing that there were going to be 600+ students at this dance, and Superior HS has a bit of a reputation for being a rough crowd. Several songs into the dance, I played a request from some of the girls on the student council (Swing the Mood, a big-band/swing song) and a bunch of kids gave me grief for the song choice, even though half the room was having a grand old time swing dancing away. This small group sat down, and soon over half of the room was sitting in a sign of protest. I killed the music, and got on the microphone and said “What?! I’m playing a song that YOU GUYS requested! Stop requesting CRAP then!” and immediately came in HARD into Gangnam Style.
After that, the small group of kids towards the front that started the sit-in were giving me thumbs up, and telling me how awesome I was for playing “good stuff” for them.
The school was a bit nervous about making sure there wasn’t any bump-n-grind going on, so I kept it to a good “clean clubbing” mix. Building that relationship with the crowd is always tenuous, but once I broke the ice and the kids saw I was actually playing their requests, it was a great night. The faculty coordinator came up to me afterwards and thanked me for such a successful dance.
