What Makes People Dance?

Familiar simple music is the answer. It's actually quite fun to dance to. It's crap, but it has its place (certainly not in my home or earphones). Watmm type artists usually made me listen and think the first time I heard their songs, not get up and dance mindlessly. I'd prefer to be familiar with the songs before I danced to them, or have them so simplistic that after 4 seconds I'd know what to expect.

I dance to what ever the fuck I want to any time any where no fucks given will dance to shoenberg will dance to 777 will dance to am static idgaf

  On 10/28/2013 at 3:21 AM, poblequadrat said:

There's this CJ Bolland mix on youtube which is relatively forward-thinking. It's kind of fast at times and it even features Audax Powder. If you think your audience wouldn't dance even to a very good mix like that one then why worry? Dancefloors are just excuses for doing drugs and one night stands anyway, so if nobody danced it could actually mean they cared about the music...

Yeah, dancing (physically supporting) taking drugs and having one night stands with people who have the same great taste in music sounds terrible.

People usually dance because they're afraid of being judged by other people in the crowd, who might rush home after the show to moan about them not dancing at the show on an IDM messageboard.

Also, play some more Avicii.

The feeling of being in a judgemental-free zone, where you can shake that booty all night long without the feeling that anyone is looking at you and going .. well, thinking whatever insecurities you have bestowed on yourself. It's the feeling of no inhibition, a positive attitude, realizing that dancing is a wonderful and the best way to release yourself. To surrender yourself to the groove and realize that you, in fact, can dance.

Drugs and alcohol, naturally, make it easier for people to shake it. I wish it wouldn't, but it's a logical response since people are so inhibited and insecure!

As to your personal experience: I guess you just got unlucky with your timeslot. Still, people really enjoyed your music, so that's good :-)

it´s always hard to get people dancing when your the first one playing that night I guess. Even if people come to see a certain artist, they don´t dance, I´ve seen that happen a couple of times for this genre, that only 10% of the people would actually move to the music. Like at all. Do you remember when we went to see AE in Cologne?most people behind us just watched afaik, despite the place being full. Then again AE aren´t really the crowd pleasers... Mouse on Mars on the other hand played for two full hours in Mannheim for 20, maybe 30 people. The venue was literally empty, but they still managed to gather everyone in front of the stage. (They called them out on it lol)

The kind of city where you play in also makes a difference I think. I´ve seen Squarepusher during his JAS tour play in Heidelberg and besides this one guy who was rocking out from above the pit, nobody really did anything. Another time in Paris people went nuts. Some crowds are just more open to different music than elsewhere.. the first concert I went to in Berlin was with Clark and Jimmy Edgar, most people came for JE, but the dancefloor was filled with people rocking out to Clark blasting Aphex, Sp, Ceephax etc.. Same thing happened with Siriusmo who was playing first at a Modeselektornight (but then again that was at Berghain)

UK is also totally different, a lot of artist come from there, they get to play at bigger venues and people just know them lol. I´ve had the pleasure to see Plaid, Clark and Tim Exile one night in London and it was fundamentally different from every other concert experience I´ve had before. Same goes for another time in Manchester with Aphex, Vibert and Wisp. There are people who will dance weirder than yourself lol

Verdict: Every city has a different music scene and crowd, some will only dance to what they came for, some will dance to everything.

you should have put on the conga. everyone always dances to that, it's the law.

or maybe agadoo

isn't it also down to how you play it? if you do a set with a good mix of weird stuff and the good instantly gratifying stuff you can get people moving.

a track like this i think sits nicely between weird and danceable

http://youtu.be/zHWqQGo-OJ8?t=6m30s

edit:

when i saw ed dmx dj'ing he played don't you want me and i love that song but when it comes to clubs i assosiate it with indie nights and the dj plays it after the libertines but in his set of disco, 80s synth pop and 90's rave/ghetto shit it made perfect sense and i went nuts.

  On 10/28/2013 at 1:36 AM, caIx said:

Grooves

Syncopation in general does wonders. I could be in the most un-dancey mood in traffic and still feel compelled to dance around in the car when hearing classic p-funk or house. It's all about swing and rhythm sometimes. Anything with very intricate and well-layered percussion can do it as well. Even more experimental jazz. I suppose footwork and dnb are also so popular partly because you can "find" different tempos dance to.

It's actually quite amazing to think how drum machines were programmed in a manner that made grooves and swing long before the advantages of software options to do so.

http://youtu.be/fAeXmWIUX_Y

It's hard to describe, but basically anything that sounds like everything is "falling in place" especially when a slower BPM

Also, 125-135 BPM seems pretty reliable, especially for 4/4 based tracks. But I admit, so many dance hits just don't have that magic, though there are exceptions:

http://youtu.be/TUC2b-OSZ00

  On 10/28/2013 at 1:48 AM, Deer said:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w6t08EXWDc

This is great!

  On 10/28/2013 at 8:20 AM, MastaN8 said:

 

  On 10/28/2013 at 3:21 AM, poblequadrat said:

There's this CJ Bolland mix on youtube which is relatively forward-thinking. It's kind of fast at times and it even features Audax Powder. If you think your audience wouldn't dance even to a very good mix like that one then why worry? Dancefloors are just excuses for doing drugs and one night stands anyway, so if nobody danced it could actually mean they cared about the music...

Yeah, dancing (physically supporting) taking drugs and having one night stands with people who have the same great taste in music sounds terrible.

 

LOL

Riddimz innit

  On 10/28/2013 at 6:27 PM, chassis said:

Riddimz innit

 

one of the first times i went to a club (and i was underage!) that played club music (as opposed to indie & punk nights which i spent many nights in because its where my friends wanted to go) they played rhythm is the dancer just as i walked in and it was glorious.

head boppin' n' booty shakin' beats

  On 10/28/2013 at 1:15 AM, Terpentintollwut said:

Hence this thread - I really wonder, WHAT gets people dancing? Is the majority of people really this unimaginative, craving dull, uninspired, 12 minute tracks with zero variation, wanting to stay at 120 BPM for four hours straight? Should I be proud these people are NOT dancing to my stuff? I want them to have a good time, but if that would equal me playing the same track for an entire night, I'm not sure I want to be a part of it!

There's no way to dance to IDM. If anything, it's just white kids wilding out. It's not groove music; It's too rigid. Even Autechre at their most rhythmic isn't really dance floor material in my opinion; Second Scout would be the only track of theirs I might play at a club, party, whatever. Drugs help, though it does help if whatever you're playing has some drive. Holy Other is great, but his stuff is pretty slow and not exactly "bangin'". It also depends on what kind of crowd you're catering too. That being said, there is danceable electronic stuff that isn't dull or shitty. Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRvcsdx-Sac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3nTYUNyfw

Answer 1: Alcohol.

Answer 2: Different things.

  On 10/29/2013 at 11:41 AM, funkaholic said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3nTYUNyfw

chune

also b15 project