Have any of you ever played something that is nothing like the genre that you've been playing & retained the dancefloor?

For example on a night playing Charty pop, noticing that the more guitar based tracks are getting them going & changing to a more rock/punky feel via Blondie - One way or another. Or using Hey Ya! or Crazy in love to go from modern pop to soul or Vice versa

Just 2 examples that I've used that spring to mind, Prodigy are always handy to change dance to rock etc

What tracks do you use to change genre? or do you favour the Quick change method? either with or without anouncement between.

Too many to mention cos i do it all the time , every gig just about.

Same here really, always trying different things to see if they work

This is a section of my playlist from last night.

22:43:37 Jamelia Superstar
22:47:02 Christina Aguilera Etc. Lady Marmalade
22:50:44 Diana Ross Upside Down
22:53:55 Survivor Eye Of The Tiger
22:57:34 Take That Relight My Fire

Apart from Take That, it was all beatmixed.. by using PCDJ and searching by BPM range i found tracks that would go together.. dance floor stayed steady until survivor when a couple left but then a guy asked for take that so i thought "why not?"

I think that because I chat to the crowd, I tend to bridge changes by what I say.

As with most of the others, it just happens. However, I do have my brain programmed for one genre changeover....I play a rock'n'roll set, building up to the crescendo that is Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire. As it ends I kick in with either some reggae or I start the slowy's.

The reggae is a bit hit and miss about keeping the dancers on the floor but the slowies often do.

I have found that some people (actaully, an awful lot of people) will only dance to one type of music - namely, R'n'B. The Hip Hop crowd are quite keen on getting up to their stuff, but at least they will stay on the floor for some of the other stuff; 80's audiences are always up for cheese; Motown crowds also tend to dance to anything and everything too.

But play some R'n'B and 'they' dance. Change it and 'they' sit down until you play some more. Actually, at a recent gig I had two girls who would only dance to Beyonce - I played them a track, moved on, they came straight over and asked for another. They sat down.

So BigBen geos for the chop & change method, question answered. The rest of you didn't say what you do or if you have some good transition songs, so as to go from one genre to another seamlessly. (& by seamless I mean by not breaking up the flow, not beat mixing)

One I use to change from doing 70's to Indie is John Kongas - Step On You Again and Happy Mondays - Step On, it can be seamlessly matched mid track.

Another one is using Queen' We Will Rock You it can be used after virtually any track, it gets the crowds attention quickly. I use it mainly to change to a rock'n'roll set, using Cliff Richard's Move It as the first track in.

There probably are "bridging" tracks for going from any genre/era to any other genre/era, but I guess we'll never find them all (at least not the ones that the majority of people will carry on dancing to).

I tend to beat mix from one to the other if possible, sometimes a track from one genre will thin the floor (usually a request), giving you an opportunity to change genres with minimum negative impact.

I found a good link track inadvertently last weekend; I was at one of my regular gigs, where, depending on the night there can be a few Hardcore Dance followers. If theres enough of them in I normally put something together for them.

Anyway last week it was coming near the end of the night, and I was doing such a set, I’d just announced that I do a couple of slow ones before we finish, at the time I was playing Vincent Parker’s – Hello. This samples Lionel Ritchie’s Hello in the middle and it is a pretty long break. Suddenly this couple slide into the middle of the floor arms around each other and started dancing obviously thinking, I’d changed to the slow stuff. It was quite amusing when the beat kicked back in again, though give them their due they didn’t run straight off they gave it a go.

When i was training, i was always told about the 4 song rule, Change where you are every four songs to keep it different, even though i use this with flexablity, it is a good rule of thumb.

If something is working very well stay there but over four songs, start think about a change.

Works for me, but needs more mic work or some very strange mixing!

I usually find tracks with a big build up or distinct build ups at the beginning do this well. e.g.
Gloria Gaynor - I will survive
Black Eyed Peas - Hey Mama
Lulu - Shout

Other than that I havve never really though about it when I do it.

Suppose you do get a feel for it. I was just wondering if anyone had any particular proven tracks