The Chicken Dance
Normally, I wouldn’t call out my fellow A.V. Club members in such a public forum, but after attending two weddings in two straight weeks, I believe that our staff writers must get busy on a definitive Wedding Music mixlist, sooner rather than later. Why? Because “Y.M.C.A.,” “The Chicken Dance,” “The Electric Slide,” and scratched-up medleys from Grease are currently being played in reception halls across the country, and the limb-flailing carnage must stop before DJs start sticking their heads in ovens.
Or must it? If you’re not content to just leave everything to a DJ’s discretion, deciding on what to play at your wedding can be tricky business, because you have to balance your own taste with the much more generalized taste of guests from several different generations. Is it selfish to deny your guests certain wedding-song standards that you find overplayed (or just plain bad) when it brings them joy? Based on last weekend’s experience, many people love flapping their arms to “The Chicken Dance” or spelling out “Y.M.C.A.” (On the Village People, Keith Phipps mused, “I’ve always wondered why a song about cruising for gay sex would be so popular at weddings.) What kind of hipster jerk would risk clearing the dance floor by jamming their own idiosyncratic selections down people’s throats? On the other hand, it’s your wedding. You’ve gone to excruciating lengths to pick the right invitation, flower arrangements, appetizers, cake designs, seating arrangements, etc.: Why not the music, too?
In planning my own wedding, which took place a few months ago (congratulations to me, et al.), I was put in charge of the DJ and had to face these issues head on. And concerns from the older generation were voiced immediately and strongly: Based on my mother’s worried tone, the line-up would consist entirely of death metal. Granted, I did have an impulse to introduce Unrest’s “Make-Out Club” as the infectious dance hit it never was or inspire a junior-high-style slow dance to Yo La Tengo’s tender “Autumn Sweater.” These songs and other were ultimately scrapped, but I found there was a happy compromise to be struck that could please everyone without…well…sucking. (And by sucking, please refer to the wedding iMixes on the iTunes Music Store: Josh Groban, “Endless Love,” Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be In My Heart” from the Tarzan soundtrack, and other horrors await.)
Here are few tips: