HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE SONG LIST

For everything from movies to circus acts, music really sets the mood. However, mixing up the moods you want to help create can do wonders for the overall feel of your event, in the end.

One of the first questions I ask brides and grooms before planning a play list is, “what kind of atmosphere are you trying to set during this time in the reception?”

It is really important to set lots of different atmospheres and manipulate many different emotions at a wedding, if you really want it to stand out and feel special. You don’t really want to stay in one “mood” for any extended periods of time. Therefore, no segment of a wedding should be all fast, all slow, or even all serious for a long time.  To make your wedding feel like one of the best ever, it’s all about mixing it up.

“If you really want to keep your wedding guests fully  engaged and make a long-lasting impression, you have to appeal to all their senses, and all of their emotions.”

Before we talk about planing the best wedding playlist, let’s look at another form of entertainment that focuses on mixing up emotions; the film world.

When you go to Regal Cinema in The Crossgates Mall in Guilderland , NY and sit down with your over-priced soda & your garbage can full of butter and popcorn, isn’t the whole point of making a trip to the movie theater to be emotionally manipulated? The whole point of going to the movies is to have someone tell you a story that makes you laugh or cry, and perhaps, an experience that you will remember for years to come?

Walt Disney once said, ” … for every laugh, there should be a tear.” Mickey Mouse’s always wanted fans on an emotional roller coaster ride whenever they went to the movies.

Walt Disney always made sure that his films had scenes that deliberately went out their way to make the audience cry; The death of Bambi’s mother… Snow White’s funeral scene… Pinocchio appearing to have died… Cinderella having her dress destroyed and losing all hope of going to the Ball….

Even the old time southern Baptist tent meeting ministers realized that chopping up the emotions was the way to go. By offering quick “mood jumps” from fast hymns into slower tear-jerking testimonials, it was always clear that people felt they were really attending something special, after looking at the offering plates at the end of the night.

In today’s high impact, fast moving, MTV-style-edited, attention-deficit disordered world, you have to constantly change things up to keep your audience. This is even more so when your audience is a vastly-varied demographic like wedding guests tend to be.

For my weddings in the Albany, Troy, Schenectady, NY area, I try and follow this same psychology to create the same results.  I want the people attending the wedding to feel like they are experiencing something special. Therefore, coming out of a coctail hour with an acoustic blend including lounge, jazz, soft rock, country and reggae, I like to bump into a high-energy introduction, then drop it right back down into a touching classy ballad first dance. Immediately after that, I recommend playing something lighter or nostalgic before the toast, then transition over to a fun party mix for dinner with one-hit wonders, throwbacks, sing-alongs and good tunes that are tougher to dance to while people eat. After dinner, I introduce the dance segment with a mix of todays hits and all your favorite classics.

When putting together your wedding music playlist, or any party for that matter, keep mood-mixing in mind. Chopping up the desired atmospheres with an emotional roller coaster playlist is a great way to really touch all of the bases. Mixing up everything in the end will really make your night feel special and memorable.