I have never been to a wedding where You Shook Me Up All Night Long was played.
I think would be rather angry if a DJ tried doing that stuff at my wedding. It seems rather tacky.*
*Yes I realize that this is a value-judgment.
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Well, two different planets, really (NY & SF).
Out in the wilds of Sheboygan, WI, AC/DC is still considered a staple of the wedding reception playlist.Report
I don’t mind AC/DC. I like some of their songs. Yet there is a part of me that thinks the joke behind playing that song is a bit too on the nose.*
*I have an issue with getting a joke but not necessarily finding it funny. Another recent example was getting the reasoning behind this joke but finding it just eh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiSx5MNDvgReport
I think that’s a big part of the human condition, man. If the only requirement for a joke to be funny were for it to be understandable, it wouldn’t be so difficult.Report
Its more meh than eh.Report
No joke, it’s just an awesome song, if you like that kind of thing.Report
Alsotoo, age brackets may be in play here. @saul-degraw and his millennial peers may not have grown up with the AC/DC quite as much as us Gen-Xers. They have their own lyrically inappropriate songs to play at weddings, I’m sure.Report
meh…a bit tacky for my taste also but as long as its not the song for the father/daughter dance i wouldn’t think much of it.Report
This didn’t make the cut for Linky Friday, but it actually works with the theme of this post:
As someone who has been struggling to justify purchasing a watch that costs a couple hundred dollars but can do lots of cool stuff, it’s really alien to me that a “mid-range” watch is supposed to be $150-1000.
I completely agree about the appropriateness of that song at a wedding, but I think we’ve lost the culture wars, dude.Report
Eh. That range is there because the analyst needed to pick a point to section off the market. It doesn’t necessarily reflect how customers actually shop.Report
I like watches because its one of the few pieces of flashy jewelry I can get away with.Report
This is aspirational. Now I totally want AC/DC to come play my hot tranny wedding.Report
If they aren’t available, perhaps these guys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYxVyxK2RikReport
PLEASE don’t fix the song title. It’s just too perfect for the piece.Report
I’m right there with you. I mean kids these days, with their rocking and their rolling. I will have none of it at such solemn an event as a wedding reception!
Also, no Aussies at my wedding, thank you very much! Buy American!Report
Yeah back in my day the Electric Slide was not only cool enough but almost to raucous for such a gathering. But it worked for us.
From my experience i’d steer clear of Scots at a wedding reception also.Report
I just thank the good Lord and/or Lady that the swing craze of the late 90s, when my social circle went through its first round of marriages, didn’t last into this century. I don’t care if the dj/band plays all and only Dead Milkmen and ABBA mashups, as long as they don’t play Squirrel Nut Zippers.Report
OBTW…did everyone hear the drummer for ACDC was convicted of trying to have someone killed? I’ll assume he just plead to felony Irony in the 1st.Report
Hell’s Bells, attempting to procure dirty deeds has cost him dearly. He’ll be back in black (and white).Report
He might have a JailBreak! too…Report
I’m going to join @will-truman on this one. People will do as they please so if nobody gets hurt, you might as well not hyperventilate.Report
Sometimes I feel like this blog is a longitudinal twin study. By the way, are you guys MZG or DGZ? For data collection purposes.Report
@chris
XTC.
My senses work overtime.Report
That should be DZG, obviously.Report
Until today, it never occurred to me to think about what the lyrics of the song might have meant.Report
For what it’s worth, you can opt to have complete control over the music played at your wedding and, even if you don’t want to go that far, any DJ worth his salt will get a good sense of your preferences and work hard to meet them. I don’t think you have to worry about getting ACDC-bombed.Report
@kazzy any DJ worth his salt see, that’s a problem; presume it’s a DJ and not the band, responding to a request from someone drunk on the dance floor.Report
Drunk on the dance floor at a wedding? Unpossible!Report
Well, they’re not serving liquor at my wedding reception!Report
At the one Indian wedding I went to, there was thankfully alcohol in abundance. The bride’s father was Indian Christian and more importantly in the catering business.Report
Yeah, you’re not likely to see alcohol or meat served at a traditional Brahmin wedding. It is really frowned upon.Report
It was a Hindu wedding but there was a significant numbers of Indian Christians and non-Indians that alcohol had to be there. Meat to but it is alcohol that really makes a party a party.Report
I went to a Catholic wedding for two first-generation Indian immigrants.
For some reason it didn’t occur to me until days later that this was weird.Report
@zic
A DJ/band that responds to a drunken request that is against the wishes of his clients ain’t worth their salt.
My DJ was a pro. He asked, point blank, if he should take requests. He asked if there were any definite “DO NOT PLAY” or “MUST PLAY” songs. If we wanted him to go full on request, he’d have done that. If we wanted him to play these 35 songs in this order with these transitions, he would have done that. If we wanted him to feel the crowd, respond to its energy, and balance out the offerings for a diverse age range (which is what we requested), he would have and did do that.
Are there shitty DJs and bands out there? Surely! I just avoid staying away from them, especially if music and its relative ‘tackiness’ is a concern for you.Report
Why would anyone worry about an AC/DC bomb? Great chance to practice your air guitar & show off your Angus Shuffle!Report
Every reception I’ve been to. I swear to not-God it’s true.
And never have I been at a wedding with Hot, Hot, Hot on the playlist, although others have had conga line songs. (Miami Sound Machine, IIRC).
Now, I don’t expect people from outside Wisconsin or the UP, northern Illinois, or maybe eastern Minnesota will have had to deal with all that much polka. But… yeah. So that’s an interplanetary experience.Report
Oh god the polka! I had suppressed those memories until now…
I thank Vishnu that cell phone video was not ubiquitous in 1995.Report
@burt-likko
Bar Mitzvahs play “Hot Hot Hot” Not weddings and it very much could have been a late 1980s and early 1990s trend.
Also I am not a Millennial!!Report
Pittsburgh stations play polka on the radio, last I checked.Report
You have triggered a pet peeve of mine: conflating the wedding with the reception. The wedding is the ceremony that takes place in a church and is officiated by a clergyperson, if that’s how you roll, or in a space made up to be quasi-churchlike and officiated by someone taking the clergy role. The wedding is where you actually get married (not counting the consummation). The wedding is often followed by a reception. This is a party, officiated by a DJ.
The interesting thing is that while the reception is optional, indeed incidental, it is what people think of when they hear the word “wedding.” It is what they mean when they talk about planning a wedding and what it cost.
I didn’t understand this until it came time to plan my own. It turned out that my blushing bride was largely uninterested in the actual wedding, but very interested in the party. This worked out well, since I am interested in liturgy, but not party planning. So we each did our own thing. The only hitch was when it dawned on her that I do not consider theatrical music appropriate for a church service, while she had always believed theatrical music to be mandatory for weddings, so we had to work through that. The priest (this was a Catholic wedding, despite my being Lutheran) was thrilled not to have theatrical music as part of the liturgy, so he had my back.
Which brings us to the topic of appalling music. People frequently do select appalling music for weddings, but of a different sort than the appalling music played at receptions. The diocese actually had a list of approved music. My wife assumed that this was a firm list, from which we would take our pick. I quickly realized that its purpose was the prevent someone from standing up in church and singing “Ooh Ooh Baby Do Me Right Now.” I had selected an obscure Isaac Watt hymn, and wanted some Palestrina as well. The priest and the music director upon learning of this declared themselves my bosom friends for life, and all went well.
I have no idea what music was played at the reception.Report
Ha. I’ve always wondered how many weddings (ceremony and reception both) featured the Police’s Every Breath You Take. Because that’s a total stalker rant, a curse, often heard as a love song. And I know my sweetie’s played many a wedding reception where the bride and groom requested it.Report
You know, if two people have the song for each other, it’s somewhat less creepy than if only one of them has it for the other.
I mean, it’s still kinda creepy. It’s less creepy, though.Report
Like I said, he’s played it many a time at the request of the people getting married.
And trying to formulate that sentence, I realized we need some new grammar. I was going to say, “at the bride and groom’s request,” but a wedding (hopefully throughout the land) might have two brides or two grooms now. So should it be “at the happy couple’s request?” or “at the nuptial couple’s request?” What’s the replacement for ‘bride and groom’ for generic wedding discussion?Report
People only pay superficial attention to the lyrics for the most part. A lot of people lesson to the yearning in Sting’s voice in Every Breath You Take, hear the lyrics on a superficial level, and assume it is a very romantic song. At least they aren’t request Don’t Stand So Close to Me.Report
I have a theory on why people might select appalling music for weddings or other occasions. One is that many Americans and our cousins in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand really don’t have a sense of ceremony, especially for celebratory occasions. Americans and our Anglophone cousins always prided ourselves on our informality. This has some very attractive features but in general, we don’t do formal and ritualized occasions well. Our sense of informality leads us to want to be wild at anything seen as a fun time. This includes weddings.Report
Oh, Saul does have a way of sparking the urge to comment. So…
+1 to Kazzy. A good DJ asks those questions of the couple and complies with their wishes.
+2 to Richard Hershberge. A wedding and a reception are different things. ACDC at most weddings is probably not okay. At a reception? I’ve heard it at many and the packed dance floor seemed to indicate it was a good choice. Receptions are parties. As in Drink Free Keg Beer and Get the Fuck Out There and Get Crazy. We spent $25K of my in-laws’ money on our super-fancy reception and not only was there ACDC but there was also Let’s Get It On (a great bluegrass cover) and I think something from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Also lots of great jazz during cocktails and other stuff that would keep the minister happy until he made his exit. Of course all this was possible because no one had a stick up their ass.Report
…$25K?…
Holy crap.
It’s times like this that I realize that…other people just live differently than I do.Report
Yeah the 25k reception left me google eyed.Report
And that is just reception, not including wedding or honeymoon.
Great googly moogly.Report
LOL. Totally agree. When the budget was presented to me, son of a welder and a postal clerk, I just about choked. EvenTually I made my peace with it for a few reasons: 1) My wife is the only daughter so they only got a chance to do this once. 2) Their entire family lived out of town so it was their only real chance to bring both sides together in their adopted hometown and they wanted them to really have a good time and 3) My FIL has a PhD in economics. They wouldn’t have offered if they couldn’t afford it.Report
When my BIL and SIL got married they had a huge wedding, at least 150 people. They had a band and big hall. Giant sushi layout before dinner ( i didn’t get any of it because we were jerking around with family pix…not that i’m still bitter about that or anything). Having a big showy reception was a Thing That Must Be Done for my SIL’s family. They are from Puerto Rico and jewish so it was explained to me that in their family and friends weddings must only slightly less grand then a super bowl half time show.
The actual wedding was a nice formal jewish ceremony.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it cost over 20k. But the SIL’s family had the money i guess.Report