Bride's Request

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Mike, Did you bring the piece of plywood? If so, wise move!
I did not. It was already drizzling when I arrived,,
so I talked with the groom, and he supplied it.
I had gotten caught once before, where the rain was flowing under my table...
 
We got a bad review once because one of our DJs (a Christian) refused to play unedited cuts and there were young children present. We got a lot of extra bookings based on my response that we do NOT play unedited cuts.

I did a wedding, 2 weeks ago, where the bride asked for un-edited (explicit) versions. The venue owner, my friend, also wanted me to play them. I told the venue owner "No, I won't do it." She said she'd tell the bride and I told her "Don't do it. You'll cause problems." Fortunately, she listened, kept it to herself and the bride never noticed (or perhaps didn't say anything). It just never seems to fail that you're going to catch guff from the guests, and they don't care that the bride herself asked for the filthy version.
 
Take a gander at this song my bride had my play at last weekend's wedding. Luckily it was late in the night when I finally got around to playing it. When she requested it early on I swore she said Miley Cyrus so I played party in the USA. When she came back up later she clarified herself. Needless to say I was shocked at the lyrics. I had never heard this one before.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP0-AfcttAY
I would have never played that song! You have to listen to a song, before being played for your Audience. Even if it was the Bride's request, this song should never get played during a Wedding/Reception.
 
I did a wedding, 2 weeks ago, where the bride asked for un-edited (explicit) versions. The venue owner, my friend, also wanted me to play them. I told the venue owner "No, I won't do it." She said she'd tell the bride and I told her "Don't do it. You'll cause problems." Fortunately, she listened, kept it to herself and the bride never noticed (or perhaps didn't say anything). It just never seems to fail that you're going to catch guff from the guests, and they don't care that the bride herself asked for the filthy version.

EXACTLY! Rickryan
 
Normally if it's all adults in the room I don't have a real issue with unedited cuts but if there are kids or old people I do. Last weekend a guest wanted me to play Snoop Dogg she gave me a choice between I wanna F**k you and another about as classy I can't recall the name. I refused she went to the bride she OK'd it and I still refused so she went to the Groom same thing. I explained to them all that with kids in the room there was no way I would play it. The bride and Groom understood her not so much she must have asked me 9 or 10 more times...The answer was still no
 
Normally if it's all adults in the room I don't have a real issue with unedited cuts but if there are kids or old people I do. Last weekend a guest wanted me to play Snoop Dogg she gave me a choice between I wanna F**k you and another about as classy I can't recall the name. I refused she went to the bride she OK'd it and I still refused so she went to the Groom same thing. I explained to them all that with kids in the room there was no way I would play it. The bride and Groom understood her not so much she must have asked me 9 or 10 more times...The answer was still no

Good Man, Jeff.
(I never play unedited versions: 1) When kids are attending; 2) Weddings; etc; no matter who is requesting the songs. The only unedited song that I can currently recall that I play is "I'm on Boat; and that is only during Private College/Adult Events)
 
I would have never played that song! You have to listen to a song, before being played for your Audience. Even if it was the Bride's request, this song should never get played during a Wedding/Reception.
To each their own I guess. The crowd was okay with it and the person paying me to be there requested it. If you pay a painter to paint a room in your house the color you want they should paint it the color you want, whether they like the color or not.
 
Good Man, Jeff.(I never play unedited versions: 1) When kids are attending; 2) Weddings; etc.; no matter who is requesting the songs.

I never did as well. I felt the need to protect my reputation. Any client that demands explicit music is NOT a client for me....IMHO...

And it never came up in my 24 years in the business.....although I think over the past few years, it was more of a problem than years ago.
 
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As a rule, we advertise that we play radio-edit versions of any/all songs. On a few occasions we've been requested to play songs that there either aren't edited cuts for, or where it would be completely pointless and "wreck" any point in playing them. Requests from the bride or groom, I should clarify, because they're the only ones I'd remotely consider playing.

I do edit songs as necessary, or edit them further, as radio-edits are pushing that line these days, by the way.

Anyway, I managed to go a few years without having to deal with any of these, but in the last month there were two different weddings where either Crazy B*tch or She (F*cking) Hates Me were requested by the couple. In general, if they want it, it gets played, but I do push (insist, essentially) that it's in the last half hour of the dance, and I'll always say something akin to, "Have a request here up next that I wouldn't normally play, but [Adam & Eve] requested it, so ... here goes!" and generally just make it clear it's not just me deciding to play it.

I've encountered both of those multiple times in the past, and I've yet to have any complaints or problems, the kids are generally gone by that point, and they usually do go over extremely well.
 
I never did as well. I felt the need to protect my reputation. Any client that demands explicit music is NOT a client for me....IMHO...

Thank you! Well written!! ...
... when a "potential client" states that they want explicit music, I advise them that they need a different DJ.
 
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Some clients when looking to book a DJ they will want a DJ who plays songs that are unedited. We have done events where we were told it's OK to play songs with explicit lyrics at an event. I hate when that happens. To them it's not a big deal and for me it is. Normally people like that are low class people and that mostly all they listen to when listening to music. It especially bothers me with a bunch of people drinking. Some DJs don't even check if a song is a clean version or not. For me it's sad that you now need to check and see if a song has a clean version or not and some songs might say clean version but it's only so clean. Some are so horrible you can't really clean it up.