No ordinary sweet 16
It was an in-between kind of Saturday in September that I played at a Sweet 16 Celebration for C.C. Breslin. The event was “in-between” because it occurred after and before the formalness of two large wedding reception bookings and I welcomed the fun of a younger-crowd-kind-of-event. This was no ordinary birthday party–C.C. is my middle daughter and at last I was able to play for family members and friends. People that I know get to see what I do!
Enhancing the senses with creative imagery
For the special occasion I did something different: I brought two flat screen monitors and played music videos that corresponded to each song. Every song played had a corresponding music video. The key was for the TV’s to not overwhelm the room, and to not be placed too high. So I had two (2) 43 inch LED TV’s for this room, placed slightly above eye-level. Perfect size monitors for that room, spaced about 10 feet apart. The ceilings were pretty low and this was an ideal configuration. A third tv in the eating area looped a slideshow of images from the birthday girl’s life and was such a draw for the family to casually watch throughout the night. Five hundred images made a thirty minute slideshow of memories that played over six times throughout the four hour event.
Video screens were a great Party enhancement
It didn’t “make” the party. That was up to me already. But it really did amp things up to have screens for the occasional perusal of the eye. Thirty years of DJing parties required me to have super successful song selection and song curating, standard. But the music videos I’m convinced are a really great addition. A whole other sense was at play, and being stimulated: the eye, and all the corresponding feelings and emotions that comes from the “look” of your favorite artist, seeing them with your own eyes. The most compelling music videos were the ones from earlier eras, and the iconic artists of those time periods: Michael Jackson, Queen, Abba, the Spice Girls, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, John Denver – just to name a few.
During the Pandemic we all have a silver lining we can point to. Something positive that came out of these difficult two years. Mine was having the time to slowly compile a music video for every song that I consider noteworthy. 13,000 songs and growing! Each mp4 is backed up onto three different hard drives. The songs in my collection begin in the 1950’s with and include the most recent Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, and The Weeknd. Updated daily. The main source of videos is from a website called xtendamix. I used this time to reconfigure my business for the needs of my customers, become even more well-versed in the music of the past, and to master an additional offering to my clients: music videos played at your event.
CC Breslin is a music aficionado. Having her dad’s DJ genes and her mom’s ease with remembering song lyrics, helps! She is so deep and diverse for a sixteen year old in the types of music that move her gauge. It truly runs from the Beatles to Bieber. But her real interest currently lies in country music. Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Darius Rucker (Hootie), Jake Owen, Old Dominion, Luke Combs – and of course Morgan Wallen. This summer we had a great time at the Zac Brown Concert in Camden New Jersey. I play a lot of his music at wedding receptions, and love his style. CC and her sisters love the authentic sound of Zac Brown. Ironically he played a lot of songs from other artists and eras, but we rocked out to them too!
EQUIPMENT LIST:
- one (1) Bose L1 Compact speaker (The Bose Compact came through again, filling the room with glorious sound)
- two (2) Toshiba 42 inch tv’s
- twelve (12) chauvet slim par uplights set to blue and green, spread throughout the room
- Chauvet Gig Bar Move, the 5-In-1 LED lighting system. Included were 2 LED Derbies, 2 LED PARs, 2 LED Washes plus Laser
- Two extra large ultimate speaker stands with black covers
- Black Facade
- Denon MK6000 controller
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14 inch Macbook Pro laptop with Apple M1 Pro Chip and 16 Gigs of Memory and 1 TB flash storage.One TB memory card with music videos