In my opinion, the wedding Do Not Play list is even more important than the Must Play list. What I always tell Amplify clients is to think of the people they’ve invited to their wedding reception and all of the songs they may request of the DJ. Assume they’ll request — one by one — all of your least favorite songs. You may not want to hear those songs on your wedding day. If not, add those to the Do Not Play list and they won’t slip past the DJ.
A few examples of songs that a rogue guest may be more likely to request (because they were popular at one point in time), but that you may not want played at your wedding include are included below. I’ve broken them down between “Pretty Much Universally Hated at This Point” and “Polarizing (Many Love, Some Hate).” Enjoy!
Pretty Much Universally Hated at This Point
Unless you absolutely love one or more of these songs, you should probably avoid them at your wedding if you’re concerned about it being labelled as cheesy (in the case of songs like the Chicken Dance and the Macarena) or awkward (in the case of songs like Blurred Lines and Strokin’ It).
– The Chicken Dance
– The Macarena
– Y.M.C.A.
– The Electric Slide
– Love Shack
– Mickey
– The Hokey Pokey
– The Locomotion
– Red Solo Cup
– Strokin’ It
– Blurred Lines
– Who Let the Dogs Out
– What Does the Fox Say
– My Humps – Black Eyed Peas
– Rude – Magic! (yeah, that song — “why you gotta be so rude”)
Polarizing (Many Love, Some Hate)
These are songs that, for most people, have no middle ground. For each song on this list, you most likely either love it or hate. Many of these songs have been too played out for some of our clients (e.g. Happy by Pharrell) and others are songs that most people still love at weddings but sometimes a couple doesn’t (e.g. Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey).
– Ice Ice Baby
– Sweet Caroline
– Cotton Eyed Joe
– Conga
– Happy (Pharrell)
– Cha Cha Slide
– Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
– Baby Got Back
– Crank That (Soulja Boy)
– That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings
– The Wobble (pretty much everyone will dance to it and it will get requested all night long, but if you personally hate it, that’s all that matters)
– I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
– Celebration
– We Are Family
– Footloose – Kenny Loggins
– Call Me Maybe
– Single Ladies – Beyonce
– Gangnam Style
– Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)
– Gucci Gang – Lil’ Pump
– The Harlem Shake – Baauer
– Get Low – Lil Jon
– Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
– Panda – Desiigner
– Anaconda – Nicki Minaj
– WAP – Cardi B/Megan Thee Stallion
Sometimes I’ll see “anything by [artist you can’t stand]” on the do-not-play list, or a song that was tied to an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. Maybe it’s just a song that brings back awkward or bad memories. There’s no time for that at your wedding — only songs that bring back great memories!
So take some time to think about what you might want to include on your wedding Do Not Play list and we’ll make sure it’s not played!