You’ve been packing a dancefloor all night with banger after banger, but you know it’s time to take it up a notch. How do you keep everyone coming back for more after their short trip to the bar? How long do you hold the next banger in your deck before dropping it and watching the crowd go crazy? Easy – you quick mix.
The majority of today’s couples are getting married between ages 21-35, and they are Millennials and Gen-Z. The average attention span for a human in 2021 is about eight seconds. Staying in a track on the dancefloor for the entire 3-4 minutes isn’t the most effective way to approach entertaining a crowd if you want to keep your dance floor packed.
For the most part and the majority of the party, quick mixing is the right call.
If you’ve never heard of quick mixing or short mixing, or don’t really know anything about it, it’s essentially cutting that 3-4 minute song in half, then moving onto the next song. The goal is to play the first verse & chorus, or whatever is considered the “best” part of a song, and then changing it up quickly with another banger, hence the term quick mix.
The majority of crowds have A.D.D when it comes to music. From a social media overload (Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) to the million things going on globally, guests are constantly hit with everything at the same time in their normal lives. You as the DJ are in charge of taking them back in time on an emotional journey away from the world and making them disconnect from everything that’s coming at them and focus on the music and the killer time they’re having. So the more tracks you play in a short timeframe, the better they’ll react and keep everyone dancing the night away.
For the most part and the majority of the party, quick mixing is the right call. Having the proper edits of songs is critical to quick mix. Yes, you can quickly mix the originals if need be, but it’s better to have “short edits” of songs, which are the shortened versions of the records we play. Most record/music pools have these in their library, or you could make your own if you have the knowledge to do so. Usually, a short edit has the first verse & choruses of the tracks, but sometimes they are specific parts of the song (what’s considered by most people to be the “best” parts).
But like anything, there are always some instances where staying in a song for most or all of it is more appropriate (think a slow song, family’s favorite track, etc.). It can also depend on the event’s environment and what the circumstances are on whether or not quick mixing is the way to go. I’ve done events where quick mixing just didn’t work. We always want to make sure the client is happy with the experience we provide, and we have to make sure they have the best possible outcome. Always serve your client’s needs before your own. And if you’re ever unsure, ask your client what they prefer before the event so you’re ready for anything.
When curated correctly, short/quick mixing can change the entire atmosphere of a dancefloor. Using the proper edits and knowing when and where to execute the technique will tremendously increase your performance and the client’s experience and expectations, not to mention pack your dancefloors.
If you have any questions, connect with me on Instagram – check me out at @dawson.high
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