Party Theming 101, Music Cont'd

...

The 80’s example is an easy slam-dunk for party music. If the party theme you’ve chosen is more challenging musically, it will certainly take you more time to prepare, but can be extremely rewarding. For instance, say you or a friend you’re helping out has their heart set on that Secret Agent costume party mentioned a little earlier – you know, spies in tuxedos, thugs in black turtlenecks and parachute pants, femme fatales, maniacs with metal teeth … yeah. You’re hoping for dancing to happen, and need music. Your first thought for spy music might be a compilation of James Bond soundtracks. Good idea, but the sad fact is that much of the James Bond music, whatever its qualities otherwise, is easy-listening fare, and not well suited to dancing. (One glaring exception: Die Another Day, by Madonna). What to do?

Get out to the library and/or Amazon and obtain the soundtracks for all three Austin Powers movies. Not all of the music is danceable, but plenty is, and if you cherry-pick the danceable tracks from these CD’s you’ll be off to a good start. Next, obtain a copy of The Saint (90’s, Val Kilmer) soundtrack – the thing is pretty much end-to-end danceable (nightclub/electronica vibe), and odds are you can get this one seriously cheap. After this beginning, things get trickier, more down to pulling appropriate songs from a myriad of sources, which is where the extra time comes in. Sit down and make a list of all the songs that you know of that might possibly fit the theme, get ideas from your friends as well if the list doesn’t seem long enough, and go from there.

Which brings us to another music resource: Friends’ album collections. If you’ve invited (or are planning to invite them) to your party, ask politely review and copy tracks from their collections as well. Since they will be guests, they have a vested interest in the music being awesome, and are likely to agree if you have a reputation for returning loaned items in excellent condition. (I’m sure we all know who people don’t … grrrrrrr) The payoff: Friends that feel validated that you respected their musical taste enough to ask them for help, music that has a better than average chance of being well liked by your guests (it came in part from their collections, after all), and that saves you money that might otherwise have been spent buying songs that you didn’t find at the library. Everyone wins!