How to Nail the Pre-Drink Soundtrack
Ben Cottingham | 23rd September 2015
You'll be a DJ Boss like MK in no time...
Whether or not you’ve been to uni, you can imagine the pressure of this scenario:
It’s freshers week and everyone is high on the fact that they’re away from home. Someone pulls out a laptop or a set of speakers, but nobody moves. Music. Music can make or break any night. Picture yourself as the brave yet nervous soul, approaching the laptop; you log into Spotify, sweat dripping from you brow, the eyes of your newly acquired flatmates burn into you as you select a song. Play... The room either erupts in joy or collapses in shame. To any freshers reading, I hope to help you avoid the latter!
So there are few ways to go, and this really depends on your own taste in music. It’s at this point I must confess that I’m into some pretty random stuff. So this acts as a disclaimer of sorts I suppose! Now to begin with, it’s all about pleasing as many people as you can, so play it safe; chart stuff is usually a safe bet, or some classic songs from our collective childhoods. Everyone loves a bit of Outkast, and ‘Hey Ya’ is guaranteed to make you friends, that’s a fact kids. The winner here is to think back to those year 5 and 6 school discos, you remember, parents picking up children off their faces on panda pop at 9:00pm. Those were the days… Much like freshers actually, but with more alcohol and vomit.
Another safe move is to play some favourites, if someone doesn’t like the hits of Justin Timberlake then you need to take this person out of your life. But obviously no one wants to be drinking to ‘Cry Me a River’, you need to get the room bumping to ‘Senorita’ or ‘Sexy Back’. Similarly, throw in some club hits that everyone is guaranteed to have forgotten, I’m on a mad one for Basement Jaxx right now, so ‘Red Alert’ or ‘Where’s Your Head At’ would go down well in my house. For those who have been watching Celeb BB maybe that one song by Fatman Scoop… Who knows, the pre-drinks choices are endless.
It depends what sort of mood you’re in: if you’re feeling some Hip-Hop drop some Blackstreet or TLC, or perhaps you could ‘Drop it like it’s hot’ to Snoop, or some classic Dr. Dre, after the success of Straight Outta Compton you can’t go wrong. Everyone loves the 90s too, and pretends they were aware of the club scene which went down when we were all 4 or 5, so classics like ‘Rhythm of the Night’ by Corona, ‘Boom Boom Boom’ by Out Here Brothers, or anything by the Stone Roses or Happy Mondays will thrill that one person you live with who insists on wearing a bucket hat indoors. Or perhaps you’re one of the Snobs crowd (big up the Birmingham specific reference), so the choice selection of some James Brown or The Smiths might play in your favour (‘This Charming Man’ is my pre-drinks song of choice)…
The real key to a good playlist is to choose music you love, and music that people can relate to. Half your flat will get into deep house music, I’m in my final year at uni and I still don’t really understand what that is. In fact, my flat asked a club promoter what deep house was, and all she could tell us was ‘it’s like house…. But, Like… Deep… House…’ so I think the message I want to share with you, is enjoy the music you enjoy… And don’t pretend to like deep house if it compromises your already cracking and varied taste!