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Your favourite songs to dance to?
I'm looking for some new material for my ice dancing playlist.
Anything decently musical and rhythmic is good. Current favorites: weapon of choice, stop the bot, uptown funk, blackheart (tsfh), burn (Goulding).
Probably Drop by Big Freedia and Diplo https://youtu.be/bHNiNP3hDkU
I got to see Big Freedia open for Tank and the Bangas a few years ago -- such a good show, and yes, very danceable :)
I think I have a bit unusual tastes on the matter but :
AFX - Medievil Rave Mk2
Mariana Sadovska - Calling bird
Meshuggah - Dancers To A Discordant System (I don't think it's a coincidence there's all these dancing videos on Meshuggah, this shit is groovy as hell).
A fun genre that is sorely overlooked in my experience is Dabke. I'm afraid that I have nothing to offer in terms of ice dancing, but dancing in a more formal format that is conducive to moving one's feet has deeply rich history. I invite you to look into it more!
Dabke is traditional Middle-eastern dancing that has it's roots in weddings, but can be used in any place where where one might wish to move in time with others.
I mostly recommend this as I dance almost exclusively to Dabke while in my kitchen cooking, but also as it is a time-tested genre for group exercise. I can only imagine how this might translate to ice dancing!
I was just listening to this today -- "Age of Consent" by New Order. Such a bop!
Mi Mujer by Nicolas Jaar is a pretty good jam.
Darkside, the group he was in alongside Dave Harrington, also has some groovy shit. I'd start with their EP, as it's a bit more straightforward than their full-length album. Unfortunately...they disbanded before making any more music.
La Sonora Dinamita ft. Kika Edgar - Qué Bello
Nothing like a good cumbia ;)
If you've done Uptown Funk, you've probably also done some of these:
Some of those are probably overdone as selections, though, right? Some other options:
You could also reach back a few decades and pick something from popular artists of those eras, like Abba or the Beatles or Michael Jackson.
I'd recommend exploring beyond Western music, but I understand that having non-English lyrics might influence judges negatively. However, because they'd be unheard of among Western audiences, the freshness and novelty could work in your favour.
Going out of the comfort zone:
I have more options I can provide, but that's a sizeable list to choose from.
This is fantastic, exactly what I was looking for! Speaking of kpop, I also remembered I have "TWICE - What is Love?" in another playlist, I added it to my dance playlist.
The first three youtube links are likely going to go into the playlist; I'm going to try them tomorrow/Thursday. I may give the other ones a shot but they didn't inspire me.
For your text list, I knew exactly none of them. Checked them out; "Come Alive" is by far the most inspiring and I'm definitely going to try it tomorrow as well. Don't worry about judges etc, this is all for personal use, I don't do competitions (… yet. Who knows.).
I have a couple of 80s bits in my playlist; "Pressure" by Billy Joel is one of my favourite ones to play on. The rhythm is difficult, though. I'm going to try Uptown Girl as well, now that you brought this up. Michael Jackson is a good idea as well, I'll see what I can dig up. I am so sick of ABBA though haha.
So yeah shoot all your options. I'm especially open to the non-western stuff! @kyotja had a great middle-eastern playlist I actually tried out earlier today. If you have kpop/jpop recommendations especially; I love their pacing and musicality.
Boney M - Rasputin
Any rhythm game that has this song automatically gets a million plays from me. The beat is so easy to pick up on and tune is so catchy, I can't help but dance wherever I hear it.
Edit: The Life of a Song: ‘Rasputin’
Oh fuck yes, I always dance to this. It's going in.