usually it has something to do with people seeing it in a bigger context ala a movie or a tv show, or maybe there was some viral video with it. now it can even be a big name like hardwell, skrillex, etc drops it at ultra or coachella(etc) its broadcast around the world for people to hear.

good example is when missy played in the superbowl and then she charts 3-4 songs on the itunes top 10.

as far as r. kelley goes, he has been such a pop culture staple in the last 10-12 years from chapelle show skits to the 'trapped in the closet' jokes and southpark episodes and im sure many more that.

other factors include what i call the 20 year cycle, which things in fashion tend to come back in 20 year cycles ala now the 90s are big. r. kelley, aliyah, and missy have all come back and fashion is moving that way too. usually 10 years out, things are completely out of fashion, although there are always a few strong movements or music styles that were so underground they finally get a little shine(and are then championed in 10 years by the tastemakers)

the 20 year cycle also includes the fact that most people are in charge of marketing (the boss or middle mgmt) are in their 30s and 40s and they are reflecting their taste of the childhood/young adulthood and putting the fashion and music back out there.

Interesting. I always wonder this. And I agree that Ignition Remix always gets requested.

Yup! I've been asked to play that the past couple of weeks.

I've thrown in Beck's "Where It's At" a few times this year already at a lot of mobile events. Granted, it's just a quick chorus mix, but it's generally well received. Especially since I still use "two turntables and a microphone"! LoL

Yeah, you are, because out here that track is not such a head scratcher.

Don't take this wrong, because I think you're alright, but sometimes when you speak about the DJ scene "in Canada", it's as if you're speaking from an alien planet. It just doesn't resemble anything that happens over here (TBH I was expecting something way weirder than Ignition). I think it's just small town vs city, just as it would be in the states.


Anyway, in terms of the subject, I think it's a long the lines of what Goodkat is talking about. I don't know who the fuck brought Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air into the mix a few years back but that's a good example, what a corny trend.

The 20 year cycle is definitely something I've always believed in, I remember talking to a 21 year old bartender a few weeks ago while I was scoping out a venue to throw a party, and she said "OMG I love the 90s, for me it will always be around" and I said "yeah, I said the same thing about the 80s"... she didn't get it.

The Y2K thing is pretty hot right now among the 25ish crowd here, I have no problem with it because I liked club Hip-Hop/R&B at the time, I'm just dreading the Crunk revival that that i already see happening.

I mean it's really no different than when I was a teenaged DJ playing "throwbacks" along the lines of Big Daddy Kane etc. Nostalgia is a big thing for drunk people.

LOL this thread got me thinking about the "Bling Bling" sets I've been playing lately, the N.O. No Limit/Cash Money type club hits, one day I did it out of the blue and it just caught.

I've also been on a bit of a Ruff Ryders tip lately

You can get away with anything if you program right anyway, and probably in your area some DJ rinsed Ignition and it caught, now it's a "thing" in Western Canada.

seems to pop up when the current pop market is saturated and kinda tired. the katy perry/brittney spears/j lo/kesha/taylor swif thing sound kiddy and outdated(although the 18-25 still likes it). The edm and hip hop/rap scene is either hated or loved and the nu disco pop songs are trending out.

this is usually when that nostalgia creeps in even for listeners becuase everything coming out sounds the same. not that it didnt 2-3 years ago but now its 3 years and 100 katy perry, zedd, and migos copies later...

Interesting point. My friend who has been a Dj for years but now just a wife and kids, home owner, play special events type dude always asks me "what's exciting this year"

Last year I had lots of tracks to play for him, Mustard was knocking hits out left right and center, the tempo was good for a lot of tracks. But this year, everyone was trying to cash in on what Mustard did the year before, and it's not as exciting because it's redundant at this point, none of it has it's own identity.

The point is, this year it was a different conversation, and now we're back to trying to make "new" old school sets.

now more than ever a kid can dial up ignition remix on youtube/spotify/itunes/soundcloud/etc/etc as well and send it to their friends via the 8 million ways of social media(mainly snapchat/twitter/fb/vine/wahtever else i dont know) so a trend can spread fast and never be on radio.

Way to much to comment on, But I know when Netflix added Fresh Price to it's lineup. I was getting asked for it every night for 3 months.

It's defiantly alot of things that all add together.

As for the Western Canada vs Center of the world, I mean Toronto, Ya dude. BC/Alberta is a different animal. I know I request HUGE tracks to Xtendamix (which i based out east) and the owner has asked, "do you really play that shit" he couldn't believe what we play regularly.

This is dead on.

Kid's movies are NOTORIOUS for starting trends like these. I do appreciate my kids knowing songs by Earth Wind and Fire, along with the Bee Gee though....

They may not know the groups, but they know the songs...

I wonder what's gonna happen when it's time to recycle that Soulja Boy/Lil Wayne/Drake era...

Today's music is totally disposable, what can be considered a future classic these days?

Last Modern "Classic" I remember is "In Da Club".....

In short, it's all about what's trending regardless of why it's trending.

nm

I wonder if that new ABC (I think) comedy Fresh Off the Boat will influence if it catches on - they drop some serious hip hop throwbacks because it is based in the mid 90's

^^^Happy Feet did this for sure.

Also I've noticed that I can now get away with playing C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" for younger crowds. I blame Evan Almighty and Annie for that. 2 weeks ago I played it at a Sweet 16 thinking the adults would get into it, but it turned out the kids got more hype than the adults.

Even the the movies are catching on now. With the release of Straight Outta Compton and just saw preview of a 90's based hip-hop movie called Dope.

But like someone said before, i wonder how long it takes before the, mainly, older lil wayne requests start happening again.....fak! hopefully never.

LOL

Correct. Anyone with kids will know how a lot of these kids end up knowing about older songs through movies

nm

I just saw Madagascar 2 over the weekend on Cable for the 1st time and I think the movie ended with "I Like To Move It" - song was cheesy but I did think - do I have the video for that bullshit???

It's a must play at elementary dances

nm

just did a birthday party last week and i had a 7 yr old girl request The Beatles - Ob La Di and MJ's - Man in The Mirror....I had to honestly do a double take, like "what you know about that little girl?"...lol

thats in one of the best scenes in Bullet with 2pac and mickey rourke. prob not for kids ;)

Also, "old school" and "classics" are buzzwords now more than ever. Kendrick, Joey, J. Cole are being labeled as having an "old school" sound or an album that takes you back to the "old school" regardless of whether you agree that its "old school" or just a more evolved, modern take on hip-hop.

Hoping for a second coming of the golden age of hip-hop if this 20 years thing is going to work its magic.

true...lol

how many times have you had someone tell you to "play some old school".... so you mention something along the lines of Slick Rick or Eric B. & Rakim.... and they're like "uh, I meant something more like V.I.C - Wobble"...lol

Pretty sure anything before 2010 is now considered "old school."

yeah, it didn't used to be that way... my how things have changed

1. Whenever a new song samples an old one. Great example....I was the ONLY L.A. DJ playing "How you do dat" in 2008-2011. It would work for my out of state folks who live in L.A...but L.A crowds NEVER got with it...it cleared the floor. Next thing you know, Problem samples it for "Like whaaat" and now, the L.A. crowds love the original.

2. Whenever an old song is used on Vine/YouTube viral videos, as mentioned above.

3. Whenever a new artist makes a reference to an old song, and kids discover it. Drake is good for that...he'll sample lines from old Texas songs, so it allows me to sneak in the original.

4. A lot of tracks were big for us as kids, but we were too young to enjoy them at a party...so although an older crowd may not want to hear it as much, folks who just hit a certain age will love it. Candy rain is perfect example for my fellow 28-32 year olds...we were all basically kids when it dropped. So by the time we got to college, we would get hype hearing it because we never got to sing along to it. But the folks who were 18-25 back in 95 may not care as much, because it got played out to them.

5. 90's nostalgia has been in for like six years now...damn near a full decade, ironically. And although 18-23 year olds only know select songs, they LOVE them because they can dance to it in a way they never did before...and those dances are just fun. So Poison, It takes two, This is how we do it....those will seemingly always get love.

6. Some older songs get dances put to them. I guarantee if someone famous made a Vine of theirselves doing the Whip to a Bone Thugs song, that song would come back out and be a hit. So even for "Wobble" from V.I.C....that song came out in 2008, and completely died within a few weeks. Then, in 2010, someone added a dance, and it gave the song new life.

In addition to what's been said above, radio stations & now even streaming media like Pandora & Slacker bring back certain songs into rotation for several weeks. All of of a sudden you will be hearing a song like Ignition on the radio several times a day for 2-4 weeks, then back to obscurity, to be replaced by another recurrent or old school track. It serves to fill in their broadcast day and makes crappy new songs more tolerable when there are some certified hits thrown in between them.

Also, now there are a lot of new stations popping up that specialize in "Old School Hip-Hop and R&B". Here in the Atlanta area we have 3 fairly new stations like this. As a result some of the other Urban stations are now adding more old school tracks to their playlist to try to compete. I think we will see a lot more older tracks making a comeback.

yeah they started 2 stations like this where im from last spring. only one lasted and the other went to mainstream rnb and hip hop, but people actually made fb posts about it and how much they liked it. i have too many forms of media to listen to the radio, but ill get in some of my homies cars and they are def tuning in.