you should not have booked the gig if you dont know/have what music to play.

chill lil nin'yos, unless he is in your town, takin a possible gig of yours gig. just help the guy out. we family here. he's not even on the same continent as us! :P

sorry can't help ya in this department but good luck!

there is a compilation called ultimate motown or something.

I really should tell you to Google this or just go get a compilation but... Motown is dear to me. So here ya go.

Anything from the following artists:

Diana Ross and the Supremes
Four Tops
Jackson 5
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Marvin Gaye (and Tammi Terrell)
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Temptations
Stevie Wonder

You may want to stick to selections from 1972 and earlier if they want an old school Motown vibe.

Here are some other particular tracks

Mary Wells - My Guy
Spinners - It's A Shame (The rest of their hits were on Atlantic)
Jr. Walker And The Allstars - Shotgun
Contours - Do You Love Me

You should have more than enough here to make it through an evening. If they want the "Motown Era" and are open to other songs from that era that aren't on the Motown label, then you can add other tracks such as the Spinners post-Motown hits, Aretha Franklin, etc.

Good luck with your gig, tell me how it went.

btw I don't think anyone would try to discredit you for not being up on Motown if you're younger and that's not what you spin. I highly recommend you pick up some "Best Of" compilations of the artists I gave you there. Motown is great music. :)

And there really was no "underground" Motown. There's a reason the headquarters was called "Hitsville U.S.A." :) That said, some tracks performed better than others. But if you pick up those compilations you'll be in good shape.

yea, wasnt trying to sound like a dick. but its the truth!

I agree with you to a degree ninos, but I've learned soooooooooo much about music over my years DJing by taking gigs that weren't in my wheel house. I'd commit myself to learning as much as I could about the music, the history, the artists, the structures, and how people interacted with the songs. I'm the least likely country DJ of all time but I can still rock a country party if I have to. YEE HAW!!!

Don't forget your Sam Cooke and even throw some Elvis in there...ie Jail house rock etc, it works. I takes gigs if I don't have the music/knowledge. It is a challenge to me to learn about a new genre and then rock the spot with it. This only isn't possible if you are lazy. You can at least just get the most popular songs and build on that. Build deeper with the more motown gigs you get etc. Good luck

Neither Sam Cooke nor Elvis were Motown artists.

And neither of them were from Detroit, so you don't have that connection either. :)

Franchise record pool has LOTS of Mowtown. You should go to a music store or Walmart and buy yourself a box set. Plenty of it out there, EASY to spin that stuff too.

www.timelife.com

^ over 150 classics and you can preview it.

We should all help each other out if we can't. He clearly said it's for a friend. Some of you should relax :)

That Time-Life box set would be awesome.

www.hip-oselect.com
www.hip-oselect.com

****BLANK STARE*****

Thanks alot guys! ill start working through the suggestions!

i avoid gigs where i dont think i can do a good job, but this is an exception because its a family friend, and the first thing i said was "im rubbish with motown." but he still wants me to dj, so thought id get some help to make his night the best it can be.

again thanks so much for all the help so far.

ps, i find it really hard to disguise the parameters of the genre. seems its a very broad sound...

If you keep it to just Motown label tracks in the time period I gave in my first post, about 80% of the songs will all have the same groove. For a quick synopsis of the Motown Sound, check out the following:

en.wikipedia.org

Some songs off the top of my dome:

Temptations: My Girl, Just my imagination (Epic)
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terell: Ain't No Mountain
Diana Ross & The Supremes: Stop in the name of love, Someday we'll be together
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Tears from a clown (I always liked that tune)
Smokey Robinson: Quiet Storm (another epic win)

This is coming from a 24 yr old lol....

Also does all the music have to come from the Motown label specifically? I mean there were a TON of other acts who weren't down with Motown. ie. Delfonics, Chi-lites just to name a couple.

Peace

isnt ninos only 14 years old?, shiiiiitt, i have been djing for that long, or wait is it 12yrs? ehh cant remember anymore...

14, 15 in 5 days :)

AWW SHUCKS!!!!

Somebody break out the CARBONATED drinks!

No more JUICE BOXES!

I'm all about the Philly soul too. :) OP said it was a Motown party so I came from that angle. (nh)

I'm super jealous of homeboy, I wish I could get a gig like that around here! That would be sooo fat.

I had a 70's themed party I did for my friends fathers bday last month. It was more like I was there to dj while they rapped (father wanted to show off his son), but they wound up asking me to get on and do a set after their performance. Initially I was all shook, because I didn't put anything together, but I conquered that ass. Jammed out uber hard, all off the top of my head, luckily I had the music. Whew

peace

I bet the people who said they wanted Motown didn't actually mean it as keeping specific to the actual Motown label. Unless they are deep deep music lovers then they probably just meant soul music from that era.

You're probably right, DJ Alkemy. But I've learned through the years to give the clients what they asked for first, and then be ready to change once they tell you what they really want. :)

Oh no doubt, make sure you have a ton of Motown label stuff newton and then drop a few non Motown label tracks in and see their reaction (would be funny if they got uppity and started chanting f*** Atlantic lol). Its funny, when Im doing an old school set, you get people saying "can you play some Motown?" and then go on to list artists from the Stax, Atlantic & Hi Records labels. I suppose Motown is a genre in its own right but people have their lines blurred when referring to it.

wow. that's a great lookin Time-Life set. for $99, cheap investment to get you thru that gig.

LOL exactly, i dont think people have a clue what their talkin about now adays, we had a "motown" band comming in every other weekend before i played and they had live instraments and outfits that looked motownish but they were singin stanky leg and shit.......singin stanky leg live with instrments does NOT make you a motown band

did the same thing with a 30 year class reuninon......showed up straight SHOOK cause i didnt have a clue about the genre...ended up rockin that bitch, shit was mad fun to

hahaha yes!!

Play Jailhouse Rock in front of a Motown crowd and they're going to think you're an idiot. That's not even close to the Motown sound, Stax you can get away with and similar era spin off type of stuff, but jailhouse Rock? Jee-zuss.

@cnewton - How did the gig go?

go to youtube and search Motown and watch/listen to some of the videos to get some ideas. I did that with Lil Jon & Pitbull and now I have enough music to book for the rest of the year

oh the gig ended?

Echoing my thoughts exactly. I find that those that want 'motown' respond well to late 70s early 80s funk. Especially if you're trying to keep to the popular stuff that makes ppl dance. Hit em with stuff like Hot Chocolate, Zapp, and Commodores.

Folks who have memories of stuff from the 50s and 60s recoil when they hear a synthsizer though. lol

SAM COOKE - HAVING A PARTY

True. I didn't know the ages of the guests.

IS NOT Motown.

Good look on that. I gotta get some of these for myself!

I doubt Motown fans will complain about Sam Cooke. If they do, they shouldn't talk to me because we have nothing in common

They wouldn't necessarily complain, but I was just pointing out the difference in Genre.

Sam Cooke is considered Soul / R&B / Gospel (in his early jawns).

Z-Trip has a nice little Motown mix that opened my eyes to some great music from years past...

the gigs not for a while, not got a confirmed date yet.

thanks again for all the suggestions. i am slowly going through them and geting a better idea of the genre.

i think ill try and get a better understanding of what he wants as i doubt he even realises what he said when he asked for motown.haha.