When I was in my teens, JW weddings were quite the social affair. Of course, the music was strictly regulated by the elders. Somehow though, in each wedding, someone managed to get the song "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC into the DJ's rotation, and all of the "bad" witnesses would have a blast dancing to it. Naturally, the next special needs talk would be about appropriate music at witness gatherings. The song became notorious, even legendary. It was kind of like our little local JW wedding tradition. Were there any such songs you had as a dub that, despite drawing the ire of the elder body, still managed to sneak into just about every JW wedding reception or party?
"Bad" songs at JW weddings
by B_Deserter 26 Replies latest jw experiences
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betteroffdead
I despise weddings to no end so I don't have a whole lot to remember from but the one I do remember. the music wasn't an issue do to the fact the father of the bride has major money and you know they don't wanna upset a living donation machine, and the whole family are complete A-holes so they probably didn't want to poke the badgers either.
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dinah
Dag, B,
You're congregation was WAY COOLER than mine. Had anyone in our congregation heard that song at a witness gathering they would have fell over dead from shock.
It is one of my favorites, though.
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jamiebowers
When I got married as a jw, the elders were the band. Believe it or not, they played "Wipe Out". But they stopped playing and sent someone to stop one of my worldly cousins from swiveling their hips. They also loved to play "Help Me Make it Through the Night" which was about fornication--just shows the hypocrisy. The elders had no problem with songs from their generation that talked about fornication or encouraged sexy dancing, but God help the rock and roller.
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dinah
Their stand on music is what really turned me against them as a teen.
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mamochan13
The one they freaked out with during my day was, believe it or not, the Bird Dance. But it was always popular at weddings. I've also heard that Macarena was taboo at JW weddings during its heyday. We played in a band and always tried to avoid doing JW weddings because someone would always complain about some song we played no matter how carefully we screened them. There was so much inconsistency. For example one bethelite would get offended and walk out if we played Loverboy's Turn me Loose, yet she always requested Stevie Wonder's I just called to say I love you - a song we refused to play because of its reference to birthdays & holidays. Go figure.
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dinah
LOL!
So what do we do hum and sway? Nope, that looks like a ritual. Just listen to Kingdom Melodies. They are pure, catchy, and dammit people love them.
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mavie
My JW wedding. The DJ's are dubs. They begin to play "Love Shack" by the B-52's. The crowd loves it and everyone is jumping around in that special dub dance way.
My new (ex)wife is horrified and gives me the evil eye. The one that says stop now or your life will be hell. So I have to walk over and tell the dub DJ's to kill it. Some slow stuff played next and killed the party. Everyone sat down.
"Bang, bang, bang, on the door baby!"
LOL.
Sillyness. -
WTWizard
I never got in on a wedding (I guess I am strictly for that damn Value Destroyer Training School). But, no I cannot see why they have to be so strict on the music. If you followed what the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger wants the hounders to go by, there would only be 225 songs (and they have to be played exactly as they appear on the original CDs) that you could choose from, and song 117 would be the top song played at every wedding.
As such, and given that they wanted me in the Value Destroyer Training School so badly, I never could sing song 117. I always felt it totally inappropriate for me to sing it, or even to listen to it or be at Watchtower studies that discussed marriage or public talks that discussed family life if all I am ever to do is to go to that fxxxing Value Destroyer Training School, get hit with a billion assignments at once, give them their democratic majority, and allow them the stage to start the Second Dark Ages.
Perhaps those rap songs that glorify mayhem and violence would be more appropriate.
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monophonic
i've never been to a wedding that had 'good' music. always the same ol' standbys.
but, credit where credit is due, weddings are probably the hardest events for DJs to spin b/c it has to be crowd pleasers and the crowd is too varied.