SwingDJs

I'm wondering what you do when you play a song and no one's dancing? Fast fade? Cross fade? Sit back and pray? Run to the nearest exit? Apologize profusely? Offer your first born?

Do you mean you started the track and everyone left the floor?

I've only had this happen about twice. Both times I left the track play for the better part of a minute. One time people eventually got out on the floor so I left it, the other time, I just did a slow fade at the tail end of a phrase.

The more important thing is to play a winner afterward, even an old standard that you may be tired of but always gets people out on the floor, especially if the track that chased everyone off the floor was a little out in left field compared to what the audience is used to.

I usually just let it play. Usually 1 or 2 couples will come out and dance to it, even if it's really weird. Sometimes it's good to clear the floor, so people will buy stuff from the bar or whatever. If it's really, really bad and no one's dancing to it, I'll fade it out and say something like, "well, that sure sucked," and then play something that will bring everyone out onto the floor. Usually this only happens when I play a "DJ challenge" or an extremely fast/slow song.

if it's really bad, play another song. the momentary embarassment is
better than a 3 minute eternity in the twilight zone.

I like to draw attention to it and make a joke out of it. It's not like no one noticed, and sidling away sheepishly does you no good. When in doubt, be a dork.

I'm apt to grab the mic and, briefly, say something self-deprecating and/or harangue the dancers for not dancing to the song, and then do a quick fade to, as Dave said, a sure thing (unless the harangue worked, and got people up).

Hey, if your'e going to crash, crash and burn. Go big or go home.