The most essential component of a dance is the DJ. Someone to play music, and set the tone for the party at hand.

This year, the songs didn’t seem to wow me as much as previous years. Lots of songs that got the crowd dancing were played; however, while the bops permitted some boogie, I found it hard to dance when I hadn’t heard the song before.

It seemed that many of the hits played were famous thanks to Tik Tok. Each Tik Tok song had a 15-second portion that I knew and could bust a move to, but for the remainder of the song I didn’t know much. These songs included “Hot Shower” by Chance the Rapper, “Crank That” by Soulja Boy, “Ransom” by Lil Tecca and “Moana” by YungManny.

However, amongst the few songs I heard were some dance classics. These songs I’ve heard at nearly every dance I’ve been to. These included “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé, “Cotton-Eyed Joe” by Rednex, “Cupid Shuffle” by Cupid, “Wobble” by V.I.C. and “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg. “Wobble” even mad an appearance twice.

Oh, and who could forget about “Low” by Flo Rida? Or “Yeah” by Usher?

As far as recent radio hits, the DJ supplied us with some Lizzo, playing, “Truth Hurts” and “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay with Justin Bieber.

My personal favorite from the night was “Antisocial” by Ed Sheeran and Travis Scott. I was slightly surprised that this was the only Ed Sheeran song I heard. Many of his hits include sappy love songs that are perfect for slow dancing.

Central senior Madison Horner has been coming to the dances since her freshman year.

However, Horner didn’t know many of the songs played this year, saying, “I don’t normally listen to what’s on the radio.”

Overall, she feels the music could have been better, saying, “I feel like they mostly played rap and there wasn’t a wide variety.”

But as a senior, the music wasn’t the most important part for her. “I feel like as you get older the music isn’t as important because you can find a beat to a song and move to it,” she said.

The important part of being a DJ is to get the crowd excited and dancing while keeping the tempo upbeat. Central’s DJ did a great job of doing this. There were always students dancing whenever each song played, and so the DJ’s mission was accomplished.