You can play any kind of music--it depends how you do it.
I probably have not heard Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" since it came out in the early 1980s. I never would have thought of it again had Dan Bodah not played it on Airborne Event next to East Stroudsburg High School Band and Wind Ensemble. His work with the track is the complete opposite of the cooperate rock milieu Night Ranger intended it for. Notice how Dan took the track from the Boogie Nights soundtrack; a great film about 1970s excess turning dangerous in the early 80s. Watch the song's use here. Also listen for the reference to mix tapes.
Here is another way to re-contextualize music. Type any song you like into the FMU search engine and find how different DJs used the track. I did this with Ocho's "Undress My Mind," an absolutely infectious Latin rock piece I downloaded before Monica was done playing it next to electronic music by Tom Dissevelt, John Allen played the song after "Brown Eyes," by Fleetwood Mac. Martha used the Chinese Restaurants before Ocho. If you love the mystery of free form, forget everything I just said and enjoy. But if you want to learn how each DJ gives a show the texture that makes it his or hers, this exercise goes a long way.
Next is re-contextualization I'll wish I never brought up. Bobby Goldsboro was a soft rock singer whose "Honey,"--it's not the great Ohio Players song--was the most sickly sweet of pop. It went to #1 in 1968, and could be the model for everything early free form FM was trying blow out of the water. His "See The Funny Little Clown," is comparable, and was recontextualized on Inflatable Squirrel Carcass by Rich Hazleton, next to the Totemo Godzilla Riders. And IT WORKS! Context is everything.
Still, I am too humane to leave you with Bobby in your head. Since I mentioned the Ohio Players, here is "Heaven Must Be Like This" on Awesome New Place With Bennett4Senate between the Jackson 5 and Jimmy Cliff.
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