9 Popular Wedding Songs That Are Fun (In Theory)

It's close to miiiiiidnight and something evil's lurking in the dark.

No, it’s not Michael Jackson's ghost eating popcorn. It’s a song. Not just any song - but one of several that should be avoided at your wedding reception like pineapple on pizza (and if you like pineapple on pizza, you’re wrong.) So many of the staple wedding reception songs are fun in theory, but in reality have a big fat case of “NOPE” written all over them. Here is our definitive list of songs that are fun...

...in theory...

This song is the song that inspired this whole topic. The song is great - arguably one of MJ’s best. But let’s be honest with ourselves - you don’t know this dance. Everyone thinks they know this dance, but no one really does. Except for maybe Jennifer Garner and Usher. If Usher is at your wedding, you can go ahead and play this song and also be sure to provide all guests with a drool towel and new undergarments.

If you request Thriller, you’ll get 25 seconds of a couple of brave souls flopping their arms around stiffly and then another five minutes (this song is LOOOONG!) of people awkwardly crossing the empty dance floor to get anywhere else. (unless you have an awesome DJ who can read the crowd and knows how to quickly mix to the next beat).

If one of your guests does happen to know all the dance moves, it does have the potential to turn into a fun learning opportunity for the rest of your dancers. However, you do run the risk of shifting the spotlight from the newlyweds to some potential party crasher… and as our BFF Anne Hathaway says,

Thriller is great if you know the moves, but then there are songs which are used, or to better describe them, overused for certain occasions, yep, that means we could only be talking about,

We all love Queen Bey, but this song HAS. OUTSTAYED. ITS. WELCOME. Typically, this song is used for the bouquet toss. Just because it says “ All the single ladies put your hands up ” - which, we admit, is literally what the bouquet toss is - doesn’t mean it’s the best song for this purpose. It’s basically encouraging women to dump their boyfriends if they don’t propose.

What kind of weird ultimatum crap is this? So you put this song on for females to raise their hands, grab a bouquet and put their dudes on the spot with angry Bey as background music? Way to set the mood. It’s all in good fun, but a happier - and less played - song might be a better choice.

For example - one of our favorite ways to spice this up if our couples are dead set on this for their bouquet toss song is to cut in some Ludacris the moment those flowers leave those fingers.

This is your wedding. This is a happy time and all tears should be happy tears. You don’t want to use the train of your dress to wipe snot off your cousin's face when a lonely heart song sends her into a tizzy about her high school sweetheart.

Rule of thumb: avoid Adele and most Country music. In general Country music is a minefield. It can be insanely divisive. Some people hate it , statistically speaking, even more people love it.

The harder part about country music is that's it's not the easiest to dance to, unless you're in a square dancing bar.

But… just because it’s now the most popular musical genre, doesn’t mean your guests need to hear about Carrie Underwood committing a Class D Felony. If you're looking for more line dances to avoid... how bout we consider retiring,

This song has never not been annoying. Not only that, but do you actually know what it means? It may sound chipper,

But a happy party song it is not. According to Songfacts.com , the song is about a girl named Macarena who gets pissed at her boyfriend Vitorino for going to serve his country, so she goes around banging as many draft-dodgers as possible.

While I’m sure Miss Mac had a grand ol’ time, it’s not exactly a song about a quality relationship. Plus, the dance is boring - there are plenty more pre-choreographed group dance songs that work better than this one. Leave this in 1996 with scrunchies and denim skorts.

Speaking of hoes, let’s talk about,

Self-explanatory. Moving on to,

Catchy power song or not, probably best to avoid any songs that allude to break-ups, surviving without each other or troubling relationships. This probably also immediately knocks out most country songs. (See number 8.) and then maybe even weed out the majority of Taylor Swift's career. When it comes to troubling relationships, no one knows better than...

As a common rule, it’s best not to play any songs related to cheating, wandering eyes or friends stealing your girl. Because if you do...

To some commitment-phobes and probably Oprah , marriage may sound like the end of the world. But hopefully, not to you in your newly wedded bliss. This is a wedding, not game over. There may come a time you want to joke about this night being the end of the world, but tonight is not that night.

Bringing us to the final song request sin we commonly receive,

Do you want broken bones at your wedding? Do you want dozens of elderly relatives reflexively clapping their hands over their ears like children at the exact same time? If the answer is no, you should avoid heavy metal music.

Notable exceptions would be a few AC/DC songs. What we’re really encouraging to avoid are screamers like GWAR or Pantera. However, there are even exceptions to the exceptions. If you, your partner and at least 30-40% of your guests are death-metal/heavy-metal fans and want to be MOSHed potatoes on that dance floor… go for it.

At the end of the day, this is your wedding and the music is your choice. These are just some strong suggestions of songs we recommend avoiding like puffy sleeves on dresses and . So what do you think? What’s on your wedding DO NOT playlist, and why?

Derek encourages couples to keep their "do not play" list to a minimum but totally accepts these songs in the do not play list. You can follow KC Mobile DJ on Instagram and Facebook or subscribe to our sweet monthly newsletter by dropping your email address below.