80's Music Revisisted

During the 80's I was a DJ, doing mostly LDS church dances. I obtained quite a collection of music when I was a DJ back then. I passed all the music I obtained on vinyl (for the younger generation, that's what we used to call records) onto the next person who was my DJ protege. When I DJ'd I'd have a couple of turntables (on a sound table with a mixing board) and would mix dance songs into one another. You had to count the BPM (beats per minute) so when you mixed songs together they would flow seemlessly together so you wouldn't miss a beat on the dance floor. You mixed songs that had close to the same beats per minute. I usually previewed the mix of the song on headphones before I actually sent the mix over the speakers.
I remember taking requests on pieces of paper and finding the songs to play for the dancers. I usually played songs that I liked though. I would adjust the music based on the feel of the dance crowd that night. I did a few private party gigs, those were nice as far as pressure.
I added a new playlist to the blog. I like to listen to my modern songs (green playlist) while I'm at work and was in the mood today to put together retro 80's mix of songs. I put the ones I could think of off the top of my head in a new list. If you would like to listen to the 80's songlist on this blog. Pause the first playlist (green) then go to the bottom of this blog and the 80's playlist is in dark blue. Just hit play, I've set this playlist to not autorun and to mix up the song order.
Let me know if I missed any 80's songs that would be considered New Wave, Techo, Ska, SynthPop, etc. I wasn't really into Rock/Pop at this time in my life during the 80s. It had a lot to do with serving a mission in Scotland and N. Ireland. I didn't like the EuroBeat sound on my mission, but after I got home I got hooked on the next British invasion. Pre-mission, was Journey, April Wine, Foreigner, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, etc.

My brother-in-law, Greg, helps me feed the need to be at a mixing board as I am the sound engineer for his bluegrass band and at least once year I help with his clogging competitions. I enjoy doing these gigs and competitions. I'm always amazed at the talented band members and dancers. I usually have a really good seat for these events as well.