Knowing your audience; what they like, where they eat, where they play, will go a long way to make you money.

Just take a look at the Atlanta hip hop scene. They know their audience wants to dance, party, and have a good time. So where else would one look for a good helping of all three, other than strip clubs?

NPR writes that producers like Lil Jon have been breaking hits on stripper poles since 2003. Lil Jon claims that “the butts don’t lie,” meaning if the strippers can dance to it, the song has potential.

“Get Low” had a slow start: the dancers “didn’t feel it at first.” But eventually it grew on them and several dancers at different strip clubs asked the DJs to play it during their stage sets. “Get Low” took off — in mainstream clubs and on radio and TV across the country (More here)

The article goes on to make the fair claim that because rap is such a “male-dominated art form” that it makes sense to test out new songs in man’s “natural habitat.”  Ha! lol-tastic. I think I need to spend more time in my natural habitat. Still, the string of hits in the 2000s that Lil Jon and his southern hip hop friends had should be proof enough that butts don’t lie.

Even if you’re not in the stripper scene you can still learn something from this story. Road testing your songs, whether that be in a strip joint or dive bar is always a good idea. This is especially true if you’re aiming to get a huge hit. Seeing how your core audience will react to it, prior to releasing will show you what you may need to work on to get those butts moving.

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