What do you think of when you hear the word party? Food and drinks, music, socializing, dancing? These are all correct answers, but I would say one of these has been lost over the years: party music.

Songs make or break the atmosphere at parties, especially at school dances. So, at events like homecoming and prom, the songs they play are highly anticipated. There’s always the classics that have a dance attached, and the ones that make you excited to jump up and down to, or lyrics that you can’t help but sing to.

The only problem I have is that there are no new songs to be played at events like these. They just don’t have the same pull as songs like Party Rock Anthem or Party In The U.S.A, or entirely miss the genre.

But why is this? It might be the nostalgia aspect where I want back what we’ve had before, but also I think it’s the art of the work being lost. They have the inspiration from many years before and even better equipment to use, but the same vibe hasn’t been able to be recreated. It’s not even that the songs being made are bad— I personally prefer newer songs over the ones I’ve mentioned— artists just don’t make staples that we are able to dance to anymore.

Reflect back at the songs they played at homecoming and prom in previous years: “Timber,” “Cupid Shuffle,” “Teach me how to Dougie.” You will notice how the songs we are dancing to are all from 2014 and earlier, simply because there aren’t new options. Though there are songs they play from recent years, it’s songs that are popular at the time but have no real purpose but to sing.

With the countdown to the homecoming dance nearing the end, I encourage you to look into the songs that are played, and challenge you to find songs made recently with the same feeling as classics. Times like these are important to bring new artists to light, and bring back the age of party music.