Black Sheep
New Member
Connoisseurs of Dance,
Does Music influence the style for the dancer or do dancers influence the style of music that becomes popular?
Of course it is a two way street, but I believe the Music has had a stronger influence on our Ballroom dances that is obvious to me from the long view of half a century of listening to music and the observing dance trends. The Twist is a classical example of how a new music mode suddenly started a dance craze that literally obliterated the Ballroom dancers to a minute percentage of the dancer population. But more significantly, I believe the increase tempos of the Mambo Beat into the faster Salsa rhythms put Mambo on a back burner, just as the new faster tempos of pop music influenced the popularity of Balboa and the easier less stylized Lindy called WCS.
If DJ's and musicians and band leaders began coming out with the 1940' 1950' style music, the Savoy Lindy, I'm certain, would increase in popularity significantly.
The 40' and 50's music was more romantic, mellow, and smoother compared with the raucous cacophonous sounds popular today.
There's an old economic argument that goes something like, 'You asked for it with you patronage'. I do not believe it! I'm convinced, that we the public 'did not ask for it'; we are duped by advertising programming into believing that's what we want, just like cigarettes were sold to the public before we knew better.
Much of the new music we dance to today is shear junk, because we do not have the composers of the 40's and 50's so we are sold this artificial music so some company can make some bucks by diluting the product with inferior compositions, and at a higher price!.
When the Twist took over the music market and it was closely followed by the Disc Music, more Junk, and the craze of Rap Music which ain't music at all, then the classical competent composers couldn't make a living and lost the market to hack song writers who can't find a decent melody and then slap the most un-poetic inappropriate lyrics to it and then plug it into your eardrums until you become melody and harmony deaf.
When my grandchildren ages 7-19, come to visit me and hear my classical or pop music of the 1940' and 50's, they are fascinated by it and express their preference for it over the new music being jammed down the new generation's ear lobes.
Even some of the musicians and DJ' have told me, that they are 'TIRED' of hearing 'Tuxedo Junction' and 'In the Mood'. How about Beethoven's 5th Symphony, I suppose they are tired of hearing that too. Great music never becomes 'tiring'; it's mediocre musicians and tin eared DJ's that are tiring.
Why don't dancers, who know there is better music, demand that DJ's and Band leaders play the great Classics of the 1940's and 50's?
You pay their salary's with your entree fees, in case you are not aware of it, and you do have that privileged of politely making requests.
And maybe the Lindy will once again have the appropriate music for that smooth romantic mesmerizing rhythm that influences the dancers to a more aesthetic graceful style of dancing.
Black Sheep, your friendly instructor
Does Music influence the style for the dancer or do dancers influence the style of music that becomes popular?
Of course it is a two way street, but I believe the Music has had a stronger influence on our Ballroom dances that is obvious to me from the long view of half a century of listening to music and the observing dance trends. The Twist is a classical example of how a new music mode suddenly started a dance craze that literally obliterated the Ballroom dancers to a minute percentage of the dancer population. But more significantly, I believe the increase tempos of the Mambo Beat into the faster Salsa rhythms put Mambo on a back burner, just as the new faster tempos of pop music influenced the popularity of Balboa and the easier less stylized Lindy called WCS.
If DJ's and musicians and band leaders began coming out with the 1940' 1950' style music, the Savoy Lindy, I'm certain, would increase in popularity significantly.
The 40' and 50's music was more romantic, mellow, and smoother compared with the raucous cacophonous sounds popular today.
There's an old economic argument that goes something like, 'You asked for it with you patronage'. I do not believe it! I'm convinced, that we the public 'did not ask for it'; we are duped by advertising programming into believing that's what we want, just like cigarettes were sold to the public before we knew better.
Much of the new music we dance to today is shear junk, because we do not have the composers of the 40's and 50's so we are sold this artificial music so some company can make some bucks by diluting the product with inferior compositions, and at a higher price!.
When the Twist took over the music market and it was closely followed by the Disc Music, more Junk, and the craze of Rap Music which ain't music at all, then the classical competent composers couldn't make a living and lost the market to hack song writers who can't find a decent melody and then slap the most un-poetic inappropriate lyrics to it and then plug it into your eardrums until you become melody and harmony deaf.
When my grandchildren ages 7-19, come to visit me and hear my classical or pop music of the 1940' and 50's, they are fascinated by it and express their preference for it over the new music being jammed down the new generation's ear lobes.
Even some of the musicians and DJ' have told me, that they are 'TIRED' of hearing 'Tuxedo Junction' and 'In the Mood'. How about Beethoven's 5th Symphony, I suppose they are tired of hearing that too. Great music never becomes 'tiring'; it's mediocre musicians and tin eared DJ's that are tiring.
Why don't dancers, who know there is better music, demand that DJ's and Band leaders play the great Classics of the 1940's and 50's?
You pay their salary's with your entree fees, in case you are not aware of it, and you do have that privileged of politely making requests.
And maybe the Lindy will once again have the appropriate music for that smooth romantic mesmerizing rhythm that influences the dancers to a more aesthetic graceful style of dancing.
Black Sheep, your friendly instructor
