Best New Songs

East Coast Swing

NEEDTOBREATHE - Great Night - 2016


West Coast / Rumba
NEEDTOBREATHE - Happiness - 2016



Cha Cha
NEEDTOBREATHE - When I Sing - 2016

 
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I have tried to about half the songs in this thread with my partner. I get weird looks from him when I do try them... But sometimes it leads to interesting choreography that way.
 
This is a nice slow samba...works well for socials!
Major Lazer - Cold Water

And my favourite new samba
Era Istrefi - Bonbon

 
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Larinda McRaven said:
I get that competition tempos are not the only way to go. But they are a pretty good indication of what actually works well. A measure up or down never hurt anybody. But more than 10 measures a minute off ... and it just doesn't work.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I've had some success with some ridiculous tempo changes (like 25% sped up o_O), but the song itself fit the dance in question wrt, well, time signature. A lot of the songs proposed in this thread are fun and I'll admit I've augmented my DJ collection from it, but I'm truly baffled by some of the dance attributions to them.
 
Another Jive...

The Strike - Atom Bomb, 2014


American Rumba

R5 - Repeating Days, 2015


Cha Cha Cha

A Little Party Never Killed Nobody - Fergie, 2013
 
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PaulBunyon said:
Nobody But Me - Michael Buble - 2016 - Quickstep.
Click to expand...

On the surface, this sounds like a good song for Quickstep, but a seasoned
Quickstep dancer would probably find it somewhat weird, possibly not being
able to tell why.

I analyzed the song a bit and think I understand why. The beat meter says
this song is 94 BPM (for the base beat). Hence, to dance QS to it, one would
have to dance "double-time" to it at 188 BPM (still a little below standard
QS range of 192 to 208). The "inserted" beat is silent, so one's
overlaid movement feels really strange, with one leg (probably left for
leader and right for follower) weighting on the real normal beat and the
other leg weighting on the "imagined" silent beat. So one ends up "hobbling"
if one is keen on music. Note that even with the base beat (at 94 BPM),
there is still the notion/sound of "down" verses "up" beat (with odd count
being down and even count being up), but the difference between these are
not that pronounced (since they are real beats).

The typical way these songs are adapted to standardized dancing is via
adaptations such as a Ballroom version (Klaus Hallen, Casa Musica,
DJ Ice, etc.), where the double-time is realized by using a 188+ BPM
base beat (via percussion instrument), so the movement meets the
music.

Note that at 94 BPM, this song version is even too slow for Foxtrot
(range around 112 to 128 [for IS and AS]).

To extend the discussion, a lot of Vienesse Waltz music has the
characteristic of the "silent" beat, where the dancer really "imagines"
the 2 and 3 counts and yet feels very comfortable doing so. This
is because Waltz movement has a "deeper" swing, where the down
beat at 1 (sustained) makes the dancer want to "float" through
the 2 and 3 based on the drive on 1. With Foxtrot/Quickstep
movement that has the "shallow" swing, imaging beats is just
weird. Futhermore, because Waltz is counted by 3, alternate
feet end up on the 1 (or 1 and 4 if counting by 6), so there
won't be that "hobbling" feel. Likewise, CW2S can also be be danced
to music with light/imagined beats because there is no swinging.

A lot of the songs offered in this thread and others have the same
issue, in that on the surface they seem to work for certain dances,
but are very "wrong" for seasoned/experienced dancers who
expect the music to meet the trained movements. This also happens
a lot at social dances, where DJs (or bands) who don't have a grasp
of the specific dance movements choose music for that dance
based on some touchy-feely criteria that miss the mark. The most
common occurrence is with DJs who play 4/4 music with a heavier
down beat on 1 thinking it's music for Waltz. This doesn't happen
much at competitions, since comp DJs use playlists of songs that
are vetted (for BPM at least, but hopefully for quality/texture as
well).

About the only exception is with WCS, where DJs play any kind of
music and dancers are expected to adapt to the songs (within
reason). Of course, this also ends up with songs played that
are just horrible.
 
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Partner Dancer said:
The typical way these songs are adapted to standardized dancing is via
adaptations such as a Ballroom version (Klaus Hallen, Casa Musica,
DJ Ice, etc.), where the double-time is realized by using a 188+ BPM
base beat (via percussion instrument), so the movement meets the
music.
Click to expand...

In listening to this version a little more, the base 94 BPM beat is
just a little to heavy (a la Waltz down beat on 1) and contrasts
too much with the imagined beat (between real beats), giving that
"hobbling" feel. An adaption that just lightens that base beat
without doubling up the base (188 BPM) may work fine/better
because texture/quality then suits/reflects movement.
 
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