Youtube Performances as Judging Tool

TomTango

TomTango

Active Member
A lot of times, if I'm unsure if a song is good to dance to or not, I'll search it on youtube then judge it based on the number of performances that exist for it. If there are no performances to it, I'll either relegate it to song 3 of the tanda (if I kind of like it) or exclude it (if I'm iffy about it).

However, I'm worried I might be missing some hidden gems with this procedure. Does anyone have any songs they like that don't have a performance for them on youtube?
 
TomTango said:
A lot of times, if I'm unsure if a song is good to dance to or not, I'll search it on youtube then judge it based on the number of performances that exist for it. If there are no performances to it, I'll either relegate it to song 3 of the tanda (if I kind of like it) or exclude it (if I'm iffy about it).

However, I'm worried I might be missing some hidden gems with this procedure. Does anyone have any songs they like that don't have a performance for them on youtube?
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I don't know, as that's really not a major factor for me. I mostly go by: "Does hearing it make me want to dance to it". Then I might consider other things like, how dance-able do I think it would be for the masses.
 
dchester said:
I don't know, as that's really not a major factor for me. I mostly go by: "Does hearing it make me want to dance to it". Then I might consider other things like, how dance-able do I think it would be for the masses.
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My problem is that I feel like I can't truly judge the quality of an unknown song for dancing until I'm on the dance floor with a partner dancing to it. There are lots of times I've pre-listened to a song, thought it was good, then realized it wasn't when dancing. Or flip that, and I dismiss a song too soon, only to have another DJ play it and find out it's great.

Performances are the closest I can come to dancing to a song without actually dancing to it. Seeing the performers interpret the music really helps me judge the quality of the song.
 
If I think it's danceable I play it. I don't watch YT for it because I noticed that professional dancer stick to a few songs and if I would chould that way I won't be able to make a tanda.
 
TomTango said:
My problem is that I feel like I can't truly judge the quality of an unknown song for dancing until I'm on the dance floor with a partner dancing to it. There are lots of times I've pre-listened to a song, thought it was good, then realized it wasn't when dancing. Or flip that, and I dismiss a song too soon, only to have another DJ play it and find out it's great.

Performances are the closest I can come to dancing to a song without actually dancing to it. Seeing the performers interpret the music really helps me judge the quality of the song.
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If you can, try just walking to it. IMO, watching a performer dance to a song can bias you (positively or negatively).

The bottom line for me: if I listen to it and don't like it, I'm not playing it. There are loads of "danceable" songs out there, but that doesn't mean I want to dance to them all. The trick / dilemma is that different people are inspired by different songs. Hopefully, what you like will also be liked by most others (of course, the songs you select will still need to be danceable).
 
dchester said:
If you can, try just walking to it. IMO, watching a performer dance to a song can bias you (positively or negatively).

The bottom line for me: if I listen to it and don't like it, I'm not playing it. There are loads of "danceable" songs out there, but that doesn't mean I want to dance to them all. The trick / dilemma is that different people are inspired by different songs. Hopefully, what you like will also be liked by most others (of course, the songs you select will still need to be danceable).
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Performance music should never be used to determine whether a song is tanda-apropos. Performance music is for performing. One could use Libertango to dance a ballet if desired.
 
I think Libertango is a false friend in this context! It is enormously popular as a performing song in nearly every context. A few years ago I builded a portal around that song and there were hundreds of performances but I had hard time to find any filmed in an ordinary milonga.

That could be a possibility for you to check; how many social tango videos there is on this song. A problem is that in those cases people do not write the song name in youtube so you do not get all of them I suppose in your search.

This was a creative way to get more information about a song!
 
Please stop using Youtube for anything else than voyeurism. And putting an unknown song at the end of a tanda?!? Please don't surprise your dancers with an undanceable song during a tanda. If I ask a partner to dance because I know I can dance well to the music, I expect all the songs in the tanda to be similar. Imagine dancing to a nice tanda of DiSarli and then the next song is Libertango. Sheesh
 
Lois Donnay said:
Please stop using Youtube for anything else than voyeurism. And putting an unknown song at the end of a tanda?!? Please don't surprise your dancers with an undanceable song during a tanda. If I ask a partner to dance because I know I can dance well to the music, I expect all the songs in the tanda to be similar. Imagine dancing to a nice tanda of DiSarli and then the next song is Libertango. Sheesh
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In defense of the OP, this is not at all what he is doing or suggesting.
 
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