Cue. Ziggy.
Contrary to how I can often wax rhapsodic for large word counts… this post is going to be short and to the point. Who’s dancing right now? Like in 2014? What are they dancing to? Why?
My take? I don’t think that there is enough great music to dance to being created, not to be confused with there’s not enough dance music being created. There’s plenty of that. What I don’t understand is how with so much freedom to create that someone or perhaps an entire movement has not seized on the void of dance-able music that exists. I’m not talking about just increasing tempos, but creating music that implores people to dance. I don’t necessarily dig the 1001 line dances created last month but I do enjoy the fact that it allows for folks to dance. I like a good slow jam as much as the next person but an entire night of slow jams and I’m going to fall asleep.
If we follow the bouncing ball throughout the course of popular music in the 20th century(and we could go back even further if we wanted to) every major musical shift had dancing at the core of that particular music’s popularity. A variety of dancing certainly, but at the core the uptempo get your bottom on the floor and boogie variety of dancing.
So perhaps it’s time. Time for a shift. A shift from the moon, June, spoon music that is a complete bore unless you’re just slouched down on the couch. A shift from the strip club variety of dance tunes(because truth be told most of the time that’s really a one-sided exploitative type of dance but I digress), a shift from the four on the floor everybody can find the beat flop around like a fish type groove.
Here’s the part of the post where I appropriate some lyrics Prince penned for Vanity 6 (yeah the nerve of this author) “I don’t like this groove. Try and give me something I can dance to. Catch my drift?”
Creators of music: The dance floor is yours and the dancers are waiting on you!
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
