Philosophy Discussion Forums

A curiosity question for those who have a line in the sand for what gets classed as 'dance music', any thoughts on what the line is where it either crosses out of or transcends that bucket? I'm guessing there's plenty of music through the 60's and 70's that would class as 'both', IMHO there's plenty that happened from the 1980's, 1990's, etc. and onward but it tends to stay relatively underground and thus each generation generally has their own slice of access for a while and then loses a bit of it as they leave their 20's (unless they're musicians themselves in those areas).

Papus79 wrote:A curiosity question for those who have a line in the sand for what gets classed as 'dance music', any thoughts on what the line is where it either crosses out of or transcends that bucket?

You could define dance music as anything to which it's possible to dance. To me, that's anything except Leonard Cohen. I've tried dancing to Leonard Cohen, but it's pretty difficult. (Try dancing to "Bird on The Wire" for example.)

I'm getting married in August (Covid permitting) and, among many other things, we're currently trying to decide what recorded music to use. We're having a live band (Covid permitting) but we also need background music and music for the standard bits that you have in weddings. We don't want "here comes the bride" and all that but we haven't yet decided what to use when the bride is approaching and when it's done. We also need to decide on "first dance" music. When my nephew got married a couple of years ago they did their first dance in the style of John Travolta and Uma Thurman to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell". Great idea, but they've taken it. So we need to think of something else. Currently we're think of tangoing in the style of Joe E Brown and Jack Lemmon in the movie "Some Like It Hot". (Our favourite movie.)

But any other suggestions for good wedding dance music would be gratefully accepted.

Steve3007 wrote: ↑July 7th, 2021, 5:03 am You could define dance music as anything to which it's possible to dance. To me, that's anything except Leonard Cohen. I've tried dancing to Leonard Cohen, but it's pretty difficult. (Try dancing to "Bird on The Wire" for example.)

Yeah, I'm pitching this question more to the way of thinking that it represents.

I mean, one could say that 'four on the four' techno is hard to call anything else, there's are plates producers might press which are meant to fill the floor or be 'tear-out', there's a side of that to the opposite end where people really try exploring deep moods where you either have a bit less focus on rhythm or try pulling rythm and percussive elements into the expression of that mood (where it could still work on a dancefloor but that's less the intent, I think you get a bit of this with what gets titled 'dub techno').

Clearly disco was a late 70's and 80's genre which was dance-oriented, and a lot of different styles of funk or jazz carried very similar feels or riffs but were working more emotional angles than dancefloor angles.

I personally can see where thrash metal, something I liked a lot as a kid and perhaps still throw on occasionally, isn't 'dance music' even though one could dance to it if they chose. Similarly if I throw on Nas's Illmatic, could you dance to it? Sure but, I don't know that hip hop - even if electronic and sample-based, really has had many people call it dance music. These days people almost mean EDM by that but going back in time, like with disco, you have Jamaican Dancehall where you could maybe say Sister Nancy and Dawn Penn were dance music, and I don't know if anyone would listen to Bam Bam by Sister Nancy and criticize it with 'Yeah, I'm not into dance music', it's not impossible but it would probably be more thought of as reggae by most people.

I guess I'm wondering whether there's disco, dance hall, or EDM, where some of those where the label 'dance music' has a lot of valence to them would say 'Yeah, it's dance music but it's more as well'.

As far as weddings though.... Electric Slide? Macarena? Cha-Cha Slide? Cut the Cake by Average White Band? Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk?

Outside of that - just the most bland, safe, anodyne stuff you can think of, like you're planning a restaurant music tape for TGI Friday's or whatever the equivalent in the UK would be.

Papus79 wrote: ↑July 7th, 2021, 4:03 am A curiosity question for those who have a line in the sand for what gets classed as 'dance music', any thoughts on what the line is where it either crosses out of or transcends that bucket?

Dance music comes in all shapes and sizes. So don't forget Strauss waltzes (etc)!

Personally, I've never cared for dance music of any kind. No dance; no opera. Apart from that, I'll go with most things.

Papus79 wrote:Yeah, I'm pitching this question more to the way of thinking that it represents....

Yes, it depends on the era. Even though it's possible to dance to most music, every era has specific genres that are considered to be "dance music".

As far as weddings though.... Electric Slide? Macarena? Cha-Cha Slide? Cut the Cake by Average White Band? Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk?

Cut the Cake by the Average White Band sounds promising.

White Wedding by Billy Idol is an obvious choice and is already on the list.

Outside of that - just the most bland, safe, anodyne stuff you can think of, like you're planning a restaurant music tape for TGI Friday's or whatever the equivalent in the UK would be.

The equivalent in the UK would be much the same. But I think we'll attempt, at least, to avoid bland and safe if we can.

Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑July 7th, 2021, 8:47 am Personally, I've never cared for dance music of any kind. No dance; no opera. Apart from that, I'll go with most things.

...always remembering that, just because we can dance to it doesn't make it 'dance music'.

Steve3007 wrote: ↑July 7th, 2021, 10:40 am White Wedding by Billy Idol is an obvious choice and is already on the list.

There's a good example of an excellent single that can be danced-to.

How about this: UK Music Video Awards 2015 > Best Dance Video > LORN: ACID RAIN

As for dance music qua classical ballet music, this is so cool:

More dancing (I had already posted this video a year ago, but it's still pretty cool):

An informal survey. Who is the best drummer you've ever come across? Not the one who can manage the most beats per second, that would be Billy Cobham. The one that you admire for being the BEST drummer you've come across.

Mine is Michael Giles (early King Crimson).

Consul wrote: ↑July 14th, 2021, 11:49 pm As for dance music qua classical ballet music, this is so cool:

That is impressive; haven't seen that before.