Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Disco killed Dance

 Had one of those random thoughts last evening. I wondered, do kids dance today? What I mean is I haven't heard anything about any new dances lately. Thinking about it I can't remember hearing much of anything about new dances since Disco. Did Disco kill dance? Yeah I heard about " Hammer Time " and " Gangnam "  style but that's about it. Well I guess there was line dancing for a while. I guess I'm just not up on this stuff. My grandkids go to the school dances but they say they don't dance, just stand around a lot. Sounds like me at the school dance. But, like I say, I haven't heard of any dance crazes like you used to.
 I was never much of a dancer. I never learned how to do any actual structured dance, like the waltz or the foxtrot. With me it was just hold on and try to follow me around. Dance, for me, is more about the holding than the moving. Still we had the twist, the peppermint twist, the frog, the monkey, the mashed potato and all of those. I never learned the hustle, as I hate Disco, or any other dances. I heard about them though. The whole country line dance thing I was aware of. But you expected me to remember a series of moves, coordinated with a group, while drinking beer? Ain't gonna happen skippy! I guess there are still people doing that and I applaud them. It has to be like square dancing, maybe not so cool anymore but I know how to do that. Ye hah!
 I wonder did dance decline with the beginning of rock and roll? It was at that time we kids just started doing our own thing. There weren't any structured dances, you just did whatever you felt like. I was never very comfortable with that as I don't think my dance moves are very polished or smooth. Looks more like I have a pebble in my shoe or I'm dodging bullets. The very reason I stick to the slow dances. Of course that didn't work so well in high school. you had to ask the girl to dance and if it was a slow dance that had implications and well, you know. Spent more time thinking about asking than dancing was the result. Following my high school years the Disco thing took off. I hated it and still do. I mean, c'mon you expect me to dress like that and do the hustle? I'm thinking Disco killed dance! After Disco people just stopped! Kids that is, they just stopped and I can't blame them. The generation following Disco wasn't having any of that, and they weren't cool enough for real rock and roll. My generation owns that! Kids still haven't recovered from Disco's damaging effects.
 Seriously though, I was wondering about all of that. Just what dances do the kids today do? How come you don't hear about it? We had Bandstand and Soul Train. Then MTV showed up. I remember seeing that in its' early days, it was pretty cool. Now there are plenty of music video shows to watch. Not one holds the prestige of an American Bandstand or Soul Train! Dick Clark and Don Cornelius, icons in the music and dance world of my youth. What do these kids have today? Boy bands? Seems that is all I hear about. Makes sense, it is girl music, not that masculine driving beat of Rock and Roll Baby! You know, when we got down with our bad self! Kids today just ain't got no soul.
 Don McLean wrote American Pie about the day the music died. I'm not a songwriter but if I could I'd write, the death of dance. Disco killed dance for the American teen will it ever be revived? Maybe one day it will make a comeback. I'm not certain though, Disco was fatal! Was it those Boogie nights? Maybe it was just that the pants were too tight! 

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