The stuff you don't like

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#61 Post by **JesseMiner** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:13 pm

Let me remind you all of the User Agreement Terms that you signed when you joined this discussion board.

And now, back to the topic at hand...

Jesse Miner
SwingDJs Moderator

Lawrence · #62 Post by **Lawrence** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:40 pm

mousethief wrote:Nate, you're right. Lawrence is Lawrence, Lawrence is not Austin.

Isn't Austin that dyed long hair dancer from Oklahoma?

Nate Dogg · #63 Post by **Nate Dogg** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:11 pm

yedancer wrote:
Swifty wrote:Wookiees don't live on Endor.
Correct. They live on Kashyyyk. In giant tree houses. Yes, I know I am a complete and utter nerd.

Some of you may be old enough to remember the only time it aired (George Lucas is ashamed of it, and rightly so). The Star Wars Holiday Special provided insight into the wookie home planet.

http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs ... y_Special/

You also got to learn how Jefferson Starship fits into the Star Wars universe. Chewbacca's son was quite the fan.

mousethief · #64 Post by **mousethief** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:26 pm

Lawrence wrote:
mousethief wrote:Nate, you're right. Lawrence is Lawrence, Lawrence is not Austin.
Isn't Austin that dyed long hair dancer from Oklahoma?

Yeah, go figure. Dallas is some guy from Yehoodi.

Kalman

sonofvu · #65 Post by **sonofvu** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:37 pm

Man, I stay away from this for a bit and it blows up. Good reading though. I had an experience a few weeks back. I dj from a laptop so I don't usually need the cd players. As I was djing this one friend of mine comes up to the dj booth, inserts a cd into the player and says to me: "Dude, you gotta play this song. Listen to #5!" So I listened and I did not like the song. So he says: "Will you play it?" To which I answered "No". He then asked why and I just simply said that I did not like the song. And I left it there because I really did not feel the need to explain to him that the song was so horrible and insipid that for me to insert that drivel into my set would be tantamount to running over my grandma with a dump truck. It is not going to happen. So in short, if you don't like it, or it's going to "kill the vibe", then do not play it.

Swifty · #66 Post by **Swifty** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:52 pm

julius wrote:Here's the rub. When a slow song comes on that people don't like, they will probably dance to it anyway. When a faster song comes on that people don't like, they will probably NOT dance to it, because they CAN'T. Both sets of dancers equally dislike a certain style of music, but there is an asymmetry on how full the floor is.

And that's why slower (more modern, groovy, whatever loaded and baited word you want to choose) music is played so much more: it's easier to dance to, and easier to DJ. The DJ feels like he's doing his job keeping the floor full. But it's potentially full of invisibly unhappy people. Yes, it is a contradiction. But it happens. We all know that.

At risk of getting back on topic, I think this makes perfect sense. I pretty much agree.

yedancer · #67 Post by **yedancer** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:35 pm

Nate Dogg wrote: Some of you may be old enough to remember the only time it aired (George Lucas is ashamed of it, and rightly so). The Star Wars Holiday Special provided insight into the wookie home planet.

http://www.timewarptv.com/site/programs ... y_Special/

You also got to learn how Jefferson Starship fit into the Star Wars universe. Chewbacca's son was quite the fan.

My friend recently got this on DVD and we sat down and watched it. Suffice to say, I would rather have my eyes repeatedly slashed by dull, rusty razorblades and then have boiling acid poured into the bleeding holes than watch the Holiday special again. It was horrifingly bad.

The cartoon with Boba Fett was pretty sweet, though.

Swifty · #68 Post by **Swifty** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:55 pm

Oh well, it was worth a shot.

mousethief · #69 Post by **mousethief** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:22 pm

Lucas should just be ashamed period. I can't wait for Droids, er... Episode 3.

Kalman

Mr Awesomer · #70 Post by **Mr Awesomer** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:25 pm

Let's try that again.

And now, back to the topic at hand...

Reuben Brown
SwingDJs Moderator

Roy · #71 Post by **Roy** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:56 pm

.thanks fir the friday afternoon entertainnent this thread is very funny. The funniest since the boob thread.

yedancer · #72 Post by **yedancer** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 5:20 pm

Swifty wrote:
julius wrote:Here's the rub. When a slow song comes on that people don't like, they will probably dance to it anyway. When a faster song comes on that people don't like, they will probably NOT dance to it, because they CAN'T. Both sets of dancers equally dislike a certain style of music, but there is an asymmetry on how full the floor is.

And that's why slower (more modern, groovy, whatever loaded and baited word you want to choose) music is played so much more: it's easier to dance to, and easier to DJ. The DJ feels like he's doing his job keeping the floor full. But it's potentially full of invisibly unhappy people. Yes, it is a contradiction. But it happens. We all know that.
At risk of getting back on topic, I think this makes perfect sense. I pretty much agree.

I think I already said it, but I agree too.

Lawrence · #73 Post by **Lawrence** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 12:14 am

Swifty wrote:
julius wrote:Here's the rub. When a slow song comes on that people don't like, they will probably dance to it anyway. When a faster song comes on that people don't like, they will probably NOT dance to it, because they CAN'T. Both sets of dancers equally dislike a certain style of music, but there is an asymmetry on how full the floor is.

And that's why slower (more modern, groovy, whatever loaded and baited word you want to choose) music is played so much more: it's easier to dance to, and easier to DJ. The DJ feels like he's doing his job keeping the floor full. But it's potentially full of invisibly unhappy people. Yes, it is a contradiction. But it happens. We all know that.
At risk of getting back on topic, I think this makes perfect sense. I pretty much agree.

I honestly do play (and enjoy) fast music, and I do encourage it in my lesson plan even though I don't bust out to fast songs, myself, all too frequently. (Fast Lindy, Bal, Shag and Charleston are all full 6-week sessions of my Lindy II series, indicating just how much I agree that a well-rounded dancer should be able to do all of them.) I also enjoy watching people who enjoy fast music bust out every once in a while.

However, when I hear talk of "potentially invisibly unhappy people," it actually sounds like someone is just projecting what they want people to think onto people no matter what the visible signs (smiles, hugs, laughs, cheers) might indicate. To be blunt, I doubt that you know what they are thinking better than they do, especially when the "visible" signs indicate the opposite....

shortyjul · #74 Post by **shortyjul** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 7:23 am

When I first read Julius's quote, I thought, "YES!" Having mulled it over for a bit, I now realize that his view is my opinion of how I choose what I will dance to at this point in my experience. Bear with me on this slippery slope. I am not going to be so obnoxious as to tell ANYONE what sucks. For the most part, I agree with Julius when it comes to people who have been exposed to a myriad of music styles and tempos, but I have to admit that there are large regional pockets of people who started dancing in the last few years who haven't had exposure to a wide variety of swing music.

Many of you danced in Ithaca sometime between 1998-2001. We were at the forefront of slower nonswing stuff. I remember playing Aretha in 2000 for Peter Strom and saying, "Isn't this the coolest thing EVER????" When I think back to the frequency with which I played soul at lindy events (though our weekly gig was a mixed bag of WCS and lindy), it makes me cringe. I'd dust off some 30's Ella or Andy Kirk every once in a while, but it was more a nod to the past than the norm.

In late 2000, after hearing Reuben DJ, I realized that I was doing a disservice to the dancers around here by not playing enough swing. I integrated it more into my sets for a couple of years so it wasn't a TOTAL affront to peoples' dance instincts. As time went by, it became more and more obvious to me that the lindy hop from back in the day was getting lost. We had PLENTY of dancers who had the skill to potentially dance to Hellzapoppin', but who had just not been hearing it on a regular basis. I kept playing them, but it became a challenge to turn those songs into more than just jam songs.

Finally, about 2 years ago, Andy Reid and I started to deliberately integrate the original music of all tempos into our sets. We got away from the local hodgepodge event where Chick Webb was looked at with disdain. We offered free lessons to new people. They had no idea (and still don't) that Cantaloop had ever existed. The newbies are dancing hard and fast. They are also dancing to everything else, but that floor is full at ALL tempos.

I guess what I am trying to say is that my taste has been on all sides of the music at different times, and I have always loved what I had been playing. The people around me had also been enthusiastic. Now I just see djing as an opportunity to expose people to the beautiful jazz that I have come to love and find so brilliant. I have been accused of being an ass when I say that we are not here to just give the crowd what they want. We can also introduce them to things they didn't know they wanted. We are providing them with their experience of music. I am now talking about the grassroots effort of keeping dancing alive on the home front. That power IS in the hands of teachers, venue coordinators, and djs. If they don't want to experience variety, then they will keep it from their local scene. I think that they owe it to their local dance communities to keep some level of variety so that they don't handicap their dancers. Close-mindedness and limitationon ANY level is just not cool.

That being said, Cantaloop really DOES suck and hip-hop lindy doesn't really exist.

yedancer · #75 Post by **yedancer** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:26 am

shortyjul wrote:Now I just see djing as an opportunity to expose people to the beautiful jazz that I have come to love and find so brilliant. I have been accused of being an ass when I say that we are not here to just give the crowd what they want. We can also introduce them to things they didn't know they wanted. We are providing them with their experience of music. I am now talking about the grassroots effort of keeping dancing alive on the home front. That power IS in the hands of teachers, venue coordinators, and djs. If they don't want to experience variety, then they will keep it from their local scene. I think that they owe it to their local dance communities to keep some level of variety so that they don't handicap their dancers. Close-mindedness and limitationon ANY level is just not cool.

I agree. I have actively been trying to introduce people in our scene to more diverse music over the past year or so. I still play the slower more modern stuff, but I play a lot more original stuff. It has definitely had a noticeable effect.