Expanding our musical horizons

[Wolfgang]

Prompted by the current Dancing with the Stars series, I've started thinking about how very narrow many peoples' musical comfort zone seems to be.
Others have complained that the aforementioned 'reality' show is shallow for offering nothing but old standards, show tunes you hear every time you go to K-Mart, and blockbuster movie themes, which are twisted like pretzels in order to conform to the time and beat requirements of whatever ballroom ,latin, or other dance the couples are supposed to be performing.
To the point where one is surprised to see anyone dancing a tango to anything other than 'Hernando's Hideaway'...........
Star Wars theme?
Why not.....(why not indeed........)
How about a polka to the theme from Sesame Street?
'Doncha wish your girlfriend was HOT like me'?
Why, a waltz, of course........
Cha-cha-ing to 'Strangers in the Night'?
You go, boy........

Similar applies to skating, in every competition or exhibition, there seems to be a quite limited number of tunes used by ALL the skaters, sometimes it almost feels like there is some kind of 'official' skating music juke box thou shalt use lest thou be expelled from the rink foaheva.
Certainly, some music lends itself more to skating than other, but just looking at my own modest CD and tape (yes, they do still exist....) collection, I could probably run my own little radio station and have a looser rotation than most of the local, actual on-air stations.
Sad.

Tango being a personal favorite of mine, and the memory of the awful Lightsaber (TM) performance as well as Mrs. Gibbons' sleepy Sunday school teacher 'tramp' still shudderingly fresh , I'll harp on that one for now, just transfer selfsame comments to other dances, they'll fit.
How's about someone from ABC - one of the world's most powerful media conglomerates - going down to the local music store and picking out a few actual tango CDs?
I did, mah own li'l self- the tango selection in this part of the Great Southwest being somewhat less than stellar, but in evidence - find 4 or 5 of them, and by gosh and golly, not a one of them had anything even remotely Star Warsey on them.......
Jus' tango.
Argentine mostly, some 'American' (= what most people in this country think of when they think of tango).
Oh yes, and maybe next time, instead of having the star tell us how much they're 'feeling' a particular dance, or how much they're 'getting into the character', just let them show us on the dance floor, 'kay....?

 

[SeaniBu]

I think I see why but I don't feel it should or does make the difference in viewers # as they might think. Well there is to possibility that the "proper music" is to complicated for the "Stars" to get in rhythm with. ?????

Like the topic, great post and can't think of a thing to add but ITA.

 

[julietvalcouer]

"Don'cha...." is a fox trot. (Been done, at Ohio Star Ball, in the pro division showcase for the American Smooth final. IIRC, the couple that won the Showcase section danced to Nirvana.) I'm trying to work out in my head what "Strangers..." is...I think you could probably do American Rhumba to it. Which means if you add the cha cha count, it works. The only reason why not Star Wars is there is no way that music (especially the disco adaptation) has the right beat for a tango.

You could not use Argentine Tango music for American Smooth or International Standard tango. (DWTS uses a sort of ersatz International style.) The tempo is wrong and the Argentine is a completely different dance with very different steps and posture.

To be brutally honest, in real ballroom competition, we really aren't listening to the music that much beyond the beat. (Except in Paso. Because it's the same damn song all the time. Please, God, let someone out there find SOMETHING besides Espana Cani for that dance....) The melody doesn't matter except for showcase and even then it's not what we're following, it's what determines the costumes and character. In fact one of my really bad habits is a tendency to listen to the melody--it's not relevant. The beat is.