3934  Rhythm, Race, Gender

Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:49:29 -0700
From: steve pastor <tang0man2005@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Rhythm, Race, Gender

Sergio wrote in his recent post that "Lack of rhythm applies mostly to the American inhibited white male, it does not apply to women or black people."

He also mentions that he dances country western in one of his posts.

Well, thank goodness there is now a country western song "Alcohol" by Brad Paisley that includes a line about how alcohol is "helpin' white people dance". Actually, when people become uninhibited with the help of alcohol, they don't find the music so much as get on the dance floor and do a bunch of moves.

It would be easy to argue that being a slave to the music is being inhibited, although I don't want to go there.

The video for this song not surprisingly features white people (both men and women, thank you very much) moving arrhythmically to the song.

I very much respect Sergio's opinions, and his knowledge of Argentine tango, but I write to express a difference of opinion here.

I have been dancing at country bars for well over a decade, and I certainly won't argue with the fact that the men don't dance on the beat or with the music. And, although some of the slow songs meander at times, with no discernible rhythm, and some change rhythm within the same song, most have pretty definite percussion marking the beat.

After dancing with lots of women, however, I have come to the conclusion that many of them can't dance to the music either. The most common problem is constantly trying to dance faster than the slow songs, but there are others.

This happens not only at country western places. I have also found a fair number of women, as well as men, who don't dance to the music when dancing tango .

There are also non-whites who defy the stereotype, and can't find the beat.

I would caution about painting with too broad a brush when writing about rhythm, race, and gender.

Steve





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