Do you 'sway' to rock music?

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I think the question is self-explanatory

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

thanx AP

As I think I've said elsewhere there seems to be one main way to move to rock n roll these days - utter immobility except for subtle "dig it, man" head bobbing perhaps coupled with embarrassing Nicolas Cage-style gentle thigh-slap (if at home this is seated; if in club it's with head peering up and possibly over person in front of you, standing on tip-toes) -- point is, "swaying" sounds LOVELY and i think I'd like to do it but I'm suspicious that it could require a specific kind of Peter Paul and Mary aoundtrack to be effective.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I do the tapping on the steering wheel thing a lot, and have been mocked a couple time by other drivers. Nothing is as great as when you are flat out nailed for singing along. I have been known to speed up/slow down to avoid this as I am a self-conscious goof.

― bnw, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"aoundtrack" = i now know this is a typo, but originally i read it as some bizarre combination of soundtrack and adorandacks (sp?) - the mountains - which made me flash on granola, peter paul and mary, etc. i thought this was hilarious. i need sleep.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

also, i try not to sway or headnod because it's way too INDIE. dance you fuckers!

― jess, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i know this is solely a US thing too, so save the explanation of indie being danced to in the UK, etc.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have sway danced once.

― Gale, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm fucking indie; I sway and headbob like a goddamn asshole, and I'm happy doing it, hell yeah! I cross my arms, too - fucking badass, man. The last show I was @, I was full on headBANGING. (No room to dance, damn it - just enough to look up @ the band in awe and ROCK! Back and forth, that is.)

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gale hi! you MUST tell us about this SWAY DANCING and how it's done, and maybe where? and maybe jess can explain what's "solely U.S." about a swaying motion? can other nationalities not attempt this?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Sundays are good swaying music: it's do with the acoustic strum rather than the metallik riff being the - hem hem - propulsive motor.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I do not attend a rock concert unless there is seating available at the venue.

― jel, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't find myself swaying very often. When I do I get very very embarrassed. Do some people do it deliberately?

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I just get a sense of empathic embarassment when some rock music comes on in a place where people will dance. Last time I was on a dancefloor and rock music came on it was so crowded I couldn't leave. I wanted to shoot myself. I mean it's bad enough when you're in a cheesey dance club and people start singing along, but when people are singing along to rock music and trying to dance it's fuckin terrible.

If I went to a gig I guess it'd be different, but I can't see myself paying money to see a rock band in the near future. This is partly because I amn't buying much rock anymore, partly because the last few rock concerts I saw were shite, and partly because concert tickets are expensive over here.

How the hell do you actually lose it and dance to rock music? I mean, MAYBE the Pixies or someone, but even they are more of a "in-the-house-on-your-own type" thing. I am confident enough dancing to dance music, but quite the opposite with rock music.

This all could be related to my attitude problem regarding clubs that don't play dance music and dance music alone, and the people who seem to frequent these places. In fact I'm pretty sure it is. Somehow.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

embarassment
Ronan has cuaght New Variant PBD!
― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have caught Old Variant Italitisis.

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dancing to music has two basic components - rhythm and recognition. In dancing to 'dance' music the rhythm component - the part of the song that is making it physically hard to not dance - is key, though recognition plays a big part ("TUNE!"). In dancing to 'rock' the recognition part is probably more important - dancing is a physical way to express how fantastic the record is. Rhythm is also crucial, but as a DJ who plays to non-'dance' crowds it is annoying how people will often only dance to songs they know.

Also there are certain kinds of dances that are much better done - perhaps can only be done - to rock music: headbanging, slamdancing, etc.

― Tom, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have always felt v.uncomfortable with the 'recognition' element that Tom identifies, except when I am very drunk. That perhaps explains my general aversion to INDIE DISCOS.

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Another reason I like dance music clubs is that even if people don't know the song, most have come TO DANCE and they'll dance anyway, there's a unity of purpose in that respect that I'm not sure I've found in other clubs. There's also a case that dance fans are more flexible (not literally, although it's hard to dance in strokes drainpipe trousers), ie they'll dance to anything with a beat, (Obv. this devalues that unity of purpose thing quite a bit, since drugs usually play a part and it's more "oh lets get fucked and dance to something").

I haven't been to a good indie club ever, or even a "proper" one perhaps so I don't know, I will say that the more eclectic clubs seem to be, the more mixed the crowd are, the more other peoples agendas get in the way of me having a good time. I will say the more people trying to score members of the opposite sex in clubs, the more shit I find them.

(also Nick can you explain that joke?) PBD? Pete Baran Disorder?

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You've got to sway just to make it today.

― Tim, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Of course there's those fools with the furry boots and angel wings and glowsticks and shirts off and whistles. just in case it seems like I have nothing bad to say about dance music.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan do you try to score members of the opposite sex in the same way as you try to score drugs? Or do you mean score them like with a Stanley knife?

― Emma, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan, yes.

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Or do you mean score them with a stanley knife"

Jesus I never asked for disturbing windows into your failed past relationships.

I clearly used "score" referring to the sordid activities of others, and not those of myself.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The recognition factor and the 'other agendas' Ronan talks about do combine to make indie discos exquisitely embrassessing places sometimes - and I'm talking here as a regular attendee and DJ. The sight of people bouncing around on the dancefloor while trying to mouth the words AND make eye contact can be pretty horrible, especially if you suspect that what is going through the head of the dancer is "If she sees I know all the words to this great Smiths song she will want to sleep with me".

― Tom, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You mean THIS DOESN'T WORK????!!!! Another childhood illusion shattered. It's not been a good morning.

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't say it didn't work Nick. I met my girlfriend at a disco actually though what brought us together was thinking "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a shit thing to be playing rather than a mutual knowledge of "Bigmouth Strikes Again".

― Tom, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not sure if mouthing the words to songs is worse than or as bad as those people who hang around the dancefloor dancing beside ANY girl on it who is unfortunate enough to be on her own. At the risk of sounding like a hippy, they give off such bad vibes. I have so much pent up rage from having to go to shit "clubs" with my class which are full of guys from my school last year whose idea of humour was getting their lads out in public.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Best thing to do if that happens is strike at the offending parts with a duvet, Ronan.

― Tom, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd just like to point out that N. was dancing like a mad thing for a large portion of the night on Friday....... at an Indie Disco!

― chris, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

To think sleeping naked is odd is to be alone in the world. bastards. I hope you get some filthy disease from your duvet.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I refer you the 'horribly drunk' subclause. And the fact that just standing around being snooty is very boring and attention seeking.

― N., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I sway thru the crowd to an empty space

― jamesmichaelward, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick, horribly drunk is no excuse. You should have drank more and sat down looking sick and thus avoided snootiness.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I rock out, do the mashed potato, salsa, the, uh, hip-hop dance thing (which doesn't rilly have a name, I don't think) and when I'm confined, I twich uncontrollably.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Di mentioned to me that apparently Dunedin is the land of not-much-dancing, much to her chagrin, so I promised her I would help up the amount in my own way. This might involve swaying.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's time a can of Ned was opened on the dancefloors of dunedin.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fear, friend, fear.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dancing and standing around at indie discos are both silly and attention seeking? Hey, c'mon guys, like, lighten up already! I like dancing at indie discos and do it as frequently as I am allowed.

― Ally C, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hi Tracer, When you say sway dancing, are you meaning solo or with a partner?

― Gale, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I come from the school of pogo-ing and frenetic arm flailing meself. These days though, I have been known to do more of a grindy groovy type thing as I'm beginning to *gasp* lose my 'inexhaustible' youthful exuberance (having Fibromyalgia doesn't help much either). Swaying though - feh. I mean, unless there is literally no space to move in at all.

― Kim, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've noticed at the clubs that play half-way acceptable music people sort of only half-way dance - sort of lurch around the dance floor, trying to draw the least amount of attention towards themselves. I find myself guilty of this. At home, alone, when I am dancing--it's nuts. Furniture is destroyed. And it should never be seen to the human eye. I am sooooo guilty of swaying.

― Mandee, Thursday, 14 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mandee you say that like it's a bad thing.

(Gale, YOU mentioned it and I don't know what it is, so you have to tell US what you mean! Is it like ballroom dancing with some extra hip action? :))

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 14 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't really know to tell you the truth... I'm not really good at dancing unless it's polka, oldfashiond waltz ( Straus) Slow dancing, square dancing ( Please no bad comments on the SQUARE DANCING)

― Gale, Thursday, 14 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i really enjoy square-dancing.

you'd think being forced to do it twice a month in elementary gym class would make me hate it forever, but no.

hmm i don't think they square-dance in the too-hip-for-its-own-pants pacific northwest.

i'm a swayer, but only 'cause hipster kids make me nervous.

lamers.

― nancy b., Thursday, 14 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only dances I don't really care for are line dancing and dancing to rapp. That's just me... ( TOOOO Old!)

― Gale, Thursday, 14 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nancy, I'm feeling ya. The lack of movement from other saddo indie twerps prohibits me from freeing my mind/ass. (Never mind my own inhibitions.) I say to you, and other folks worried of such stuff, TO HELL WITH IT! It's your thang (ow), do what you wanna do. If you need to dance, DANCE! Don't let the scowls & pouts & kvetching of those around you give you schpilkus; the smart ones will respect you, the band will love you, and you will love yourself! YES!

― David Raposa, Friday, 15 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hehe. you're right dave. sorta. dancing is soooooo much better than not.

but, there's something disconcerting about being the only dancer in a room. pardon the raverhippie talk, but...the vibe can be all wrong. i can't really dance in public with a bad vibe.

of course, that probably just comes down to personal inhibition. damnit.

― nancy b., Friday, 15 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

rock music makes me puke, does that count?

― maryann, Friday, 15 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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