Slave to the Beat

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Coming off the big critics thread, but on a slightly different tack, george points to a real issue which can't be denied -- the dom/sub aspect of the dancefloor. But is there anything particularly wrong with surrendering will on the dancefloor?

The whole job of the DJ is to control the crowd, to forge it into a crowd in the first place. Right now, on the radio, I'm told the mix is "Working You [me] Out" -- I don't have much choice in the matter.

The point being, I think, that its natural and healthy to enjoy surrendering power in certain circumstances (dancefloor, bedroom) and that this doesn't particularly imply a more generalized submission so much as the fufillment of certain innate human impulses.

Individuality never stood in contradiction to the massif anyway -- cf. Eisenstein on the development of his narratives from crowds to the role of individuals in crowds in his "Film and Sense". All this gets to some of the same questions we deal with w/r/t "rockism" and "authenticity" -- in a v.v. broad sense related to a philisophical misconception of "freedom" and "free will" which dates back centuries in most Enlightenment thought.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So, ahem, if this doesn't spin off in a particularly interesting direction, which I fear it won't, we can always turn this into a "B&D S&D".

My first nomination is Britney's "Slave 4 U".

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

first of all, ain't no mistakes allowed.

― ethan, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you.

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you.

Oh can't you see
You belong to me?

― sorry i just had it to hand, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but surely the dancefloor is an active place - and relative to most other public space far less "controlled" by any person or set of rules.

it's rock shows where you're expected to surrender, shut up, face front & do what you're told.

― fritz, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but surely the dancefloor is an active place - and relative to most other public space far less "controlled" by any person or set of rules.
So this is why you waltz when Basement Jaxx is playing? ;-)

― nathalie, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i thought it was when you were posting to one of george's threads ahahaha

― SitComs R Us, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Personally, central tenet of the dancefloor is the potential to be all introspective and ALONE, SO ALONE in the middle of, basically, a crowd - sure, it can (and is v.good when) it's total surrender, but it's more frequently a dialogue between impulse-to-surrender/impulse- to-see-yrself-in-contrast-to-dancefloor. Liberating, but liberating in context of desire or perceived/placebo for liberation? Or it could just be due to the general scarcity & expen$iveness of druggz0r in NZ.
(Bored - any Brit/Yanktypes S&D on good books about the intersection of music/drugs/space in kultur. I've heard wildly contrasting opinions on Energy Flash, f'rinstance . . . )

― Ess Kay, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You just don't want to be a DJ that can't control a crowd. You can find out real quick what will happen if you are not on point, and the reaction is not submissive. They will either leave the floor/establishment, or in some parts of the city, kick your ass for making them spend five dollars on a whack dj.

The flip side of this is that the dialectic between sub/dom can be particularly false in a situation that is not permanant. If you demand that your Dom beats you harder because you like it, you are not really submissive are you? If you put yourself in that position and create the situation, are you really on the bottom? The relationship between top and bottom is a bit more fluid than you might think.

― mt, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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