#Musicality lindy hop series#

Other examples of early swing dance styles include: The last example illustrates how the lack of one influencing element (black urban culture) can impact a regional dance style, even when performed to the same genre of music. The first two examples portray niche genres of music and dance, and illustrate the fact that Lindy Hop, though credited as an original form, was not the only original form of partnered swing like dancing. This accounts for the excitement generated by Dean Collins when he introduced the West Coast to Savoy style Lindy Hop swing dancing. Because the migration of black dance and music culture remained primarily east of the Mississippi river and northward along the East Coast, its influence on the west was minimal. On the West Coast, their style of swing dancing (to the same popular Jazz/Swing music driving Lindy Hop) remained in a more European ballroom tradition. In fact, the southwestern dance style known as the Texas Tommy is incorrectly cited by many as the inspiration for Lindy Hop swing dancing. In the 1930s, band leaders Milton Brown and Bob Wills combined the stringed instruments of Texas fiddle music with the brass and woodwinds of the popular big bands and created an entirely new genre of music known as Western Swing. The southwestern states were dotted with dance halls, juke joints, and honky tonks that generated its own brand of swing that relied heavily on stringed instruments such as the guitar, fiddle, dobro, banjo and upright bass. This clear channel AM powerhouse delivered Country music to nearly every state east of the Rocky Mountains and inspired a wide audience to Two-Step and Square Dance. Three years later the name was changed to the 'Grand Ole Opry' and today it remains the longest running live radio show in the world. On NovemNashville's WSM AM 650 launched the 'Nashville Barn Dance' radio show. Country music and its companion dance styles drew from rural and deep southern cultures (both black and white) and the Celtic cultures that settled in the Appalacian Mountains. Three detailed examples follow:ĭuring the years between 19 Jimmy Rodgers and The Carter Family recorded what would become the earliest examples of Country music. In the 1930's, while Lindy Hop was developing in Harlem under the heavy influence of black urban culture and Jazz/Swing music, other forms of partnered swing like dancing were being done all across the country.

This came at a time when the Swing/Jazz music that was driving Lindy Hop was simultaneously losing its status as the favored music of American popular culture and moving into the Be-Bop era that emphasized the artful expression of music over the needs of dancers. Lindy Hop was now only one form, only one style of swing dance. In the beginning the terms Lindy Hop and swing dancing were precise synonyms that described the same dance. By the end of the war in 1945, swing dance had become (as it remains today) a generic term that refers to a wide range of swing like dance styles.

#Musicality lindy hop series#

Part I of this series concluded during the war years of the early 1940s at the height of the Big Band Swing era. The Relationship Between Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop: Demographics West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop: Posture & Style Tom Moulton, Mixing Music and the 12' Singleĭean Collins, Hollywood Style Lindy Hop, and West Coast Swing The Relationship Between Lindy Hop and East Coast Swing The Refinement of Lindy Hop and JitterbugĪ Defense of the Refinement of Swing Dancingĭefining the East Coast Swing Dance Style Recognized Dance Organizations, Lindy Hop and Jitterbug Race and its Impact on Swing Music and Dance MUSIC: Jump Blues Swing and Rhythm & Blues The Congaroo Dancers, Lindy Hop's Last Gasp Click the icon to open the 1945-1983 slide show presentation.Īmerican Federation of Musicians (AFM) Strikeįrankie Manning: 'We could not swing to this music'