the music, part II: west coast swing

Usher. It is nigh on impossible to find a photo of this man with his shirt on.

Perhaps one of the reasons that west coast swing does not yet have the same following as lindy hop is west coast swing's versatility and its lack of association with a particular musical genre.

When I hear music from the Big Band era or a rock'n'roll tune and I start tapping my feet I also picture a certain look or style of outfit and start thinking about swing-outs and rock steps. West coast swing, however, does not have a 'look' (although it does have a few cliché wardrobe requirements that I shall mention in a later post) and as it can be danced to just about anything it also doesn't have a specific 'sound' either.

For this reason, I think the versatility of west coast swing is a bit of a double-edged sword but one of the big positives for me is that it lets me dance to R&B. For the benefit of any purists I actually mean contemporary R&B and the stuff that blurs the lines with pop music, rather than the soul or funk-infused Motown equivalent; so Usher, Boyz II Men, R Kelly, Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake that kind of thing. Yeah, I know my credibility just dropped in the eyes of some but I feel no shame. In fact I'll even go one further and say Justin Bieber is actually capable of greatness as I think his collaboration with Tyga on Wait for a Minute is one of the best west coast swing songs out.

...and now a short pause for some to reassess a few life choices as they come to terms with learning that one of their favourite songs features the Biebster...

As I said in my previous post, I can trace my love of the old swing music to growing up listening to my parents' music but my love of R&B comes from slightly different origins.

On a family holiday when I was a wee'un I made friends with some kids from the US who introduced me to the work of a now fairly prominent white rapper and some other guy who, based on his title at least, appeared to be combining music with a medical career. This was an entire genre of music that I had never previously encountered and I was quite taken by the bass, kicks and snares, thankfully unaffected by the lyrics but sadly very curious about the fashion (this latter point resulted in some highly questionable sartorial decisions which I am convinced cost me a date with a major crush - apparently such clothes were not designed with skinny, white Northern Irish kids in mind).

My interest in the music, however, developed from rap and hip-hop to the lighter, pop-blended R&B with its slower rhythms and rich, cheese-sprinkled melodies and dancing to this stuff is a lot of fun. Much like a Big Band or rock'n'roll tune has me bouncing, a lot of these R&B tunes just make me want to move (Usher's Pop Ya Collar and LL Cool J's Phenomenon remain two of my all-time favourites) and as the music is slower it makes hitting the breaks even more satisfying and provides a lot of opportunity for personal expression.

As I have said already, west coast swing's incredible versatility means dancing it isn't just limited to a single genre of music. I've been to several events that have played the odd blues, country, Americana, classical or even deep house tune and once you've calibrated yourselves to the tempo you can cut loose and swing away to just about anything and it is this opportunity for experimentation with such a wide variety of music that is one of the reasons west coast swing is so appealing.