Speaking of young people not knowing how to have a good time, I chaperoned the Spearfish High School prom last night. No more than 10% of the students in attendance wore their expensive formal dresses and full tuxedos until the end of the dance. Many changed into street clothes as soon as Mom and Dad finished taking pictures at the Grand March.
Most of the "dancers" spent most of the evening in the strobe-lit dark in a sweaty clump, not facing their dates but grimly aping (I've never used that verb more accurately) the bump-and-grind they see on TV to menacing technobass devoid of joy or musicality. The only lyrics I found recognizable came in this modern hit (oh, another accurate word) from Wiz Khalifa:
So what we get drunk
So what we smoke weed
We're just having fun....
Then, for the last song, someone switched on the lights, and the D.J. broke out Hall and Oates, "You're Making My Dreams Come True." This isn't just my old-man nostalgia glasses speaking: for those three minutes, a lot of the kids looked happier than they had all night. They still weren't "dancing"—we're a good two or three generations removed from any sort of hand-to-hand, hand-to-hip Arthur Murray steppage. But the jumping and grooving (and I did witness a couple instances of disco pointing) the kids unleashed looked like more relaxed and freeing fun than a lot of them thought they'd been having for the preceding three hours pretending to be extras in a hip-hop video.
When Hall and Oates sound like a musical revelation, it's time to revamp the playlist.
Just dance, kids. Get some good music and dance.
Can you imagine Dick Clark's reaction to some of this "dancing" and some of this so-called music?
Cory you're coming dangerously close to sounding like 3000 years worth of elders lamenting the decline of the younger generation.
Now you kids get off my lawn!
Bah. Music today isn't that much worse than music int he 60s, 70s, 80s... Pop music has always been horrendous. The difference is the genrefication (this needs to be a word) of music is the real difference. Back in the 60s, there wasn't a "rock" station, and a different "alternative rock" station, and one for classic, and another for metal, and another for punk, and a separate one just for Pearl Jam.
Most of the talented musicians just don't play pop music, is all, which has always been the case, since forever.
I can see where Cory's coming from, though. I'm already telling kids to get off my lawn, and I'm only in my 20's...
The dancing kids do now is more democratic/tribal in nature. It does allow everyone to take part. You don't have to spend time in counting and endless muscle memory exercises. You just go out there and dance.
The trend started way back in the jazz age with black kids (mostly) inventing lindy and charleston. It's like what later happened in basketball, where one-on-one skills became more and more important. Soloing within a more patterned lead-follow format became a part of the dance, and now it is almost the entire dance.
I'm going act as the angriest old man of all. (Actually, I may be the angriest old man I know.)
Proms should just go away. If the event ever had a useful function, it was to teach students how to behave in a formal setting. That function has long since passed.
Now, the event apparently functions as "the best night of a student's life." Yes, I actually heard a parent say that, and judging by the fact that some parents show up 2 hours early to grand march so that they occupy prime picture taking seats, a lot of them must agree with that misguided soul.
These kids have a life expectancy of 80 or 85. If prom is truly the best night of one's life, and they go to prom when they are 17 and 18, they have over 60 years of going downhill to anticipate. Why would any loving parent want to do that to their child?
I recall the self-proclaimed champions of morality had a fit about 5-6 years ago about kids at prom doing "dirty dancing," which is more or less just a form of blues dancing invented by blacks in the juke joints of the South. I believe some of the South Dakota schools districts caved in and banned this type of partner dancing. So, if you want to blame someone for the lack of "real dancing," blame the adults.
I prefer good lead-follow dancing, nothing is worse than choreographed competitive ballroom dancing. Totally fake.
The money squandered on gowns and tuxedos is an obscene waste. Put the guys in black pants and white shirts and let the girls do that too or white blouses and black skirts. Ties optional or required. Pocket protectors completely optional.
Anyway, they might at least then have some useful clothes for the future.
As a previous poster indicated, "the best night of their life" is both hopeless hyperbola and also terribly depressing.
But then, I have been told I couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time when I did venture onto a dance floor.
What passes for "music" now is trash and gibberish.
Should be "hopeless hyperbole" rather than "hopeless hyperbola".
"Democratic" dancing—Donald! I dig what you're saying. However, I can still see a difference between the seemingly joyful bouncing about that some kids did and the (let's call it what it is) male-oriented masturbation performed by others.
Indeed, I did feel old. However, on the bright side, a number of students expressed to me the same frustration at the playlist and the apish behavior of their classmates.
Some of the hip hop/club dance moves are gross and unnecessary, but many are variations on jazz dance. I'm not sure what you saw. I'm sure most kids are like 60 year old me was when I was that age. You just copy what you see others doing and don't think too much about it. If you take blues dance and dirty it up, you get Dirty Dancing, a hit movie that adults might like to watch until their kids start trying it out. At its heart the youngsters are just doing physical expression, evey though a lot of it is derivative and copycatish.
Is the "Get Off My Lawn" phase a right of passage or the side effect of forgotten (on purpose?) youth?
The best couple I ever saw dance was Jerry H and his wife.
As my high school classmates will agree, the best music was in the 80's.
Actually, Taunia, "Get off my lawn" is a perfectly reasonable response to my neighbor's pooping dog and Keystone XL.
http://wonkette.com/470551/tampa-strip-clubs-to-be-disappointed-when-hordes-of-straight-gopers-fail-to-come