General Music Chat

Kind of sounds like Houston is living in the past now!

... Or maybe Houston is a boom town with a vibrant live music scene.

Greater LA is a big place and we can always find a place to play. Dancing to live rock music seems pretty rare though. We do play a bunch of classic Latin and R&B dance tunes but folks are pretty reserved and most our gigs are to an older crowd or a family street fair scene. Hip millennium clubs don't want us old dudes on stage.

Kind of sounds like Houston is living in the past now! Good for Haley and his band! Around here the only club dancing is at the places where they are playing EDM/hop-hop/dubstep sh*t - repetitive heavy bass line with big subwoofers shaking the place. The quality of the music doesn't matter, its only the beat that matters. And as the original article states - the 20-somethings there are boy/girlfriend hunting. Once they hook up, they don't return to those places.

You can have your current day situation Mike, I'll keep playing for the backward friendly folks down here in Texas!

Kind of sounds like Houston is living in the past now! Good for Haley and his band! Around here the only club dancing is at the places where they are playing EDM/hop-hop/dubstep sh*t - repetitive heavy bass line with big subwoofers shaking the place. The quality of the music doesn't matter, its only the beat that matters. And as the original article states - the 20-somethings there are boy/girlfriend hunting. Once they hook up, they don't return to those places.

You can have your current day situation Mike, I'll keep playing for the backward friendly folks down here in Texas!

Amen, brutha!!!


While it is true that "rockers" don't dance as much as "disco queens", that may have more to do with a setlist than the audience.

There are particular songs that always seemed to fill the dance floor, even if no one had danced all night. Here is a list of classic rock songs that I know will get rockers off their buffs....what is your list?


1. Mony, Mony - Billy Idol or Tommy James

2. Just Give Me Money - the Beatles

3. What I Like About You - The Romantics

4. Alright Now - Free

I've played Alright Now a couple of times in the last few months. It got the butts moving in their seats, but not up out of them!

Mike, you offered to help me with an issue I was having with a recording about 5 years ago. I have not forgotten that till this day. You even lined my ass out when I over-reacted after not reading another band mixers post completely. You give advise freely and always help on this site! You have rubbed me the wrong way more than a couple times. I could tell very early on after you came to this site what your political position was. One thing you North easterners should know, especially the ones that have not visited Texas should know is that we are a VERY friendly bunch of folks! I am proud to say that Ted represents a Real Texan. I am trying to say that when you guys in the rest of the country label us here in Texas as Backwards or backwoods please understand we take it as the HIGHEST compliment. Further we actually find it hilarious that you look down your noses like you are better lol! FYI we wear it as a badge!

I've played Alright Now a couple of times in the last few months. It got the butts moving in their seats, but not up out of them!

Then your drummer stinks

Jeff - I'm not looking down my nose on Houston/Texas at all. I know that Austin has one of the most modern and active music scenes around (but tough to get decent paying gigs because there are just TOO many bands). All I was doing is pointing out that Houston is now what things WERE like here, but aren't any longer.

On dancing - I went to see a local band I know about 2 months ago, who do nothing but danceable tunes - Aerosmith, ZZ top, you name it. The place was not large, but had a small dance floor in front of the band, and the seats were fairly full - with mostly over-40 year old people - friends of the band. No one was up dancing. Its just the way it is here. At another club a couple of weeks later, different band (same bass player), with a similar set of danceable tunes, but this place had barely a 4'x12' piece of floor in front of the band that could be used for dancing, and the audience was half over-40 and half under-30, the place was jammed. Still no dancing.

Mr. Haley

I'd like to add that Georgia too is a backward and dreadfully friendly place. Two army buddies visited earlier this year and we hit some joints in historic Roswell. People of all all ages - noisy and everything from bikers to bankers. Had a blast.

On the way home my British friend asked me, "Well then Mike - do you know everyone in town?"

I told him that it was just the way folks are around here!

Talbot

Yes sir Mr. Talbot I have been to Georgia and I fell in love with that state! It is a beautiful state filled with wonderful people!

Hey. All sorts of good comments!

There is no doubt that the public's needs/wants & local entertainment culture varies considerably around the continent, so I see everyone's observations & conclusions as valid.

I think that GuitarMikeB makes a great point. Dating habits have changed in a lot of the subcultures around North America, and in many cases, the idea of 'dating' for a while for before making a commitment (and, ya, 'hooking up'. lol) is less fashionable, so going out to see bands, do some dancing & chatting, etc is not as important to those millenials. For that crowd, a loud wild environment where you can check out the hotties & text them is more important than having interesting, creative music or being able to chat. (ironically, that was what disco was in the 70s!) However, in some social circles in some parts of the USA/Canada, the old-school dating rituals are still valued/expected, and it seems that country music is seen as a good genre for the 'slow, but sure' style of dating/socializing. One way or another, I'm not sure that there's much musicians can do about this trend except go with the flow.

IMHO, the other change with millenials is that entertainment is much more visually oriented now. My generation (baby boomers) looked to the radio for the main source of music, comedy, talk shows, interviews with up & coming artists, first listens to new albums, and so on. As far as TV went, it was important in terms of music as interviews with stars, variety show/talk show appearances, and the beloved "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" were the rare opportunity to see the bands whose music we & our peers had fallen in love with. So, we loved the music first (for whatever reasons) THEN discovered what they artists were really like, and the act of choosing bands/artists was a cerebral thing to some degree. Now, the visual image of the musicians is inseparable from their music, yet (understandably) the big show/fantasy story provided in videos is not part of a live music act in the local bar, so millenials are not drawn to it as much. Furthermore, except for a portion of the population, music doesn't have the cerebral/discussion-raising appeal it used to have, so hanging out to see live music to stimulate the mind & conversations just isn't happening as much either. As far as dancing goes, for the over-40 population, it may be that the crowd that still makes the effort to go out to see live music was never into the dance scene when they were younger, so nothing has really changed. However, at weddings, company parties, etc you get a wider variety of people that includes some of the old dancing/disco crowd.

BTW, the post with the list of sure-fire dance tunes could be the start of a very good thread, especially ones that do get the younger crowd up on the dance floor. The challenge is that certain songs go in & out of style, depending on whether they are used in a movie, a TV show, a commercial, a re-issue/mash-up, and a variety of other random factors. So choosing a set list to get people dancing will always be an experimental science to some degree.

Ok...enough said...just my thoughts...

cheers,

Derek