Non traditional music

Simplemente got me thinking again about non-traditional music.

When I was three or four months new to dancing tango I went on a holiday to Sicily for about a week.  The holiday was organised by an Italian tango dance teacher. The others on the holiday danced in or near London. On one of the last days we were all sitting on the terrace in a non-dancing workshop, chatting about music. I asked the teacher what he thought about electro-tango.  He looked somewhere between uncomfortable and disappointed.  That music was played often by my teachers at the time, in their tandaless milongas of random music, which nobody who wasn’t or hadn’t been in their classes ever attended.   It wasn't until much later that I realised this is common in milongas that play non-tango, or neo-tango music.

- Well, said the Italian dance teacher. It isn't what I like.

- Why not? I persisted. A lot of people get up to dance that music...

From my perspective and at that stage, everyone danced well. He looked sceptical but there were some murmers of agreement.

- ...even in Glasgow! I blurted, thinking of the monthly dances in the grand hall in Maryhill that were extant at that time. My lessons were not in a city and in my blinkered view at that time Glasgow was the apogee of the social dancing. But from the atmosphere on the terrace in Sicily I could feel some people were uncomfortable or preparing for an expected controversy around traditional and non-traditional music. The teacher spoke about layers and complexity in the traditional music. I felt a bit lost. Then he said a lot of people gradually come to prefer traditional music. After that, I more or less forgot about this conversation - or thought I did.