Line dancers

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

In France?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4036375.ece

Steve Feldman · From: Central MA USA

Geez - I hope it doesn't migrate over here to Switzerland. Line dancing makes me unconfortable just watching it!

Maybe it's no worry. The concept of vinagrette dressing seems to have stepped from France directly to Italy (or vice versa), bypassing Switzerland completely. Same thing with good beer, unfortunately. You have to be careful about what you drink around here.

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Line Dancers- The death of live music in the great North East!(along w/ the crackdown on drinking and driving)
I once had line dancer come up and tell me I played I song 7 beats per minute differently than the record. I stopped playing out shortly thereafter.
I cannot repeat my response to his comment here... Mad

Janice Brooks · From: Pleasant Gap Pa

Could we move this to music?

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Ya move it to Music and it dies a quick death. My band used to play at clubs that catered to line dancers. I'd always get the band to slip in one bar of 3/4 in a 4/4 song. The confusion on the dancefloor was monumental!

Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

Maybe we can export all the line dancers to France.
Make them all dance in one direction toward what ever ocean they are closest to.
Look out CrowBear

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

i confirm the news folks
Line dancing here in France is the big fad
70 % of country concerts or festivals are expressively for line dancing Whoa!

darn shame now is'nt it ?
i played w: a band for a year & got fed up cause it was just cover tunes
the line dancers want the musik to be just like the record otherwise they can't dance
many don't even understand the lyrics but "love" country music
the french might be chauvinist when it comes to that visceral relation between france & the us, but they don't own up that they're following a fad that is'nt their culture but an american one
i get a real kick in tellin' them that they're attending a costume ball dressed up as american cowboys & cowgirls
doctors, bakers, office managers, clerks, sales reps, wine merchants all gettin'disguised & showin' off
i tell 'em that ain't Country
why back home, we don't take them duds off
we keep on all week
we live , breath, sleep, eat & make love Country
i've been part of a country music festival in my region for the last 8 years. 60% of the crowd are line dancers who bring their own cds (even p.a.s !)their own food & tents or buses & give us all types of reprimands cause the bands don't play them line dance tunes
obviously we try to give them an education & propose other styles of country musik
it's still a long haul
Mercy ! Winking

Good one Bo !

line dance classes & courses are mushrooming & the girls are each others throats on who's the best teacher
no wonder the french govt wants in
there's money to be made off this fad

Barry Blackwood · Posted 31 May 2008 6:43 am

It will take a little while, but soon there will be nothing there where live music once existed. They're like dancing locusts who will strip a nightclub clean in a matter of weeks, leaving only a bad restaurant in it's place. Trust me, they will soon become the bane of the country scene there like they have here ..... Muttering

Wolfgang Bednarz · From: 97848 Rechtenbach/GERMANY

Line dancers....this people was the reason that I stop playing live music. In the last band, I play 7 years , 50 - 60 gigs in the year for line dancers.
Every weekend, I was going crazy, I had no more fun,so i stop`t this year from one day to the other. I have my peace now.

Greetings
Wolfgang

Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

Has anyone seen Alan Jackson's latest video "Good Time"?
I think it's pretty cool. The longest line dance in the country. Smart marketing, he'll sell more of his new CD intitled "Good Time"! Smile

Barry Blackwood · Posted 31 May 2008 9:23 am

Alright Thresa - there's one vote for the reviled line dancers. Muttering

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

I hate to sound harsh...but...I am slowly compiling a list of "Embarrassments to Humanity". I had completely forgotten about line dancing Laughing

Barry, the locust comment is truly funny! Stomp, stomp, clap!
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Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

Barry,
If line dancing brings one person to country music, it's "Good Time"! Smile

Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

A little line dance history. Up north there have always been line dances. They did the stroll and dances like it on Bandstand when it was televised from Philly from the early 50's.
In country music, at least up here, during the Urban Cowboy era club Dj's and bands would play a line dance each set to allow the girls who did not have dance partners (or couldn't get anyone to ask her)to dance with others like them. It went along with clogging that some would do to a blue grassy tune like Rocky Top, which I always considered like a polka. The 38, flying 8, & tush push have been around for 25+ years.
When John Anderson did "Swingin'" someone invented a silly line dance to go along with it. When Achey Breaky came out, there was another line dance, then B&D did Boot Scootin Boogie and it was off to the races. Line dancers started to outnumber the couples, line dance teachers started promoting themselves and soon were making more bread than the pickers and had followings. People started wearing western costumes to dance in, carrying in their special dancing boots,sold to them by the dance teachers, and changing into them at their tables. Everyone who knew a bunch of line dances became a teacher and a dj, even the most ungraceful, stiff backed and tight hipped robots.
They mostly drank water. The clubs started loosing money. Pickers and DJ's who really knew the music were out of work. Clubs closed faster that crap thru a goose.
My biggest gripe was that they would make a request for a dance, not a song. I don't play dances I play music, as a picker or as a DJ. The dumba@@ dance teachers never told them they could do a dance to any tune that had the right feel.
Even now, if we go into a new club, we make sure we get the line dancers attention right away. We call a few couples dances like "heres one you can El Paso to, a little tune from GeorgeStrait" and we kick it off then count off the dance for the dumba@@es. Then we'll call a couple line dances, tell an inside joke while waiting for the cattle to bunch up, kick off the tune and count it off for the dancers... we always get invited back.
Seriously, I dislike the line dancers but I love to pick, so there is a compromise happening. We are not doing a concert, we are entertaining the herd. We get to play a couple of our own tunes every night, they dance to them, and we pocket some bread. I'm ok with that.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

Theresa, I find that it doesn't bring them to country
music. They'd rather dance to "Wild, Wild West",
"Electric Slide", or just about anything besides country, and gradually the people who care for country just stop coming rather than endure this tripe.
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Bo Borland · From: South Jersey -

I agree with Theresa here. As long as the club owners control the line dancers and give equal time to the couples everything is good.
When they let the line dancers call the shots... it's over Johnny!

Barry Blackwood · Posted 31 May 2008 11:32 am

Bo, when I read your posts, it's like deja vu - BAD deja vu!!
Laughing

Theresa, you're telling the story from the line dancers point of view, and we're telling it from the musicians point of view, and to coin a phrase, "that's what happens when two worlds collide."
Muttering

Clyde M., exactly my experience as well!

Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

Barry,
I don't know why you object so to line dancers? People are dancing and having a good time at bars.
Did it start in Texas? It doesn't matter as long as you have a crowd to play to.
Without the crowd you don't have a gig.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 31 May 2008 1:36 pm

I don't know if this is anyone else's experience, but in my case the crowds ruined the gigs. With the line dancers came the DJ's, the DJ's replaced the bands, the line dance clique didn't spend any money and ran the regular patrons off, and the clubs they invaded eventually dried up. At that point, there was nothing left of a (musical)career to salvage. End of story. Muttering

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

If your in the Sacramento, Ca. area, once a month the "Sacramento Western Swing Society" has a Sunday dance with live bands once a month. When you go in the door there is a sign that reads in part, "No Line Dancing-this venue is for "Swing Dancing with partners only". They usually have crowd of two to three hundred people. It is like a time warp back to the ballroom and barn dances of the 40's and 50's. The bands are usually eight to ten pieces playing good western swing music. It's like a big "family" gathering and nobody is a stranger.
Last time I was up there was about a year ago where I had a reunion with Bobby Black and Peewee Whitewing. In 1992 the three of us were inducted into the Western Swing's Society "Hall of Fame".

Gregg Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn.,USA

I guess no one is happy when playing a gig, due to line dancers??

Howard Tate · From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.

I don't mind the line dancers so much, they look like they're having fun. I just get sick of hearing 'Stroking' and 'Cupid Shuffle' several times a night on every break. About once a month we play at the Toledo Bend VFW over in Texas. It's so nice to see some good Texas dancing. They do line dances too, just not exclusively.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 31 May 2008 3:29 pm

"I guess no one is happy when playing a gig, due to line dancers??"

Gregg, I don't know about "no one." As I previously stated, I don't know if this is anyone else's experience. Do they show up where you play?

By the way, thanks for the tip, Billy. Cool

Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

Barry,
Sorry, I posted under Gregg. No, you don't see alot of line dancing at the WHEEL
downtown Nashiville.
I can't say why. Maybe, cause it hasn't been so popular?

Steve Alcott · From: New York, New York, USA

I have a friend who refers to line dancers as "Dance Davidians." I recently played a job where the self-appointed line dance leader couldn't stand it if a couple danced independently; she would plant herself in their way and do the line dance dictated by the Supreme Line Dance Council for this particular song so they would have to dance around her.

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