missmagpie
My dance rant:
Dance for me has and always will be the physical representation of music. Without music there can be no dance, and the style of dance is fully dependent on what music is playing. Thus the two are so closely interlinked that I cannot dance to bad music, or if I cannot stand the style of dance.
This can be seen repeatedly throughout dance forms, and the energy evoked in each kind. Ballroom dancing of the Viennese Walzes has an entirely different ambiance to contemporary jazz dance. Salsa is different to tango is different to breakdancing. What connects them all is a common love and respect for the beauty of the music. Each person has their own individual taste in music and therefore are adept at different styles of dance. Yes, even all you shy people out there who say you can't probably can dance. It's just your insecurity that gets in the way.
However, after saying all that there is one style of dance that absolutely disgusts me. Moshing. It's not dance. It's not beautiful. It's not fun. It's pure channelled aggression. Sure that sort of thing has it's place, but not in a night club. A friend of mine likened it to the movie "Fight Club" but with fewer rules. It's like all the kids out there were trying to kill each other. Perhaps it started with the intention of dance (the people who start by jumping up and down in the center, who end up pushing people, who end up pushing back, who end up knocking other people onto the floor who end up hurt. Or sometimes dead.) but there are some people on the sidelines who deliberately push people into the fray for fun. That's not dance. That's bestial aggression in an enclosed environment where people get seriously hurt. Like a pitfight or mob.
I'm a relatively delicate person. If I go near a mosh pit I get hurt. In fact last night in Fibber's I got hit in the face quite hard by careless moshing drunkards. And when they're drunk enough they'll mosh to stuff that I'd like to dance to. So we end up with conflicting interests on the same dance floor; They want to hurt stuff, and I don't want to get hurt. I also want to dance.
This is where partially my disdain for some metal music comes into it. Metal is so uniform and unconducive to delicate dance that mosh was invented. In fact, moshing is pretty much the only way to dance to metal. The music itself is aggressive and fierce, therefore obviously the dancing for it is going to get people hurt. That's pretty much why I don't like most metal. That and I can barely tell the difference between one song and another, they all sound so similar. As far as I can tell they're all about killing themselves, killing their friends or killing their girlfriends. And although there may be a place for that I don't want it on my dance floor.
Thank you. /rant
I am aware there are many metal fans out there and that the aforementioned points are all my opinion. I'd actually be quite interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Dance for me has and always will be the physical representation of music. Without music there can be no dance, and the style of dance is fully dependent on what music is playing. Thus the two are so closely interlinked that I cannot dance to bad music, or if I cannot stand the style of dance.
This can be seen repeatedly throughout dance forms, and the energy evoked in each kind. Ballroom dancing of the Viennese Walzes has an entirely different ambiance to contemporary jazz dance. Salsa is different to tango is different to breakdancing. What connects them all is a common love and respect for the beauty of the music. Each person has their own individual taste in music and therefore are adept at different styles of dance. Yes, even all you shy people out there who say you can't probably can dance. It's just your insecurity that gets in the way.
However, after saying all that there is one style of dance that absolutely disgusts me. Moshing. It's not dance. It's not beautiful. It's not fun. It's pure channelled aggression. Sure that sort of thing has it's place, but not in a night club. A friend of mine likened it to the movie "Fight Club" but with fewer rules. It's like all the kids out there were trying to kill each other. Perhaps it started with the intention of dance (the people who start by jumping up and down in the center, who end up pushing people, who end up pushing back, who end up knocking other people onto the floor who end up hurt. Or sometimes dead.) but there are some people on the sidelines who deliberately push people into the fray for fun. That's not dance. That's bestial aggression in an enclosed environment where people get seriously hurt. Like a pitfight or mob.
I'm a relatively delicate person. If I go near a mosh pit I get hurt. In fact last night in Fibber's I got hit in the face quite hard by careless moshing drunkards. And when they're drunk enough they'll mosh to stuff that I'd like to dance to. So we end up with conflicting interests on the same dance floor; They want to hurt stuff, and I don't want to get hurt. I also want to dance.
This is where partially my disdain for some metal music comes into it. Metal is so uniform and unconducive to delicate dance that mosh was invented. In fact, moshing is pretty much the only way to dance to metal. The music itself is aggressive and fierce, therefore obviously the dancing for it is going to get people hurt. That's pretty much why I don't like most metal. That and I can barely tell the difference between one song and another, they all sound so similar. As far as I can tell they're all about killing themselves, killing their friends or killing their girlfriends. And although there may be a place for that I don't want it on my dance floor.
Thank you. /rant
I am aware there are many metal fans out there and that the aforementioned points are all my opinion. I'd actually be quite interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
I don't mosh or do straight metal, but I do like punk rock. Specifically, melodic punk, or those variations of punk rock that have flow and rhythm as opposed to mindless growling, screaming and speed strumming; the latter literally makes me sick to my stomach. To name a few I like for the whole melody/lyrics experience: Tsunami Bomb, Skunk Anansie, Anti-Flag and The Vandals. For just the melody, Audiokarate (I really dislike their lyrics at times). For just the lyrics, Less Than Jake. There are a lot more but I really don't want to write a huge list.
For me, the best punk rock I've come across presents melodies to nod my head to and lyics to sing along with that have lessons to learn. Such a wide range of interpretation is given that people can feel free to get psyched, get stupid and get moshing, or just stand at the back of the crowd, show support once in awhile and enjoy the show. I've stayed far away from the pits, and stepped way back when circle pits start pushing through the crowd. Agreed, it is an unbridled release of emotion and anything can happen in there which, I suppose, is probably very freeing in some ways for those that can handle it. Agreed, it does remind me of Fight Club without the rules.
My observations of the pits will never leave me. The animalistic expressions on the faces of participants. The sheer power of unchecked human aggression. The ripples on flesh from impacts and the spraying of sweat and spit on the observers. I believe that there is a limit where you cast off the shackles of rational thought to act purely on animal instinct, and to fully enjoy the mosh, it seems that this limit must be exceeded, to where it does become a high, a trance-like state of raw, chaotic movement, where thought is instant action and there is no concept of consequence. Kinetic intoxication? In that way, I sort of admire moshers, but I would still probably never participate in a mosh pit.
