"It was well known that trance-dancing can produce ecstastic states, but until the later part of the 20th century, and the invention of the 'extended dance remix', it was rare for commercial music to reach for it."Patently bullshit, since about, oh, 1964, even in places like Rochester, NY...
"... And this guy I used to score from started inviting me to these dances. I went to like one dance in all of high school and it was a disaster. I went home early, much to my date's chagrin, and put on some Buxtehude to settle my nerves. But this was different. You'd do up a little Robitussin AC, smoke a little weed, and eventually you got into it. It was dark in that hall and all the chicks were dressed up like something out of a movie. The guys too. They would have, some of them, like powder blue tuxes and outrageous satin cummerbunds, patent-leather shoes you could comb your hair in. But you didn't laugh. You were just a guest, a tourist. You were respectful. Or you died.posted by paulsc at 6:07 PM on February 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
And then here came the band. Who were these guys! They could really play. They could sing better than anything I was hearing on the radio. Soul, rhythm and blues. Wilson Picket. Otis Redding. Where had I been all my life? And I was only 18.
This is where I figured out about rock and roll, or whatever you call it that does that. And a whole lot else, I guess, though it's only just now sinking in, now that that world is dead as a burned out supernova ten million light years somewhere back behind yesterday. And the thing would sorta build up as the night wore on, the band getting hotter, the lovers getting hotter, the hall getting a whole lot hotter, until you were dancing your ass off, sweating like a motherfucker, stoned, exhausted and you didn't care anymore, and then the band would know they had you and they'd kick it over the edge, driving the beat like a blinded animal, the lead guitar suddenly sliding up from tasty to insistent to full-throttle roadhouse and just when you thought that was the top, the horns would come in, a whole line of them wailing blasting blowing the fucking roof off and they'd cook like that for so long you could not believe it, as it defied the very laws of God and man, shredded the fabric of space and time, and you'd find yourself shouting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" like a goddam madman just like everybody else, and that wall of sound, of crazy joyous noise, was all the reason you needed, all the reason you'd ever likely get, and everybody knew it. Which was the whole point. The heart and soul of rock and roll. And all the rest of it. If you didn't get it then, you never would.
I got it. And so do you, or you got no business being here. "
This is the first time that going through a Metafilter post's every single link while at work has actually increased my productivity.I'm a philistine. That's all I ever use trance for anyway. I put it on when I need to buckle down and work on something, because it's good for killing background distractions without being excessively distracting itself.
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Having some time off from work I might do a few more of these if people have interest in other genres.)
posted by empath at 5:24 PM on February 1, 2010