Society Dance Music
tagStarted 1918Peak 1920–1935Last big hit 1941
Located in 1 route
Society dance music is pre-rock formal social music written for hotel rooms, banquets, club dances, and upper-middle-class nightlife, usually smoother and less hard-swinging than later jazz-centered bands. The arrangements are elegant, symmetrical, and decorous, with rhythm meant to facilitate social grace as much as excitement.
History
Before full swing dominance, this music was the sound of hotels, radio, and upscale dancing, and leaders such as Paul Whiteman, Guy Lombardo, Vincent Lopez, Meyer Davis, Lester Lanin, and Kay Kyser shaped the commercial template; its polished manners influenced both early big bands and later lounge traditions, even when jazz musicians found it too tame.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Carnegie Hall Timeline, "History of Big Bands"
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Big-band jazz" and "Swing." citeturn3search17turn5search4turn5search1