# Is there music that cannot be danced to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 30, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504 "2022-09-30T12:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/61 "2022-11-14T11:16:46Z")
A long time ago I remember someone saying that the worst song for a stripper to dance to is _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_ by Gordon Lightfoot. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/62 "2022-11-14T20:07:49Z")
As I’ve often said, a lot of my favorite music sounds like somebody tipped over the china cabinet. So I’m happy to mention Captain Beefheart (my hat’s off to you if you can dance to anything off of Trout Mask Replica), Einstürzende Neubauten, or Pere Ubu outside of the Fontana years. There’s a lot of crossover between industrial music and dance music; even Throbbing Gristle have a number of tracks with a dancable groove. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/63 "2022-11-14T20:42:04Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > So I’m happy to mention Captain Beefheart (my hat’s off to you if you can dance to anything off of Trout Mask Replica), Aww, I’m pretty sure I could do an interpretive dance to “The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back” 🤡 ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/64 "2022-11-14T22:42:26Z")
There’s an old musicians’ joke: A drummer is sitting at home on his night off, when he gets a frantic call from a local contractor: there’s a band from out of town booked tonight at the Union hall, but their drummer was in an accident! Could he come down and fill in? Well, the drummer agrees, asking no further questions—hey, work’s work, right? But he is dismayed when he arrives at the hall and finds out that it’s Bulgarian music. He goes up to the bandleader and says, “Hey, they called me to fill in on drums tonight, but I gotta tell you, I don’t know the first thing about Bulgarian music.” “Oh, it’s easy,” says the bandleader. “Just give us an afterbeat on 7 and 13 and you’ll be fine!” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/65 "2022-11-14T23:06:17Z")
A drummer joke I haven’t heard! Is that really an old joke or one of yours? I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/66 "2022-11-14T23:41:51Z")
Nope, not original to me, although the wording of it is mine. I heard it a long time ago, in Baltimore, or maybe San Diego? I was actually somewhat surprised to not find much attestation to it online, though maybe my search keywords were not correct. I did find [this Quora thread](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-musical-time-signature-joke-about-giving-a-strong-afterbeat-on-7-and-13), which has a joke with a substantially similar punchline, but a different setup. In that version, the drummer is actually Bulgarian, but, inspired by his enthusiasm for Elvin Jones, decides to play a very jazz inflected solo. Afterwards, he is admonished by the bandleader: > [@](#): > > “Listen Bogdan, I appreciate that you like a lot of different kinds of music and that you are practicing other things. This is what makes you such a good musician. But here in our little band, the people want to dance, and for that you have to keep the backbeat going on 7 and 13.” Now that I think about it, that version would have been more appropriate to this thread, as it actually involves dancing! ---
**Author:** ![SlipperyPete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@SlipperyPete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlipperyPete)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504/67 "2022-11-17T16:58:06Z")
Once you get past the intro of YYZ, it sounds like it has a pretty steady 4/4 beat, at least up to 3 minutes then all bets are off. Would be easy to dance the hustle to most of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-music-that-cannot-be-danced-to/972504.md?page=3)