SWING MUSIC
Swing music is a wide reaching term that actually encompasses a large amount of music, including Dixieland, big band, jazz, modern pop — it’s more of a style of playing.
On a technical level it involves playing the music with a skew, almost as if the notes are falling behind then trying to catch up again. To illustrate this, below is a version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love which has digitally altered to be ‘swung’.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
However this track is not typical of swing; originally swing music became popular in the 1930s mainly played in big bands such as Glenn Miller’s Orchestra, Benny Goodman and Count Basie, or smaller jazz ensembles (most early jazz swings).
This gave swing music its distinctive sound with a reliance on a brass section and woodwind, mainly clarinets and saxophones, in addition to the drum kit. Often bands were fronted by a singer, Frank Sinatra often being placed firmly in the swing genre. Swing music as a genre within itself gradually declined in popularity towards the tail of the end of the 1940s, especially with spiralling band costs, and the increasing popularity of other styles such as bebop.
In the late 90s there was a revival with bands such as the Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, with other already established artists such as Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera releasing albums dedicated to and heavily influenced by swing music. Swing music is also evident in music more far reaching than straight copies, and has become a way of parodying other songs, done excellently by Richard Cheese.
However swing dancing isn't limited to dancing to swing music; in theory it should be possible to swing dance to any music with a beat, and is commonly danced to Rockabilly music, which is sometimes confused with Swing music.
For more information Wikipedia is the fount of all knowledge.
And for those with Spotify, here’s a Spotify playlist.
And another.
On a technical level it involves playing the music with a skew, almost as if the notes are falling behind then trying to catch up again. To illustrate this, below is a version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love which has digitally altered to be ‘swung’.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
However this track is not typical of swing; originally swing music became popular in the 1930s mainly played in big bands such as Glenn Miller’s Orchestra, Benny Goodman and Count Basie, or smaller jazz ensembles (most early jazz swings).
This gave swing music its distinctive sound with a reliance on a brass section and woodwind, mainly clarinets and saxophones, in addition to the drum kit. Often bands were fronted by a singer, Frank Sinatra often being placed firmly in the swing genre. Swing music as a genre within itself gradually declined in popularity towards the tail of the end of the 1940s, especially with spiralling band costs, and the increasing popularity of other styles such as bebop.
In the late 90s there was a revival with bands such as the Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, with other already established artists such as Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera releasing albums dedicated to and heavily influenced by swing music. Swing music is also evident in music more far reaching than straight copies, and has become a way of parodying other songs, done excellently by Richard Cheese.
However swing dancing isn't limited to dancing to swing music; in theory it should be possible to swing dance to any music with a beat, and is commonly danced to Rockabilly music, which is sometimes confused with Swing music.
For more information Wikipedia is the fount of all knowledge.
And for those with Spotify, here’s a Spotify playlist.
And another.