West Coast Swing - Music

Music

The origins of the dance that became known as West Coast Swing can be traced to the swing era. During this period many jazz, blues, and western musicians incorporated, or emphasized, the “swing” in their music. Writing in the "Arthur Murray Silver Dance Notebook", Lauré Haile, who first described "Western Swing", listed the following songs/records as "Good Swing or Fox Trot Records":

"A String of Pearls" by Glenn Miller ((1942))

"Let's Dance" by Ray Anthony ((Columbia L-258)(1951))

"Be-Bop's Spoken Here" by Les Brown Columbia 38499 (4/14/49)

"Also Good Swing - but unusual Chorus "AABA":"

"One Mint Julep", Buddy Morrow, Victor 20-4869 (June/July 1952)

"Dry Bones", Tommy Dorsey, Victor 20-3523 (1949?)

Big Bands continued to flourish in the 1950s, touring, selling records, and appearing on radio and the new medium of television. As the decade wore on, however, many mostly younger listeners preferred to hear the simpler and (some say) noisier music given the name Rock 'n' Roll, and this music became known as the most popular music for dancing.

West Coast Swing like moves can be seen in rock 'n' roll films made in that era. The film "Hot Rod Gang" shows West Coast Swing being done to the song "Dance to the Bop" by rockabilly musician Gene Vincent.

While teenagers preferred to freestyle dance through a constantly changing succession of discothèque social dance fads during the 1960s, adults kept Swing alive.

Western Swing was documented in the 1971 edition of the "Encyclopedia of Social Dance", listing the "Coaster Step" (with a forward step as the last step of the 2nd triple) rather than the Anchor Step. The one song was listed for this dance was "Comin' On" by Bill Black's Combo (1964 Hi #2072).

In the mid 1970s, disco music and dancing repopularized "touch" partner dancing, and, in California, West Coast Swing was one of the dances of the era. By the 1990s country western dancers were dancing West Coast Swing to contemporary country western songs. West Coast Swing is now one of many dances done at country western venues.

In practice, West Coast Swing may be danced to almost any music in 4/4 time, and music of many different styles may be found in an evening of West Coast Swing dancing.