What Happened to Melody?

I have a question for you - What happened to melody?

(This is an updated rewrite on a Facebook Note I wrote back in 2021)

How I Danced
When I first started dancing Kizobma I danced a lot on the beat. It was easy for a beginner to find the beat and dance on it. Then I started using more syncopations, doing fast moves. That was also when “french style” started appearing, around 2011-2012 - when a lot of dancers, at first mainly from France, started dancing in a different way, adapting their dance to the music played, which was then quite often Ghetto Zouk, remixes etc. The music allowed for a different way of dancing. So for a period I danced with a lot of syncopations. Then I started doing more slow moves, on the bass or on the vocals for example. And I finally started using the melody more and more, playing with different levels of energy, constantly shifting between what instruments and sounds I was dancing to. 

The Richest Dance
To me, this is the richest dance. When I can change the tempo and dance with syncopations, dance on the beat, do slow and sometimes super slow moves. And I can only do that when the music allows me to. Quite often, it is the melody that "allows" the slower moves. With melody, the music reaches another dimension. It becomes less repetitive. Richer, with more feeling. And it gives you so much more inspiration to be creative in your dance.

But I have noticed that you hear less and less melody nowadays?! It is rare to hear Ghetto Zouk on the dance floor, what made Kizomba popular in Europe. Melodic remixes are also getting rarer. It is rarer and rarer to hear vocals. Now the instrumental music with a lot of different beats dominate. Now you can dance on the beat and with a lot of syncopations. But there is almost no melody. Very little music where you have a richer experience, with all different energies.

Recently I was in a festival where one song I remember was basically the same four beats repeated over and over. No variation. 1,2,3,4,  1,2,3,4,  1,2,3,4, for 3 minutes! How inspiring is that to dance to? How much variation can you get in your dance with that? 

So, my questions are these:

• Don’t people like to dance to the melody?
• Isn’t it possible to express yourself more on the dance floor when you also have melody?
• Isn’t your dance richer when you have melody?
• Isn't the music "nicer" when you also have melody?
• Don’t we want to hear more melody when we dance?

I am asking you, I am asking teachers, I am asking DJs?

And I ask because I want to know if there is a mismatch between what people really want, and what is often played.

Or maybe this is what people want and it is just me.

Let me know!

(Note: This is not about Kizomba/Semba. On the pure Kizomba/Semba floor, melody is still king)

If you want to dig deeper into musicality and improve your dancing, I have published a book about it - “The Secrets of Musicality”, available on amazon. Please check www.geni.us/musicality to find it.

Suggestion - Check the kizomba, fusion, musicality and follow technique courses here. 

Note: Commissions may be earned from the links above