Indeed, during my parents generation, the big cities had huge dance halls that were filled every weekend, if not every weekday too. My parents remember going to those places, as did my in-laws. In fact, I got a gig with a band that had been a major touring group in the past, and mentioned it to my in-laws. They said: Oh yeah, we danced to that band in the 50s. They frequented the ballrooms that dotted the Chicago suburbs.
Of course I credit it to people being cooler back then.
And one of my relatives remembers from her early childhood the music scene in pre-war Berlin. There was an opera on practically every corner. And movie theaters. Those are virtually gone too.
Today I play music for a folk dance group, and they have weekly dances, but a dozen people showing up is a lot.
I think it's less people cooler and more they didn't care. There is too much pressure to be cool now. The now ingrained trope joke that white people can't dance doesn't help. If I'm a young white male the last thing I'm going to do to impress young women is the thing reinforced over and over that I suck at/makes me a joke.
Indeed, and this is reinforced by a couple of stereotypes. These are repeated in web forums frequented by musicians: People won't dance to a tune that is not absolutely familiar -- why a small handful of "classic rock" hits continue to be played. Second, the purpose of the music is to keep the women dancing, and the purpose of the women dancing is to keep the men drinking.
Disclosure: I've played in a lot of bands, in a variety of styles.
Not caring about what others think you look like is about as close as you can get to a definition of “cool”!
If you’re a young white male worried about being seen dancing because of a stereotype that’s a problem with you; dance is human heritage and everyone’s allowed to do it. I genuinely believe the whole “white people can’t dance!” thing is rooted in white people being self-conscious because they’ve been dancing to black music for the last 100 years instead of waltzing to the classics, not to mention the comparatively censorious attitude towards dance in White America versus Black America. Be the change etc. etc.
Come on, you know what definition of 'cool' I meant.
When a culture ridicules something it's not the person facing ridicule's fault for doing it less. Not a good faith take at all, and I doubt you would apply that take to other situations. Especially when we are discussing why people stopped doing something.
Having been a young white male ridiculed/joked about, I believe it's rooted in the actual countless jokes/ridicule/and mocking, not some weird white guilt. Again I don't think you would make this argument apologizing for ridicule in other situations. Young people have shown they don't care about arbitrary racial lines people like you want to emplace when it comes to the music, so why dancing?
The only place I was accepted and encourage was at Salsa clubs. I think in huge part because it didn't have the American cultural stigma of 'white boys can't dance', it just had 'let's all friggin dance'.
Just to add a less personal response, we are discussing possible reasons for why the decline. Not sure how 'suck it up buttercup' and 'be the change' adds to that analysis. I don't know any other situations that's a useful response. It's the equiv of 'Women just need to suck it up and deal with the tech bro boys club if they want to be represented in tech' when talking about why women are underrepresented it tech.
