Okay, this area of the discussion board has been too quiet.

Whatever happened to country dance? My opinions on it's demise:

1) I think part of it is the fact that Nashville swung to the teeny-bopper crowd and lost a lot of the good music that was coming out of country.

2) Another part is that I think line-dancing contributed to the implosion. I like a line dance now and then, but I believe too few people crossed over and really learned lead and follow. Others may have other opinions, but to me line-dancing is too one dimensional. Once you've learned 5 lines dances, how different are the next 5 going to be? With partner dancing, there is always something new within each of the dances, so to me it's always fresh. The other problem is that it got to where the line dancers took over the floors and there was not room for the couples dancing.

3) Also, infighting was another problem, both on a macro and micro scale. USCWDC and CWDI should have worked together, rather than competing. We had the same problem locally with local clubs and teachers competing for members/students. Lots of bad-mouthing going on, some teachers not supporting local competitions for fear of losing students. Sounds like some the studio discussions I've read in other areas of the discussion board.

4) I think the clothing styles got so extreme, that they turned off some of the people who weren't really country to the bone. (Boy, that's a really nice flaming pink, purple and orange shirt, sir!) This is the same thing, but not so extreme as the clothing the square dancers wear/wore.

5) I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but I also think there is a real intolerance among all of the dance world for the different disciplines. This intolerance tends to break apart, rather than build. Country hates ballroom, ballroom hates swing, swing hates latin, everybody hates country. It's all stupid!

Any other opinions out there? Maybe there are some lessons that the other dance worlds can learn from.

I really do miss doing the two-step.

Well, as I see it, there are only so many dogs, wives and pickup trucks one can miss . . .

I know there are lots of stereotypes about country music lyrics, and I have too agree with a lot of them.

Most of the newer lyrics I hear in country are 'bubble gum romance' lyrics.

I do think some country lyrics (especially a few years old) are more thoughtful than others. Some of Clint Black's lyrics were great, in my opinion. On the other hand Alan Jackson's lyrics are terrible, right up the old sterotype alley. I was a country music fan for many years, but don't listen to it any more. I do like Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain though. It's hard to get into the 'Pretty Boy/Girl of the Month Club' music that Nashville is putting out now.

One thing I can say, there was lots of danceable country music five to ten years ago - two-steps, walzes, cha-chas, east and west coast swings.

I can't say that for most of the music popular with the teen set now. Most of it has the same hip-hop rhythm, regardless of tempo and it is really hard to match a dance to. Exceptions are some of the new Santana cha-chas.

It seems to me that any music fad gets too engrained in itself. Most of the neo-swing was too fast, and much of the lyrics were about booze. Don't even get me started talking about rap.

My latest pursuits in music are the oldies and are great dance songs. I love Sinatra, Basie, Chuck Barry, Cole (Nat and Natalie), Manhattan Transfer, Ella Fitzgerald, Huey Lewis, Glen Miller, etc . . .

I find that the kids we teach really respond to learning swing to the old rock and roll songs, "Shake, Rattle 'n Roll", "All Shook Up", "Run Around Sue."

It has been my experience that some clubs became a little too greedy ,which I think led to so many Spanish type holiday songs ,and other types of music than country being played because "they want it "--who were they ?This led to some very strange"dances .The another problem was trying to cater for the younger line dancers who were really on the floor to show us oldies how much faster they were--yes they do everything faster,but it's not necessarily better,and has succeeded in driving regulars away

It's really a numbers game. The more people patronizing country clubs, the more country dancers you have.
The problem was that a few years ago the trendy crowd found country. They were the ones wearing the Orange, Pink & blue shirts. This was great for the club business because they were drinkers, not dancers.
I was in the club business at this time. And just so you know, the monthly overhead (break even point) on the property I ran was $55,000 per month.
So a few years later when the trends changed and the drinkers moved on for whatever reason, we were left with the dancers. (Me being one OF them)
But when the end of month comes and you have trouble writing payroll you start looking for any way possible to attract more people.
Along comes alternative nights. More country clubs go broke and the gradual demise of country dancing begins.
But trust in one thing. Country WILL be back.