Work type request: dance

MusicBrainz
,
1

I while ago I did this request: https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/STYLE-2576

The list of work styles lacks one of the most important types: dance

A lot of worktypes that are now left open are to be classified as dance. It is one of the base types of musical works, standing next to the “song”.

The list of works I leave open because the lack of this work type grows every week.
It applies to classical music (often the movements of a greater piece, but also standalone smaller pieces), to folklore (which in most cases is either a song, or a dance), but also to electronic music (most techno styles are dance music.)

The list of work types is rather extensive, so I’m a bit wondering how “dance” is not in the list. Imo, it should be there on top, together with “song”.

The work type dance, is not necessarily music intended for the “ballroom”. Many types of music have their roots in dance music, but evolved to a listening form. This happened in classical (to give a well known example: Walzes, Mazurkas & Polonaises by Chopin), but also in electronic music, there is a lot of music based on techno, which clearly is in the style of dance music, but is actually hard to dance on, due to a more complex structure. the style IDM ("intelligent dance music) is such an example.

The request didn’t get much attention, I hope to get a bit attention (& possible debate) to the request, as I think the dance forms are an important aspect of the history of music. As important as the song. The song & the dance can be considered the roots of all work types, dating back to long before any written history.

The work type dance could be used for any type of work that has clearly it’s roots in dance music, or is simply music intended for dance events of any type. In classical & folklore this would typically be clear in the work title.

To name common examples in classical & folkore: Mazurka, Polka, Hora, Sîrba, Sarabande, Menuet, Breaza, Walz, Polonaise, just Dance/Joc/Danse/…, Tarantelle, Allemande, Bourrée, Gigue, Račenica, Courante, …

3 Likes
2

Thanks for this. A while ago, I took it upon me to create works for the recordings in my collection and the issue you address is very familiar to me. A lot of the music in my collection is house, techno, acid and trance and I have been categorizing the associated works as “Songs” or the dreaded “empty type - no lyrics”. This feels like a contrived way of shoehorning these works into the existing framework, so the new worktype you suggest would be welcome.

3

So if I understand properly, if a work of a recording is not a song (or any other type), then it’s a “dance” track? If so, I’m 100% for that.

4

I wouldn’t say that “any work type not being a song or something else would be dance”.

However, a big lot of works that currently have no proper worktype, are of the type dance. But this doesn’t mean there are a lot if works which will not have a proper type, if “dance” would be added.

Historically, the dance and the song are the two major types of musical works, but for instance ambient, drone, noise, free jazz,… Most works in these genres are neither song, neither dance, neither anything else. Some things just are what they are, and can’t be easily classified as a specific type.

There is no need to put everything under a certain definition. But for works which are clearly dances, the option should be available.

1 Like
5

So all instrumental Jazz music is now dance music?

(not being mean, just seems silly to think that any work without lyrics and no other upper type would then be considered dance :stuck_out_tongue: )

2 Likes
6

So I agree to some point but then not to others; I think this is again going to cause way too much confusion and cause arguments and ping-pong style edits (where one editor thinks it should be X and another thinks it should be Y).

I agree that having the type be set to a null value isn’t overly useful, but I do understand it.

I think actually what would be more sensible is to add those specific examples you gave at the end of your entry; so Polka should be a type, as should Mazurka and Hora etc.

Wanting to then apply this to modern “electronic dance music” is where you’d get unstuck almost immediately… there’s plenty of songs that fall under the category of “EDM” (for lack of a better definition at the minute) or even a specific genre (e.g. Trance or House) wherein the work is considered a song because it genuinely has lyrics; so it couldn’t be both Song + Dance, you’d have to choose one and not the other. You’d also get people arguing that if you can “dance” to it then is it a Dance or a Song, regardless of the underlying genre there are many pieces of music with or without lyrics that people genuinely do dance to.

The problem you’re going to encounter with these sort of things are - how can this be implemented in a way that it is easy to understand globally (not just in English or by a Western understanding of music) and then can be succicntly documented in a way that can be enforced.

There’s many things I’ve thought “hey this would be a good idea” and then after thinking about it for a bit longer realising that it’s not as simple as first made out.

5 Likes
7

It could be both song & dance, but if you follow the traditional approach, a dance is an instrumental piece. I’d say: if it’s a song, tag it as a song, not a dance. (Even if it’s EDM or you can dance on it.)

It would surely be nice… but I don’t think it’s of much value to define every dance piece? It would mean a very long list of dances, longer than the current list of worktypes. We speak about hundreds of different dances, if not in the thousands.

I don’t see this as “a good idea”, rather as an essential worktype with a very prominent place in the history of music that is missing.
Especially for the folklore styles and classical music, it’s an essential worktype. People sing and dance as long as we can track history.

Now… I think it’s the most easy thing ever, as dance music is a global thing, hard to misunderstand. Take whatever culture, in whatever era, and you will find music that’s explicitly dance music. The word exists in every language. I don’t think it’s much harder than: when it’s dance music, the worktype is dance.
Some examples: Mazurka (Polish), Rachenica (Bulgarian), Hora (Balkan), Sarabande (French), Passacaglia (Spanish), Stokkendans (Belgium), Baladi (Egypt), Deheyeh (Bedouin), Guedra (Morrocco), Muchongoyo (Zimbabwe), Charleston (US), Samba (Brazil), Méringue (Haiti), Tango (Argentinia), etc…

Name me a country or culture, and there’s a list of specific dances associated with it.
I don’t think “dance” as a worktype needs a lot of explanation.

Additionally, wikipedia defines a lot of dance music as dance already. It’s such a basic worktype, one doesn’t need to look far to determine when something is globally considered a dance or something else.
Some articles documenting dance on wikipedia:

The list can go on. I’m deliberately skipping all the articles about a specific dance. Dance is so well documented, there are little loopholes to what can be defined as dance worktype.
Just like any other worktype, there is no reason to use “dance” when it’s not explicitly dance: a work written in a certain rhythmic pattern associated with a specific type of dance.

2 Likes
8

to be clear, this is a work for dance music, not the dances themselves? I’ve been thinking about proposing the latter for some time (might have posted about it elsewhere, not sure), especially (or perhaps specifically) for linking to videos as performances of said dances. someone’s got to figure out how many times people have Caramelldance-d or Macarena-d in front of a camera, after all! :grin:

that said, I think this is a good idea in general, but it does need to be handled carefully, well worded and all that

as for the dance song issue, it could be handled in at least three ways:

  • as song + lyrics, as it generally is now
  • as dance + lyrics, which can make sense to me, it really depends on the work tho
  • as dance song + lyrics, another new type, but could make it clearer (until we add types for different dances, that is)

for example, Around the World by Daft Punk. the lyrics consist of “Around the world” repeated about 60 times throughout the track. this might be a good example of the second handling, dance + lyrics, since the lyrics aren’t really in a typical song form, more like a sample. this could also apply in the other extreme, where the lyrics or sample are simple and sparse, like only one line at the drop

on the other hand, you’ve got songs like Clarity by Zedd or Raise Your Weapon by deadmau5, which are very much in a more typical song form with verses and choruses, which could fall under the song + lyrics category, tho they also fall under the House genre of dance (festival progressive and progressive, respectively)

I don’t know how much I like the third option, especially if we add types for Polkas, Waltzes, and other dance types (many of which can have lyrics, of course). the only benefit is it would help prevent edit wars in the gray areas (which isn’t much of a benefit, in my opinion)

I was also quite surprised to find there’s no work type for Waltz yet, since most all of our work types are from our Classical editors…

5 Likes
9

Or we could set dance names as genres, no?

It seems some of the dances are already listed in current genres, so as soon as you add your samba tag to a work, it will appear in the genres.

But I agree genres feel less solid than work attributes (no traceability, no edit history, no edit note debates, etc.), less engraved in stone.

3 Likes
10

Yes, it’s about the composition/work
The dance itself is a performance (mostly only present in video, on stage, or in the audience, although in flamenco dance & tap dance, also present in the recording, and less common in the work as rhythm part.)

This might be a good idea, as a mix of song & dance is not all that rare.
Minutes ago I listened to a record which literally defines some works as “song and dance”, apart from those listed as just dance, or just song (~chant).
Especially one track (Sopsko) has song lyrics, but really sung in a very rhythmic way. The only correct type would be both song & dance.

Dance+lyrics could indeed be proper for dance works, with lyrics applied in such a way it can hardly be called a song. Or in cases where lyrics consist of samples (or shouts in non-electronic music)

As @jesus2099 suggests, I’d keep those for the genre tags.

There are so many different dances, it would become an overload soon.
For Songs, we also just have song, we don’t have Doïna, Ballad, Cïntec, Chanson, Elegy, Lament, etc…

Although nothing holds us to add some very common specific dance subtypes over time.
The “Song” also is doubled by more specific worktypes: Aria, Motet, Madrigal, Cantata.

3 Likes