The Degeneration of Classical Dance in American Popular Culture
I am working on the topic of dance in music videos from the last 30 years because I want to find out why classical dance has decreased in substance and content in American popular culture, to help my reader better understand what this transformation says about us as a society.
You have an interesting topic. I would like to find out why classical has been taken out of the arts too. I think it is important to be diverse but to also stay cultured. I hope your paper will be helpful in educating people on where these art forms originated from.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about dance, so forgive me if this is a silly question. Is the belief that classical dance has decreased in substance a common one? I've always assumed that the dance we see in the media was just further evolution of the art form, and that modern dancers and choreographers are influenced by classical techniques.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic! I especially like how you grounded the topic, asking "what this transformation say about us as a society." You may want to look for information on how our society's type of dancing has evolved (like how people dance at high school dances...) and what influenced this.
ReplyDeleteClassical dance, classical culture has certainly decreased in the last 30 years. Seemingly we have become a culture that bows down to consumerism and popularization. If people will buy it, we will do it. I think it would be interesting to see why people are so willing to do things simply because they will sell, not because their actions have intrinsic, unique value.
ReplyDeleteI feel like music videos aren't as important as they once were when they were on tv, although the internet broadens the exposure. I like the wave of dance movies within the past 10 years and the varying dancing styles. I think that speaks to younger generations more. But I see the lack of dance as a highlighted art. I've heard more criticism of the effects of dancing long term used as a deterrent from exploring the craft. Good luck, I would like to see a return to dance in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think the debate of the Frankfurt (top down) vs the Birmingham school (bottom up) works really well with this top.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "classical dance" I think of the fine arts, formal, antiquated, old, and elitist.
And when you say "music videos" I think of pop art, informal, contemporary, and populist.
The two forms both employ professionally trained dancers, but both have different demographics and functions as an art. And that is where I think you'll find the cultural tension
I really like this topic. It is horrible that the art of dance is slowly going away because it is being replaced by music videos with women being sex objects and not being taken seriously. Music is losing its meaning and this is a very sad reality.
ReplyDeleteI saw a music video a few weeks back, by some artist whom I don't remember the name, singing some song I can't remember the lyrics to. What intrigued me was the content of the video itself. The rapper was "shot" in his video as it was the last song he would rap under that stage name and wanted his last video to be full of metaphors and other analytical things.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not only looking at the dance style, but also at the content of the videos themselves as some videos have nothing to do with what is being sung.
Great title! Your topic made me think of the recent Hollywood remake of "Footloose". The original had real, well choreographed dance moves, versus the updated version, where the trailer looked just like a bunch of bumping and grinding...
ReplyDeleteSo so interesting! I always wonder how our society will be dancing in 30 years from now. We have lost the classic look. I dislike it. It would be nice to open up our generations eyes to a variety of dancing styles.
ReplyDeleteWatching movies like "Step Up" shows the clash of high and low culture dancing, so I find this topic really interesting because I love dancing! (Maybe not too well..), but now there are more dance shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With The Stars that make dance seem easy or like anyone could do it, nothing like back in the day when going to the ballet was a privilege! I think that the art of dance needs to be brought back up to a higher form of entertainment because dancers work extremely hard! Then again, I love seeing street performers and other things like that, so I can see how the lines between the two have been blurred. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
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