What rock music from the 50s 60s and 70s can you actually dance to? Why is most classic rock undanceable?

pretty sure you can dance to TV static if you really wanted to

Here is one for a hippie. :)

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@ThickMadame wanna dance? 🙂[media=https://youtu.be/aUgAxGaPXe4]

Go to YouTube and look at old American Bandstand clips.

Classic rock you had to be high and then you could dance to it

can't be, Ferris Bueller proved the Beatles made music to dance to. And the 70's whoo boy, tons of LSD and Cream with some tunes and your feet will have you swaying.

As I remember it, I danced to almost all of it. If you hear the beat, it isn't hard.

If it's got a good syncopated up-tempo beat, I can dance to it.

Amything with a good back beat can be danced to

what are you listening to, that you cannot dance to

I read a book in which the author said The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" marked the end of danceable rock music. You could make the argument the same happed for jazz. It was very danceable, especially with the big bands, up to the start of bebop and beyond.

Rock music generally hits “on the beat”, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 etc. whilst it’s energising to listen to, it doesn’t give many options to express in body movement. However, if you add swing to it, and rests (missed beats), you can pick up on those and move differently.
I know it’s not in the decades you mentioned, but if you take Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World, it’s got a shuffle built into a rock beat. Instead of “1 and 2 and 3 and 4” you’ve got “1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4” so there’s something extra to pick up on rhythmically.
Sorry to go on - it depends on what you’re going for really. I’ve started songs intending them to be straight rock, then found it adds something extra to put something else or additional into the rhythm 🎶

I still occassionally dance some rock and a gogo music from those years.
Not rock but till some years ago we used to frequently slow dance with whom was my partner, specially the San Remo festival "hits" of those years.

About the 2nd question my conjecture is that there are two main related factors about.
One of them is that undanceable rock as genre was / is more music listening focused and so perhaps more elaborated / quality oriented, so became classics.
To be / become a classic also deppends on it´s persistency along time for the next generations.
And not a few dancing styles (and their related music) had shorter lifes while music itself may remain for longer.

Undanceable isn’t a word

Sweatin' to the Oldies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZST8fLkps94



But if that is not available on 8 track tape anymore, Saturday Night Fever will get the job done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUID0jSh2Ic

I don't remember anyone having much of a problem dancing to those songs at our fraternity parties or formal dances.

Because a lot of it had changing rhythms, tempo, and styles, making it harder to fall into a groove

The last hard rock song I danced to was "money talks" by AC/DC, so anything is possible

You csn head bang to anything....especially the 70s....lol

Being pedantic, it depends on what you classify as "Rock" as distinct from "Rock 'n Roll", "Pop" etc. What I would call "Rock" didn't come into being until the late 1960s, from bands such as Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix etc.

@ThickMadame 🤔some of the old rock and roll songs you can dance too

I'm not really into rock music. I like old soul music, I can dance to Motown-type stuff.

American bandstand showcased most of the danceable tunes, but a personal favor of mine would be Runaround Sue by Dion.

Anything from the beach boys! 🤩
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