Recently I have encountered an interesting situation. Having moved to a 55+ community where the age demographic matched the facility/organizations that made BDPs a huge hit in the Bay Area, I expected to find a "homebase" for boomer dance parties right here in my own community.
I think the confusion lies in the perception of what a "baby boomer' dance party would entail. I am reasonably certain that the clubhouse management wants to avoid an event that would exclude, and by exclude I mean "not appeal to" people in their 30s to 50s. (A 55+ community only requires that one of the residents of a home in the development bee 55 or older. There are actually quite a few people here in their 40s and early fifties.)
So let me 'splain: The baby boomer generation were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. That does NOT mean that the music of our generation was recorded between 1946 and 1964. That was my parent's musical "generation." Think "big bands" and Lawrence Welk. I like watching and listening to them occasionally in a nostalgic appreciation of the musical scene. Jitterbug? Lindy Hop? The first half of that time period was all partner dancing.
My point, and I do have a point thanks for asking, is that the music that baby boomer's danced to is NOT synonymous with the time period of 1946 - 1964. That interval is the time in which boomers were born, not the year's in which they rocked out on the dance floor. Not entirely any way. When I went to a high school dance and later, went to bars and nightclubs, I assure you that no one was dancing to Frank Sinatra, The Lennon Sisters, Patti Paige, Doris Day, Bill Halley & the Comets, Andy Williams, or singing along with Mitch Miller. Elvis you say? ..No. All early boomer. If you were born after 1955 your musical taste is what I call "mid boomer."
My completely non-scientific algorythym goes like this: Take the year of your high school graduation. Subtract 10 years and add 5 years to your graduation year. So if you graduated in 1973, your musical "aesthetic" was largely formed between 1963 and 1978. Why go back so far you say? Simple. That was the period in which you probably listened to whatever your parents played on the AM radio as they drove to the grocery store or dropped you off at Brownies (or cub scouts.) You probaly joined them on the couch on Sunday for the "really big shoe" which exposed you to Elvis, the Beatles, Della Reese, Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka, Barbara Streisand... I think you get my drift. If you watched Hollywood Palace...more of the same. The target audience were "grown-ups." it wasn't until the mid sixties that televison figured out that young people were the next big target market for the products that the sponsors were advertising. The explosion of youth-oriented television missed Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.
So Dick Clark led to Llyoyd Thaxton. Hullabaloo. Shindig. Hollywood-a-Go-Go. Where The Action Is. Most boomers don't even recall that Soul Train didn't appear on the airwaves until 1970.
American Bandstand lasted until 1988, going through a number of major changes, moving to syndication on cable. A little thing called MTV popped up in 1981, but even MTV as a platform for popularizing music has largely gone away. I would be stunned to discover that any mid to "late boomers" watch the music video awards. Not our vibe.
So in a nutshell, my challenge is to convince a someone that a boomer dance party is NOT about Sinatra and Doris Day. It's the music that popularized music that didn't require a partner to dance to. It is less about poodle skirts and more about the R&B, disco, soul, and funk that exploded onto radio dials and dance floors in the mid 60s to the late 70s. It the music that EVERYONE gets up to dance to at reunions and wedding receptions.
Stay tuned.
I think the confusion lies in the perception of what a "baby boomer' dance party would entail. I am reasonably certain that the clubhouse management wants to avoid an event that would exclude, and by exclude I mean "not appeal to" people in their 30s to 50s. (A 55+ community only requires that one of the residents of a home in the development bee 55 or older. There are actually quite a few people here in their 40s and early fifties.)
So let me 'splain: The baby boomer generation were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. That does NOT mean that the music of our generation was recorded between 1946 and 1964. That was my parent's musical "generation." Think "big bands" and Lawrence Welk. I like watching and listening to them occasionally in a nostalgic appreciation of the musical scene. Jitterbug? Lindy Hop? The first half of that time period was all partner dancing.
My point, and I do have a point thanks for asking, is that the music that baby boomer's danced to is NOT synonymous with the time period of 1946 - 1964. That interval is the time in which boomers were born, not the year's in which they rocked out on the dance floor. Not entirely any way. When I went to a high school dance and later, went to bars and nightclubs, I assure you that no one was dancing to Frank Sinatra, The Lennon Sisters, Patti Paige, Doris Day, Bill Halley & the Comets, Andy Williams, or singing along with Mitch Miller. Elvis you say? ..No. All early boomer. If you were born after 1955 your musical taste is what I call "mid boomer."
My completely non-scientific algorythym goes like this: Take the year of your high school graduation. Subtract 10 years and add 5 years to your graduation year. So if you graduated in 1973, your musical "aesthetic" was largely formed between 1963 and 1978. Why go back so far you say? Simple. That was the period in which you probably listened to whatever your parents played on the AM radio as they drove to the grocery store or dropped you off at Brownies (or cub scouts.) You probaly joined them on the couch on Sunday for the "really big shoe" which exposed you to Elvis, the Beatles, Della Reese, Johnny Mathis, Paul Anka, Barbara Streisand... I think you get my drift. If you watched Hollywood Palace...more of the same. The target audience were "grown-ups." it wasn't until the mid sixties that televison figured out that young people were the next big target market for the products that the sponsors were advertising. The explosion of youth-oriented television missed Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.
So Dick Clark led to Llyoyd Thaxton. Hullabaloo. Shindig. Hollywood-a-Go-Go. Where The Action Is. Most boomers don't even recall that Soul Train didn't appear on the airwaves until 1970.
American Bandstand lasted until 1988, going through a number of major changes, moving to syndication on cable. A little thing called MTV popped up in 1981, but even MTV as a platform for popularizing music has largely gone away. I would be stunned to discover that any mid to "late boomers" watch the music video awards. Not our vibe.
So in a nutshell, my challenge is to convince a someone that a boomer dance party is NOT about Sinatra and Doris Day. It's the music that popularized music that didn't require a partner to dance to. It is less about poodle skirts and more about the R&B, disco, soul, and funk that exploded onto radio dials and dance floors in the mid 60s to the late 70s. It the music that EVERYONE gets up to dance to at reunions and wedding receptions.
Stay tuned.
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