I'm looking at videos from the '70s and '80s....and you can definitely see the difference and decline

1987-1988


80s



then look at the '70s

Simple, bruh: people got LAZY.

Timmy84 said:

Pretty much

We need to get SoulAlive in here for this one, he's our resident Soul Train authority!

Because dancing and parties were a big part of our culture. I mean dancing not getting drunk and/or standing around... dancing plus partying. Hell, a new dance came out every two weeks and you'd better learn it or get "clowned" on. When is the last time you heard anyone speak about learning steps to new a dance? I'm dating myself.... we had Sock Hops at schools on our lunch hour, last two hours class time twice month, and after school every Friday night.

My older brother and some of our friends danced on the Chicago version of Soul Train. Yo' ass better know how to dance and keep up with the latest steps because there was always a line of people ready to replace your butt. Now the Soul Line isn't about dancing any more it's about lookin good..... don't try to break a sweat.
[Edited 5/6/09 5:20am]

you DONT SOUL TRAIN LINE TO SMOOTH CRIMINAL.






that is all

Nvncible1 said:

Nvncible1 said:

TD3 said:

Man back in the day we grooved. and we looked good doing it yup you better know how to dance because your ass could not come outside you would get ragged on for days and days

Ottensen said:

those 70s clips are great,huh?

IAintTheOne said:

You know what I'm talkin about! The peer pressure.

Funny thing, Don Cornelius couldn't dance. It was kinda of a running joke when Soul Train started out. Mr. Cornelius didn't like to talk about it either, he was embarrassed. Somebody got him to dance on the show once, I can't remember the praticulars. The only way I can describe his moves..... imagine Gumby dancing.

TD3 said:

I think that was Mary Wilson who got Don 2 "groove".

Was it Mary? I would love to see that tape again. I betcha Don Cornelius didn't make that tape available.


Remember when Soul use to rate if a song was a good dance song?

http://www.youtube.com/wa...L&index=69



Checkout the brotha after the dance/song... couldn't even talk cuz he was dancing so hard.
[Edited 5/6/09 7:35am]

TD3 said:

Good Lord I was a TODDLER when this was on the air!!! My nanny-sitter used to sit me down in front of the tv with Soul Train and give me a sweet Carnation milk inside my baby bottle or sippy cup as a treat...I used to be mesmerized watching them ,and remember the afros from this time, cause everybody I ever saw in my world had them...in fact, I had one too!

Abdul said:

If you look at the 80s clips, pretty much starting around the '86-'87 clips, it was more posing than dancing

As music declined so did the dancing that went with it. Back in the 70's people played live instruments, so the people's dancing to it was more real as well. Those live drums were felt in their souls, I can't say the same for the synthetic sounding drums that are played in today's music. Play artificial...dancing will be artificial.

bboy87 said:

Maybe they were "Voguing".

TD3 said:

Arms WERE sorta flappin' everywhere, weren't they ?

shorttrini said:

I think part of the decline is also due to bar/music/club scene in our community and what we do for entertaiment has brought on the decline of dance. Folks didn't have a lot of money but you could call some friends over, everybody bring a dish and/or bottle, and you'd play cards, your records and danced. Let's not forget about those summertime block parties... my goodness.

Unfortunalty we've allowed a small percentage of people to bring their "drama" to da club and elsewhere and that really killed it. No pun intended.
[Edited 5/6/09 11:04am]

Ottensen said:

Uh? Yeah.

Trying for crossover appeal is what happened. Around 1983 or so, Don was accused of trying to "take the soul out of Soul Train". He started having more white guests and playing pop music videos (some who never even got R&B radio airplay) and he also started bringing in more white dancers. White dancers are cool if they got rhythm but these didn't. Hell, just look at the white girl in that first clip there. She's stiff as a board. And the black ladies started dancing stiff as a board also.

Music videos were also part of the downfall. A lot of the ladies started just simply walking down the line and posing hoping that someone would see them and put them in a music video. The ladies had become stiff as a board and the men started doing more acrobatics than dancing. They also got more straight men on there. Look at those late 70s and early 80s clips on up to around 1981 or 1982. That place was full of queens and they were dancing their asses off.

Compare the songs they had to dance to. By 1986, mainstream R&B had become quite sterile and the synthesizers and drum programs started using the artists instead of the other way around. Bass lines started to just chug away, formed like perfect stairs. No wonder people moved more stiffly.

Smooth Criminal?

vainandy said:

So, in a sense he was trying to make it another "American Bandstand", which was doing great in the ratings at that time?

trueiopian said:

I never liked that song.

bboy87 said:

Damn, I forgot Rosie Perez used to be a Soul Train dancer.

My favorite was the asian dancer - I believe her name was Cheryl. She was in Rick James' "Super Freak" video.

SoulAlive said:

Like a Goodie Mob song:

"They don't dance no mo'!"


People were more "slim and fit" though..


Too many gay men with the leg kicks...

Who cares though? There wasn't any Truth in it.

YHWH is Elohim and Yahoshua is King
[Edited 5/8/09 16:59pm]

TD3 said:

Man, they were groovin. I would have loved to have been there, though I can't say I could have hung with that brotha! I agree with those who said the 80s clips were more about posing and styling than dancing. Particularly the women. I have a suspicion many of them were models/wanna be actresses as opposed to dancers.
[Edited 5/9/09 5:42am]
[Edited 5/9/09 5:43am]

You mean it's possible to dance in public without being drunk? Is this a cultural thing?

I mean I might have grown up listening to African-American music, but I guess that's just the ultimate line I will never be able to cross in a cultural sense.