Dance Away

Ceilidh Dancing, from visitscotland.com

Firstly this is not a Scottish post, exactly. It's more about the generation gap. Let me explain:

1) Scottish music. My friends and I would think of things like Simple Minds, Big Country, Franz Ferdinand, Texas, Travis, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Cocteau Twins, Love & Money, Hipsway - you get the idea. For certain older members of our family, Scottish music is defined by the playlist of Robbie Shepherd, starting with Jimmy Shand. No concessions to our definition - that is not Scottish music....

2) Dance Music. My friends and I would think of, well, anything you can dance to, which could include any of the above but of course would also include disco, house, electronic, etc. etc. For certain older members of our family, dance music is defined by the playlist of Robbie Shepherd, starting with Jimmy Shand. No concessions to our definition - that is not dance music....

Now, I enjoy a ceilidh. I like a Gay Gordons as much as the next Scot, and a Strip the Willow(**) is a great way to lose (a) weight and (b) skin. The driving bass-lines are probably what the two disparate types of dance music have in common, but to our older relatives, "Voodoo Ray" is just a hideous noise. "That's not dance music, you can dance to that!"

Succinct reponse from my better half: "It is, and people do..."

**note for non-Scottish readers: this is not some weird perversion, merely a dance. See here for the World's Smallest Strip the Willow...