Music
Will I Like Swing Music?
If you’re like most Lindy Hoppers, you probably didn’t grow up with swing music; yet there is something so natural and familiar about it. With its driving rhythm our bodies tend to synchronize with the music, and then the playfulness of it just takes over and makes us want to stomp our feet, clap our hands and simply MOVE! Lindy Hop is an art form that came out of satisfying this natural desire to move. Watch this video to hear from people in our community – what do they love about swing music?
Vintage to Modern
There’s something amazing about the 1920s – 1940s era; from the birth of swing through the famous big band era, incredible music flooded all of popular culture, brought to us by legendary swing musicians such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford and Benny Goodman to mention just a few. This is why most artists today, both dancers and musicians, spend a lot of effort learning from these legends in order to continue the art form as it was in its glory days. However, consistent with the original spirit of swing dance and music, we also push for further development and making something new with it! Here are few clips that can give you an impression:
Swing Music Comes at Many Different Tempos
With SwingStep, you’ll learn the techniques to comfortably dance to any tempo of swing music. At each tempo of music, you’ll both get the “easy-does-it” steps as well as the fancy treasures that make people go “wow”. This combination will enrich your swing dance experience tremendously as you will always be able to hop on the dance floor if you wish to.
Playlists
Here are some musical selections that you can use for yourself when you want to practice or simply listen to some good swing music. Enjoy our playlists as they are or get inspired to start your own selection. Of course, the amount of swing music out there is huge, so what you find here is just a very little taste. Also tastes are quite different, so we simply tried to find a slice of the music that our team enjoys and uses while teaching and DJing; since our tastes can change too, so will our playlists from time to time. We created them for both Deezer and Spotify.
Please be aware that some swing music contains problematic lyrics: war propaganda, racist and sexist imagery, etc. Also some jazz music is protest music, has political or cultural relevance that means we definitely should learn about and appreciate it, but not use it out of context (famous examples are Strange Fruit, and Jump for Joy).