About music styles and the true value of tango DJs

I am a lover of the “Época de Oro”. I could dance tango nights to 100% classical music with pure pleasure. Although I have no problem with modern pieces being played, and I’ve even danced to some of them, I was convinced for a long time that as a tango dancer you have to find an approach to the classics in any case. Well, the following two stories have given me pause for thought in this respect:

I once invited an acquaintance (who didn’t dance tango yet) to a milonga. He spent over an hour in the milonga before I arrived and then asked me: “Don’t you have a DJ?” He had noticed that the same music was playing the whole evening. But our Dima was the DJ! I went up to Dima and asked him if he just let the music play like that. He replied: “No, I’ve already thought of a schedule.” Mhhhh…. Although Dima had chosen different orchestras and hadn’t even played only classical tangos, my friend found the music monotonous.

I remembered a joke in which a European woman constantly confused seven Chinese people. A Chinese person differentiates between individual Chinese people, a European thinks: they’re all the same! It’s the same for some people with tango music: if some people find the music we love monotonous, then any argument is useless: “But orchestra A is soooo different from orchestra B”. I don’t think we should impose our own taste on other people. Of course you can listen to tango music and learn to differentiate between the pieces over time. Perhaps many people learn to love the classics over time, but not everyone.

Here’s a second story:
A good friend of mine who runs a milonga recently invited Teresa to DJ. When I asked if he preferred certain styles, he replied: “I only have one request: NO OLD TANGOS WITH OLD MEN SINGING!” “Oh… Ok,” I said, “but why?” His answer came promptly: “I lived in South and Central America for a long time and have been dancing for more than 25 years now. The tango lyrics are: ‘Grilled shit’!” I even asked if he really meant “grilled” or if it was possibly an autocorrect of “whisked”. My friend then assured me: “No, no, I meant ‘grilled’. That’s the intensified form of ‘whisked’!”

My friend is a passionate tango dancer, not a beginner. Nevertheless, he can’t do anything with certain classical tangos and even has a strong aversion to them. It would be pointless trying to convince him otherwise. After all, taste (in music) is a very debatable subject.

The two stories are just examples of the fundamentally different positions that can be found in the tango scene on the subject of music. Even people who don’t like a particular style of music can be passionate tango dancers. Nevertheless, the classics and the old tangos with male vocals are part of the tango culture – just as modern tangos now have a firm place in the milongas. You have to offer the whole spectrum (in a well-balanced mix). Not everyone has to be able or want to dance to every piece. And if a piece is too “schramm-schramm” or – on the other hand – too experimental in the ears of an individual, then in my opinion one should not protest loudly, but simply suspend the round and join in again at the next tanda.

The tendency towards extremes in both directions is problematic: the conservatives with their 100 percent monotony (at least that’s how some people feel) and the 100 percent NONists, who don’t shy away from imposing their sometimes creepy tastes on us.

At this point, I would also like to say something about DJs: I used to think that the DJ in tango was overrated. You might as well activate a random generator. But after a few frustrating visits to milongas, I realized that I was wrong in this assumption: the most beautiful tango location becomes bland and puts me to sleep if the music isn’t right. I now really appreciate Teresa’s job 🙂

Of course there are a few principles for the DJ. He must be familiar with the orchestras, make the evening varied, milonga and vals must not be missing and so on. However, a good DJ doesn’t just play a well-thought-out playlist, but also reacts to the people and the mood in the room. A good DJ needs a certain emotional intelligence. That’s where his true value lies, in my opinion.

Although I am now convinced that you need a DJ in the milonga, I am skeptical when there is a lot of hype about certain DJs. I suspect that it’s less about their ability to choose the right music for the right moment and more about the fact that they are in high demand because they have thousands of friends on Facebook and can do a lot of advertising.

Just because a DJ is communicative, has lots of friends or is a musician doesn’t mean he’s a good DJ. There is no causal relationship. The same is not true for marathon runners. Just because you regularly go to marathons doesn’t mean you’re a good dancer.

But back to the music: What we love most about a DJ is when he chooses the music in such a way that we simply want to agree with the following quote:

“Music expresses what cannot be said and about which it is impossible to remain silent.” (Victor Hugo)