Re: Rockabilly and Rock and Roll dancing whats the difference?
The rockabilly scene was a lifestyle, from dress, attitude, cars and bikes, tattoos and music, you also had the full on rockers who also lived that kinda lifestyle but were more inclined to dance.
We frequented each others venues and had many common interests, mixed in amongst this was the hot rodders and car people, dressed in the current clothes of the era and a hot rod shirt... they were cool, liked the music and had the cars we all loved.
Re: Rockabilly and Rock and Roll dancing whats the difference?
I guess another factor to consider is the era we are talking about. In my instance it's the mid 1950's. Bill Haley and the Comets were in town. I know for a fact that scene at Thornbury and Braybrook was very, very different from the dancing at Eltham, Montmorency, Greensborough, Diamond Creek etc.
I saw very few hot rods. Mostly the cars were pre war models or earlier, like much earlier. My parents had a '28 whippet and we were relatively comfortable. There just wasn't much money just after WW2. As a first year apprentice I was paid $0.20 an hour (or two shillings) if you prefer. A mans suit cost $40.00 (twenty pounds)
By the mid 60's I had a lot of other stuff going on eg military, family, children, a stinking American war in Vietnam, peace protests, a couple of divorces, university and on and on it goes. I hadn't settled down again until the 80's and I only got involved in dancing again about 2006. A bloody lot of water has gone under the proverbial bridge in that 50 odd years.
I think the dancing scene now is pretty much the same as it was for me in 1956 but more rockabilly and I'm glad that there's more rockabilly. I love it.
Re: Rockabilly and Rock and Roll dancing whats the difference?
I so agree with Suz. Everyone tends to think to much about different styles. At the end of the day if your dancing and having fun who cares what you call it. I learnt how to dance on the dance floor at a elvis dance at st kilda town hall.
All there was back then was "pub rock " which now for some bizzare reason gets called "rockabilly". Who decided to over complicate things with all these different styles. Western Swing, Lindy hop ect
Alot of the reason behind the rock n roll scene being the dances and the rockabilly being more lifestyle was also to do with where the gigs were held. ( Dances in halls rockabilly normally pubs).
I think the scene's have evolved as well. We used to be the youngest going to dances and all these years later still are :P
I have noticed that alot of the rockabilly bands now get alot of what we would have called it back then " the rock n roll crowd" and the younger crowd tend to follow the neo rockabilly/ psychobilly stuff.
As I have said many a time to all you fella's that want to learn "rockabilly" or as I will always refer to as pub rock. Ask a girl who knows it to teach you. I taught my hubby in the front from of Bell Street rock in 5 mins. It aint hard.
Also another thing I have noticed is the amount of people that attend dance classes ( I know they are seen as a social thing by alot that attend them ) but there are so many of them that all teach differently and I think that too confuses people.
Go out... Enjoy the bands..... Ask a gal to dance...... Or vise versa...... and stop comlicating things ITS ALL ABOUT HAVING FUN!!!!!!
never worry about what someone has to say about you because while they are busy trying to destroy you, you are being exactly what they only wish they could be!
Re: Rockabilly and Rock and Roll dancing whats the difference?
Wow! Lots of really interesting stuff in there and pretty much all of it ringing true.
Anyhow, here's my 5 cents worth. The original question was; what's the diff between rockabilly dancing and rock'n'roll dancing?
My thoughts are, after many years of dancing and teaching both styles is that rockabilly is a rotary or circular dance where both participants move in a circular fashion back and forwards, along the lines of a washing machine agitator and rock'n'roll is actually a descendant of swing dancing and as such is, in fact, a linear dance where the dancers work more or less in a 'slot', the follower moving from one end of the slot to the other and the leader leaving the slotr and re-entering each time, just like West Coast Swing or Lindy Hop.
The main concept to grasp, however is that it doesn't matter what style you dance, it's all about the music! Rockabillys love the chukka chukka of the slap bass, rock'n'rollers love the beat of the drum and lindy hoppers love the smooth orchestral sounds of the early years or the jazzy upbeat sounds of neo swing!
If you want a video of rockabilly to compare to rock'n'roll, search youtube for 'retro rock' + 'rockabilly' or 'rocknroll'. Over the years, i've uploaded many videos from Retro Rock and most of them are still there. You will see the difference, but only because the exhibition dancing was set up to showcase the different styles.
The rockabilly dancing you'll see on these videos is almost exactly the same as the dancing I saw on an old 8mm film of some english 'leatheries' taken back in the late 1950's.
Rock on everybody - enjoy the music, because, except for rockabilly, all the other styles we call jive or rock'n'roll are essentially the original swing dances from the 1920's and 1930's. It's the music that makes it swing or rock'n'roll!!
There just wasn't much money just after WW2. As a first year apprentice I was paid $0.20 an hour (or two shillings) if you prefer. A mans suit cost $40.00 (twenty pounds)
Re: Rockabilly and Rock and Roll dancing whats the difference?
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