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Who Needs Mambo When You Have R&B?
Originally published on Salsamafia.com
Oh no! Not again!
The B*tch Central forum has recently been blessed with some well-meaning folk who have argued that what Salsa really needs is a whole lot less Salsa and a whole lot more R&B. This, they assure us, will make Salsa more accessible: give it a bit of that mass market appeal. They believe the great unwashed are frankly a bit too thick and a bit too tasteless to get them thar jungle ridimz in your "Salsa". What they need is a little R&B: it's got a much clearer beat.
Which is true. But then, so does a road drill. Coincidentally, a road drill also has as much "Sabor" as R&B, too.
Our friends point out that R&B is 4/4 and - get this - Salsa is also 4/4. They're the same! Let's all dance Salsa moves to R&B: they fit! And of course, they do fit. Kinda. Thing is, R&B has a rock solid, mechanical, unwavering, unmitigating 4/4. Salsa don't. Salsa's all about clavé and syncopation and it's this playing around with the rhythms that gives Salsa it's feel, it's life, it's "Sabor". Yes, you can dance Salsa steps to R&B, but it's like dancing to a dirge ..
.. and it's real hard to feel festive at a funeral.
But what about playing tracks people already know to help them "adjust" to Salsa? No problem: there are heaps of Salsa versions of non-Salsa tracks that get played already - actually, the vast majority of Salsa tracks started out as something else, but I'm talking about English language tracks that the MTV viewer would know, like that Michael Jackson re-mix or the Salsa version of Bill Withers' and Grover Washington's Just the Two of US or last year's Lady .. With all these options, why would you want to play straight R&B?
Variety, they claim. The variety would make "people happier".
Now let's pause a moment, take a look at this. We have a bunch of people who have chosen not to go to an R&B club. Nor an old skool night. Not even a pub expensively made over to look exactly unlike any pub ever seen in Ireland. No, these people have avoided all other temptations and not just chosen, but paid cold hard cash to go to a Salsa club.
And therefore they want to hear R&B ..?
Lets say you go to a soccer match. You pay a small fortune for your ticket and a slightly larger fortune for a replica shirt. You walk 5 miles from the car park and queue 20 minutes in the rain. You get into the ground and buy a program that costs more than an illuminated manuscript and a lard burger so pricey it would embarrass a 3 star Michelin restaurant. Finally, you get to your cripplingly uncomfortable seat (clearly, these soccer types assume, if you're not actually playing, you don't need legs) and the match kicks off.
Five minutes in, what you really, really want to see is the latest multi million dollar signing pick up the ball and start to play a little rugby?
Actually, if it means David Beckham disappearing under a ruck ..
But my point is this: people go to Salsa clubs to dance Salsa to Salsa music. You play R&B and pretty soon all you have are the people who really wanted to go to an R&B club in the first place and a dance that's just Ceroc with steps. Of course, if that's what you want, fine, but do you have to call it Salsa? Kinda gives the rest of us a really bad name.
I'll leave you with one final, uplifting thought: that image of David Beckham being stampeded by a load of very large blokes in studded boots ..
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