Choosing alternative tango music

Choosing alternative tango music or alterna-tangos is a tricky business. So far, I liked only one milonga  with many alterna-tangos played - the afternoon milonga during Tango de Los Muertos festival in Boston, MA in 2007. I should have thanked the DJ for the good selection. My belated thanx to that gal/guy.

The tastes in alternative music vary from community to community,  as Cindy Park from Ashville, NC wrote to me. After watching the dancers' reactions to different songs on the floor, I came up with some rules of thumb for DJs to select alterna-tangos.

Rule 1: Catchy tune ≠ danceable tune

We like the music we've grown up with. However... For example, very few English and North American rock/pop/blues/jazz/country songs are suitable for tango dance floor. Argentine tango danced to the most of those  songs deteriorates into the awkward club two-step.

One notable exception is the pop music from the Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, France, Middle East, North Africa), Central Europe and Latin America. It frequently has the underlying beats like slow rumba, habanera and bolero. All those beats are close to Argentine tango. The tangueros feel comfortable with something that sounds familiar at a milonga.

Rule 2: Keep it short

The ideal alterna-tango should be between 2 and 4.5 min to keep a tanda reasonable in length.

First, think of those who have to sit through long tandas - it is not fun.

Also, think of those, who does not like alternative music.

And, of course, think of the dancing couples - keeping your arms up and around each other for 5-7min straight is tiresome. After 3-4 min. any dancer needs to shake down his or her arms for a few seconds and to re-adjust the posture.

If you have time, technical savvy & good ear, you can download Audacity (free audio editing software) and edit the tracks which are suitable for dancing, but too long to play as is.

One notable exception for long pieces is the end of the milonga, when the most of the "unattached", "extras" and novices are gone and the people tend to dance with their "significant (or potentially significant) others".

Rule 3: Keep it steady

The songs with very long "intros" are no-gos, especially when their tempos and melodies change after the "intro". Ditto applies to the songs which have the sections in the middle with totally different tempo, long stretches of recited poetry and/or non-musical noise.

Faded-in beginnings and faded-out ends can be also very confusing for the tango dancers.

Rule 4: Gage your audience

The younger dancers prefer (and handle well) the faster songs. But if your community is predominately the folks  who has already hit the big 4-O, the preference shifts to moderate to slow tempos.

The national origins of the community matter. In predominately Northern American communities the songs in English are preferable. The Americans are not used to listen to too many lyrics in French, Italian, Greek, Russian, etc, etc. The tango community of predominantly multi-national origins receive the foreign songs much better.

The last note for rule #4: if you are a member of musically conservative community (nothing is Argentine tango unless it is recorded in 1940s...), introduce the alternative pieces gently into your milonga music. Start with non-Argentine tangos and Argentine tango electronica.

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