All about the Blues

[Gav]

I guess I'm a COZ person because I like a bit of variety. I love Blues music, but I also love Funk and Soul. But the slower Funk and Soul tracks don't belong in the main room, so where if not in the Blues room?

While we're on the subject, too much "challenging" music in the Blues room puts me off sometimes. I'm all for pushing your abilities, but sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy it. At the last Southport there were times when it was a constant struggle.

[Lost Leader]

No poll option works for me either and I think we may be getting into a bit of a tangle over terminology here. Terms like "blues" and "chill out" can mean different things to different people. For example does chill out mean elevator music or any reasonably quiet tune with a slowish tempo? Does blues mean classic blues (Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf etc.) or does it encompass a much wider range of music?

For me no label really fits what, for want of a better term, is generally referred to as the Blues room in an MJ context. The things that should distinguish Blues rooms imo are;

- the bulk of the music played is generally not likely to be heard in the main room

- the tunes will generally have a slower tempo than in the main room

- many of the tunes will offer opportunities for a more expressive and / or more intimate dancing style

- some (but not all) of the tracks played will be quite challenging to dance to

- there will be a wide variety of musical styles / genres featured

- quite a lot of the tracks wont be very familiar

- the type / mix of music played at say 9:00pm will be different from say that at 4:00 am

What I wont generally expect to hear are;

- the latest chart hits

- clubby dance tracks

- fast latin

- a lot of up-tempo MJ stuff of the sort you will hear most of the time at a typical regular weekly Ceroc class night.

Personally I am all in favour of variety. Sure I want some pure blues stuff but I would be disappointed if that was the only type of music played all night. At a weekender like Southport where the blues room has music 24 hours a day there is surely room for a lot wider range of music that just pure blues. I have now objection to a particular DJ deciding to play just pure blues in their alloted slot if that is what they want to do. Equally I would be more than happy to hear a funk or soul set. Ideally i prefer DJ's who mix things up a bit and offer a wide range of musical styles. I don't see anything wrong in slipping in the odd more up-tempo track from time to time nor do I think that every track played has to be obscure and hard to dance to. Will I like everything that I hear? - no, but then that is bound to be the case when you consider the sheer quantity of tunes played even in a single blues room night let alone a whole week-ender.

On the whole I think the DJ's at Southport got it about right. I preferred some to others but that is just down to personal taste. I would rather the effort went into picking good DJ's who have tapped into the sensibility of "the blues room vibe" and letting them do their own thing rather than trying to lay down any rules about what types of music should or should not be played.

[MartinHarper]

For me no label really fits what, for want of a better term, is generally referred to as the Blues room in an MJ context.

Having seen the movie, I vote we call it the "Grind House". It has grinding, stalkers, and the living dead.
Oh, and hot chicks.

Edit: Or given that this is where people do all the "dance" moves they don't want under-18s watching, we could just make it the "Adult Dancing Zone"