Over the past 20-30 years, it seems that we’ve progressed from a single music style dominating each new decade to gradually hearing much more of a range in popular music. The 60’s and 70’s were primarily rock, the 80’s were mainly pop, and the 90’s were more of a blend of different funky beats.

Techno, pop, rock and R’n’B fused together to create mainstream music in the 90’s. During the first decade of the new millennium however, tribal music has joined the blend. Some of the melodies and instruments that were historically left to the ‘new age’ crowd are now successfully making more obvious inroads into modern music by mixing with beats that we are more familiar with!

Why shouldn’t tribal dance music become more popular now that it’s more readily available to a larger audience?

Tribal drum music – as part of its very nature – has an instinctive rhythm. Ceremonially used as a way of expressing emotion, African tribal drum music embodies a heartbeat that evokes a certain frame of mind in the dancers. Emotion transcends race, culture and religion, and speaks to us now, just as it did to tribal people dancing on the African savannah hundreds of years ago.

A Slave Trade Side Effect

In reality, tribal dance music has played a quiet (but important) role in the development of many European and Western music genres. When we listen to European music styles, it should not come as a surprise that the slave trade brought together hundreds of different styles of tribal dance music that began influence various music genres. From rock’n’roll and jazz to techno and dance, tribal drum music became an important part of the progression of modern music genres

The Twist & the Jitterbug

Dances such as The Jitterbug and The Twist were created by the joining of popular rock music and tribal beats. These catchy rhythms and dance moves wriggled their way from our ears directly down to our feet without stopping to ask for permission – the only way you can stand still when they take hold of your spine is by nailing your feet to the floor. Even more quiet folks thought that was too painful, so they threw away the hammer and boogied into miniskirts and blue-suede shoes.

Contemporary tribal trance dance music

Now, 50 years later, tribal dance music is no longer merely a background sound. Recording artists such as Ariel Kalma, Adesa and Professer Trance have gathered tribal music from far-flung places such as Australia, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Africa, Central Europe and North America with beats reminiscent of rock, R&B and pop. To create the scintillating sound overflowing with liveliness and movement, they blend didgeridoos, African singing and Tibetan chants meld with guitar riffs and smooth saxophone notes.

Music is a living thing and we can only hope that, as it continues to evolve, people and nations will grow in the same way.

Where Do We Dance To Now?

The first ten years of this new millennium have been rife with both success and tragedy. As people around the world celebrate and grieve together, as we become more accepting of diverse beliefs and ways of life, hopefully we will follow in the direction that music leads – a harmonisation of mankind’s many voices into one melodic sound. The tribal music that played such an essential part of our past is now showing us a road map for the future.

Filed under: Piano by Markley
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