On this past Saturday evening I chauffeured a group of friends to the Union Station to attend the Prom.  As we were waiting for the real party to get started, we noticed the fact that we could barely hear the music.  Granted, we were the second to last table away from were the DJ was, but still, the music was not loud.  So, as we sat socializing the DJ played songs like “Love Story” and “Hey There Delilah”, which aren’t bad, but, quite overplayed.  Unfortunately, the music got progressively worst.  From  songs like “Stanky Legg” to some messed up version of the great Savage Garden hit “Truly, Madly, Deeply”  where some female screamed the lyrics to a fast beat.  It was thoroughly disappointing.  But, as much as I would like to blame the DJ, not all of the fault lies on him.  The fact is we are unfortunately living in The Era of Bad Music.  Now, I don’t have an prejudices against any genres of music, I feel as though they all have their good and bad qualities, but specifically most of the bad songs this man played were of the Hip Hop and Rap varieties and, well, that’s because we were at a high school prom where Hip Hop and Rap songs were expected.

I began noticing how we are living in The Era of Bad Music three years ago when I attended my first Semi-Formal.  Dances in Middle School were always a really good time.  Dances in high school were a completely different story.  Every song that was played seemed to suggest that everyone must grind with everyone else.  I did not receive this message and neither did my close friends.  As the years past the music got progressively worse.  The past two years at the Semi-Formal and at the Prom I had to endure listening to songs with intense beats and lyrics that made no sense.  These songs also seem to brainwash my peers to grind and I wonder why this is.

I was interested in learning the origins of “grinding” so I went to Wikipedia.  They did not provide me with a lot of information.  Their definition is: a type of close partner dance where two or more dancers rub their bodies (especially the genitalia) against each other in a sexually suggestive manner.  Now, in my opinion, this sounds completely inappropriate for high school students to be displaying at a school sponsored event.  Essentially you are having sex with your clothes on.  They also say that the movie Dirty Dancing displays grinding.  This is sort of true, but not really.  The grinding I have witnessed is really the humping another person.  In Dirty Dancing there is an actual dance that Johnny must teach Baby.  I feel as though grinding actually takes no skill and the people are not facing each other.  I have also noticed that no one seems to be enjoying themselves while grinding.  I observed one freshmen couple doing the deed and they both looked as though they were  having the worst time of their lives, like it was a chore they must complete.  Come on people, think for yourselves!  Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean that you have to or are supposed to.

Grinding has led me to believe that we are also living in The Era of Bad Dancing.  Because the fact is grinding isn’t dancing.  Yes, you may be moving to the beat of the music, but the intent isn’t to just “move one’s feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps, esp. to the accompaniment of music” (thank you dictionary.com) your intent is to have someone hump you or be humped by someone else in order to look like everyone else/be close to a member of the opposite sex.  Seriously, do that behind closed doors because it is completely inappropriate in public.  Where’s the swing dancing of the fifties?  Lost, just like music that once made sense and I’m embarrased to a part of the generation that will be categorized by “the grind”.