Back in the 1930s and 1940s swing music was seen as “dangerous music that made you want to have sex with people”. It may seem hard to fathom today, considering that when you think “swing”, squeaky clean images of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole come up. And it makes you wonder, if swing was termed as “dangerous”, how would the latest MTV ditties be classified?
But swing no longer appeals to those who remember dancing to the gramophone. Since the early Noughties, with Robbie Williams’s Swing When You’re Winning and the Michael Bublé hits, the music world is going through a swing revival. In Malta, no less.
Dances popular with the wartime generation are enjoying a resurgence among Malta’s young, with regular private swing nights being held – complete with the necessary attire – instead of Paceville partying.
“What worked in the past still works well now,” said Alexia Farrugia, who every now and then, gets together with her friends and they organise swings dos. They all dress up in furs, pearls and gloves that sometimes come from their grandparents’ attics.
“It’s fun. We dress in vintage costumes of the era, so we really get into it. Guys even grow moustaches. But the best thing is the music: Swing is happy music. Immediately when you hear it, you start tapping your feet. You just can’t help it.” She also says it’s like going back to basics.
“Dancing to swing music is not about posing, or about trying to be sexy. It’s just about feeling the swing pulse and you move to the chug-chug of the rhythm. There’s nothing fake about it
” With the credit crunch and the current mood of soul searching, it seems that swing is the music of the moment. Our search for happiness is moving beyond consumerism and the short-lived joys of the material world. The era of individualism is coming to an end: the feeling of community fun is making a resurgence and people are in the mood for socialising.
Sigmund Mifsud, the 36-year-old musician who is the musical director and producer behind the Hilton Swings concert to be held at the end of March, said he “would like people of every age and class to come shimmying, shaking and strutting their stuff at the concert”.
“Swing has no age. It is the perfect music for socialising. It has such a positive, bouncy feel to it, that it’s an upper,” said Mr Mifsud. It is the reason why it was so popular during the war-time and perhaps these dire economic times could be the reason behind its revival.
“People need to listen to music which keeps their spirits up. Classical music may be a stress reliever, but swing oozes vibrant energy,” said Mr Mifsud, himself a self-confessed swing buff. Listening to swing music, is like watching a movie with fast editing:
“There’s lots of colours in the chords used. Which is why I believe a dose of swing music makes one approach life in a more positive way,” he said.
There are, of course, innumerable studies on why seemingly meaningless music vibrations have such an effect on our mental state. But plenty of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and neurologists have gathered evidence about music’s impact on brains and behaviour.
Neurologist Oliver Sacks in his book Musicophilia provides an elegant compendium of observations about the therapy of music, but states that the power of music is still, at the end of the day, a mystery:
“We can create it, enjoy it, exploit it, harness it. But we still can’t explain it.”
Music, it seems, has special properties that can carry it into regions where words cannot go. And despite the different labels it accumulates, it remains one of the greatest joys known to humanity.
There’s only one for it: let’s swing it.
Tickets for the Hilton Swings concert, being held on March 20, may be purchased online.
www.biljetti.com