[Tango-L] Milonga music mix

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Oh my, where to begin ...?

> We should appreciate the wisdom of the Buenos Aires city fathers

Any visions of wise old city fathers dispelling Tango truths should be 
dispensed with at once. Politicians in Argentine, even more so than in 
most of the rest of the world, are widely regarded as scoundrels, and 
anyway the likelihood of their knowing anything about milonga culture in 
Argentina is next to zero.

> Why did they set the minimum of the traditional argentine tango music at 70% and not at 95% or 90%?

The link for Law No. 2323 indicates that this took effect in May 2007, 
and NOT during the golden age or anything like that, so this is a 
CONTEMPORARY definition. After the Cromañon disaster, the knee-jerk 
reaction of the government was to over-regulate all dance clubs (though 
undoubtedly some of the new regulations were needed). Milonga organizers 
banded together (people like Omar Viola of Parakultural, for example, 
have a strong business interest in Tango, and tend to be politically 
active when needed), correctly pointing out that the typical milonga 
crowd is not at all a rowdy bunch (notwithstanding reports of occasional 
fist-fights), and besides Tango is a cultural phenomenon (a "national 
treasure") and should be nurtured by the government and not stifled. 
While I do not know this for a fact (though easy enough to find out), I 
have no doubt that this law was a direct or indirect result of that effort.

My guess is that the parts that refer to the definition of a milonga 
were crafted by the milonga organizers on the "citizens' committee" and 
the parts about the more mundane (but commercially important) issues of 
table spacing, fire extinguisher locations, etc., probably hashed out 
between the bureaucrats and the milonga organizers.

Getting back to the 70%, it's not that some wizened Argentine culture 
god decided that 70% tango/milonga/vals makes a milonga. It's simple 
arithmetic:

- At most milongas, more so the traditional ones, there will be one 
tanda every two hours at least (if not more frequently) of non-tango 
music. This may be rock, jazz (a sort of ragtime/balboa music to which 
people dance a sort-of foxtrot), paso doble (not much in common with the 
ballroom version), chacarera/folkloric (like zamba/chamamé), tropical 
(Latin rhythms, loosely speaking), and so forth. If you assume even the 
1 tanda per 2 hours, that's 10% (at 5 tandas per hour).

- Then you have cortinas that are non-tango--they are 1 minute long, 
sometimes more. That's 8% of a 12-minute tanda, 12% of an 8-minute tanda 
(e.g., the 3x milonga or 3x vals tandas). Call it 10% in round numbers.

That's 20% non-tango music right there. 10% provides a reasonable margin 
on top of this number, ergo 30%. It's really not more complicated than 
that. The number was CREATED to fit what milongas currently do, NOT the 
other way around, and it's actually pretty realistic. There was a time 
when the federal police were actually harassing milonga organizers 
trying to enforce the law and since a typical Argentine cop knows 
nothing about milongas, he hears a cortina or a chacarera and says, 
"Aha! Not a Milonga! I'm going to write up a violation!" The 30% 
provides ample margin.

> the fact 
> is that virtually all milongas in Buenos Aires play 100% traditional tango music.

Absolutely not true, though if you exclude cortinas, there are SOME that 
do, like El Beso and Porteño y Bailarin (which have a large 
non-Argentine crowed, especially Porteño). It depends on the organizer 
mostly, the DJ secondarily, the size of the place, and the crowd that 
goes there.

>> There are dances called 'bailes' where less than 70% of the
>> >music is tango (milonga and vals).
> Fascinating. Was this generally known before I posted the law extract a few
> days ago?

Generally known to members of this list--probably not. But the now 
defunct baile at Hotel Bauen was an example--they tend to get an 
all-Argentine older crowd that just want to (gosh!) go out for a fun 
night of dancing. It's a dying phenomenon just like the traditional 
ballroom dances in the US (now largely replaced by collegiate dancesport 
team events and captive studio "parties").

> La Viruta and La Marshall are apparent exceptions to this. (I didn't
> hear tango fusion or non-tango music when I was at La Viruta in 2007.

La Viruta does play a VERY long folklore tanda of chacareras, zamba and 
chamamé. Also a tanda of rock at the end of the milonga after the final 
"La Cumparsita" while they're cleaning up (many people dance). Depending 
on Horacio's mood, sometimes other random non-tango stuff in the middle 
of the milonga. Haven't been there for a while, but as of about a year 
ago, that was still true.

And the law is silent on whether techno-tango music is REAL tango music, 
whether gay milongas count as milongas (or whether a tango must be 
danced between exactly one man and exactly one woman ... or at least 70% 
of the time :-)) and so forth. Thank heaven for cultural change: it 
keeps the politicians in business and the Tango listservs humming.

Shahrukh