If It Ain't Got That Swing: The Rebirth of Grown-Up Culture

by Mark Gauvreau Judge

In a world dominated by teenagers, it is easy to forget that popular culture once catered to adults. A countercultural "Gen-X" writer shows in his new book that the rise of rock and roll and the suburbanization of America have produced a narcissistic society drained of joy and hope. Yet in the spreading revival of swing dancing-an artifact of a more sophisticated and convivial way of life-he detects a harbinger of cultural renewal. Mr. Judge recalls the Washington neighborhood of Shaw, birthplace of Duke Ellington and once a stylish hub of black culture, which was suddenly devastated by riots and radicalism in the 1960s-a fate emblematic of urban America in general. Suburbia's simultaneous conquest of America delivered the death blow to adult culture. Without the traditional "third place"-the tavern, dance hall, or corner post office where neighbors once met-civic life withered and families retreated into domestic cocoons. The rock-and-roll culture that replaced the ballrooms of Shaw is adolescent, narcissistic, and humorless to the point of suicide. And despite its pretense of rebellion, rock has become the establishment-elitist, intolerant, and hollow. Mr. Judge finds true rebellion in the exuberant, breezy, joyful world of swing, a world where people are not afraid to have fun. With its emphasis on elegance and maturity, practice and skill, and complementary roles for men and women, it is an antidote to our demoralized popular culture.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Don Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually the best book I have read in 2020 so far, just because it's a feel-good book. it gives hope by describing how young people, gen-Xers and benighted millennials, are (re)discovering an element of lost culture from a better time: swing dancing. Too bad the explosion of interest in swing dancing that the author celebrates was over twenty years ago, in the late nineties.

I am willing to ignore the author's (a former leftist) occasional flights into irrelevance, such as complaining about the behavior of President Clinton. I was there too (as a teenager) and felt your disgust, sir, but that's hardly why I opened the book.

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October 26, 2020

Reread this book again recently, for some reason. I think it's even more valuable than I thought as a history book.