Whether I like a particular song depends on my personal taste. But whether that song works well for dancing, is something most dancers will agree on, and is closer to objective.
By “objectively danceable”, I mean you could put together songs into a few buckets, have many dancers try to move to it, and generally get a similar opinion afterward. A song might be “un-danceable” if it leaves them feeling lost or unsure what movements to make, roller-coasters their emotions making them confused, feel jarring, or simply be too fast or complex for them to move with confidence.
At one end of the spectrum might be a popular D’Arienzo, played at marathons and festivals to thousands of dancers around the world every year. At the other extreme are recordings of whale sounds from the pacific, or a construction site. I expect most to agree easily on these extremes, and for things to be more contested in the center, as with many things.
By “suits my taste”, I mean whether or not I personally like the song. This might depend on how long I’ve been dancing, how I’m feeling right now, and who I’m dancing with. I expect this to change for many dancers over time (prefering intense rythmic for a few months or years, then later “discovering” some gooey relaxing tandas from another orchestra, then swinging back again).
This seem less a spectrum and more a field filled by all the orchestras and their different time periods. I’d expect a great DJ to keep the danceability high at all times, but to explore the field of taste throughout the night, even if some of it isn’t to my (or their) liking.
Intro… how long do we stand there before naturally wanting to embrace and move?
Clarity of rhythm… is it clearly present most or all of the time? No rhythm at all and get the whale sounds. Only rhythm and we have a solo metronome.
Clarity of emotion… we generally want to feel something, but not everything, in a single song.
Jarring pauses or breaks… the more there are in the song, the more you have to memorize in order to not fall on your ass.
Lack of weird structural changes… “A Pan y Agua” makes this clear.
Speed… too slow and we’re exhausted from dragging out every moment…too fast and anyone struggles to keep up.
Ending… long fade-outs suck because we have to gradually diminish our movement. Too sharp and we either miss them and feel stupid, or have to crash into them too hard.
Category… Tango, Milonga, Vals. Some like some, some like others, some like all. Hard to argue that there aren’t danceable songs in all categories.
Mood… angry, dramatic, sorrowful, silly, happy. Tango contains all of these and we might want one or the other depending on time of day, what’s happening in our lives, and other factors. Again, great songs in all of these categories.
Speed… as long as we’re in the acceptable range, it becomes a matter of how tired you are, how fast your partner can or wants to move, etc. and is often correlated with an emotion (sweet = slow, angry = fast).
Complexity… how many instruments are in the song, how different are the phrases, presence of accent sounds like single piano notes.
Instruments and vocals… I like the oboe in some Canaro songs, you prefer the shrill scream of Di Sarli violins. Sometimes a guitar is nice, sometimes not. Different instruments are and are-not present across the whole range of danceable to un-danceable.
Here some songs from just D’Arienzo (to keep it simple) to fill 14 of the 16 spots on a 4x4 grid: danceable 1-4, my taste 1-4 (the 2 extremes seem hard to find).
Rhythm/structure is clear and appears quickly, nice drive, energetic but not too fast for majority of dancers, can often dance on 2 or even 3 layers (beat, strings, vocals), builds in intensity but not abruptly, nothing weird happens, clean/simple ending.
Juan D’Arienzo - 1938 - Pensalo bien - YouTube
Rhythm is clear and appears quickly, some nice decorative piano things, slightly plodding, generally a solid song. But: generally not incredibly exciting for advanced dancers, has some phrases that could be slightly jarring, has an almost-false ending 60% into the song, and a weird piano build-up at the end.
Juan D’Arienzo - La Morocha - Tango - YouTube
Clear rhythm and structure is easy to follow. Generally kinda plodding, has weird dragging strings, weird phrase starts around 1:10, song doesn’t seem to know what emption it wants from the dancers so they leave feeling confused…
Juan D’Arienzo - 1935 - Re Fa Si - YouTube
Couldn’t find an example here. If it isn’t danceable at all then I’m not sure I could also find something enjoyable.
Strong rhythm, great driving energy, but too fast for many dancers, lots of weird breaks and modifications to the phrases (tons of fun if you know where they are but really break your flow if you don’t).
Juan D’Arienzo - 1940 - Alberto Reynal - Milonga del 83 - YouTube
Might be too fast for some to dance comfortably, has some breaks, beat hides under the vocals sometimes.
A UNA MUJER - JUAN D’ARIENZO REYNAL - YouTube
TODO: Add a description. Juan D’Arienzo - 1938 - Rodriguez Peña - YouTube
Really long weird intro, dancing doesn’t start until almost 20s in, then becomes quite fast with a very present singer, lots of sudden stops.
Juan D’Arienzo - 1939 - Alberto Echague - Meta Fierro - YouTube
Strong rhythm remains clear even when strings come in, piano sections fun to follow. But: too virtuosic for all but the most expressive dancers to dance gracefully, tense and dramatic breaks (even moments of silence) can be challenging. Gustavo and Giselle dance an amazing dramatic and acrobatic choreography to this but it’s too much for almost any social dance floor.
Juan D’Arienzo - Este Es El Rey - YouTube
Rhythm is present, phrasing clear, fine up until 0:26, but then pattern gets difficult to follow, which can unseat people who can’t follow it, breaking their confidence.
Juan D’Arienzo - 1936 - Sueño Florido - YouTube
Rhythm generally easy to hear, but weird building patterns with pauses at the end can be difficult or annoying, emotionally a bit over the place to my ears (bounces between moody and dopey/happy).
Juan D’Arienzo - 1939 - Don Pacifico - YouTube
I don’t think I know anyone who would rank this as highly pleasing to listen to. Pretty virtuosic, there’s often enough rhythm to move to, but then things fade out or suddenly stop leaving the dancers feeling like they missed the boat, then suddenly gets intense again. Difficult to follow with very little payoff for my taste.
Juan D’arienzo - 1964 - Pura trampa - YouTube
Couldn’t find an example of something that I really enjoy, but which isn’t at all danceable… seems obvious these would be correlated for me.
Clearly a singer-focused song…way too fore, huge contrast between punchy bando and long strength vocal notes, rhythm gets too distant at several points, huge range in level of drama.
Mi dolor - Juan D’Arienzo - YouTube
Too virtuosic for most dancers, beat disappears often, weird jarring sounds throughout (drum hits, da-du-dum at 1:56), vocals not pleasing to my ears (too fore and the exchange is jarring).
Baldosa floja - Jorge Valdez y Mario Bustos con la Orquesta de Juan D’Arienzo - YouTube
How do you even start dancing? Weird patterns? Suddenly slows down and there’s a piano solo… What emotion is trying to be conveyed here?
Juan D’arienzo - 1946 - Don Goyo - YouTube