Music of Ireland

Phoenix, trained his whole life not to draw attention to himself, looks around the classroom. We know that he has an answer, but what can it be? What answer would you give, come to that, if asked to describe the difference between a Madonna track and a classical string quartet? Ed Crowley turns to this new student. ‘Mr Manfield?’ he asks. ‘Help us out. What do you think?’ There is a fraction of a pause as Phoenix twiddles shyly with his pencil before giving this reply. ‘You can’t dance to Beethoven?’ I like that. You can’t dance to Beethoven. And if you can’t dance, you can’t join in. Music from the ‘ragtime and jazz tradition’ (why do I feel that the word Tradition is taking on the greasiness of the word Community? The ‘gay community’, ‘the divided communities of Northern Ireland’ – the ‘Gospel tradition’, the ‘folk tradition’) all the way through to blues, R amp;B, rock and roll, soul, funk, reggae, pop, ska, disco, rap, hip-hop, techno, acid-house, jungle, Tesco, handbag, trance, hypno and the rest, always keeps its back-beat and its dance roots; its proper home is still the dance floor and the shared experience of adolescents swapping records in their bedrooms ...»