And the beat goes off

Nobody dances anymore:

[Daniel J.] Levitin, the neuroscientist, draws a parallel between people’s dancing inhibitions and their discomfort with public singing. In the 1950s, he points out, “people would sit around and sing songs with a piano player. Now there’s been a professionalization of singing as well.” He suggests that is why we enjoy the first week of “American Idol” so much, because we can laugh at people who don’t abide the new social norm: You don’t perform in public unless you’re really good. Increasingly, he said, we’ve come to think that way about all social entertainment.

# 2008 Aug 05