What Songs Make You Want To Get Up And Shake Your Groove Thing?

I really, really believe everyone has at least ONE song that makes them want to get up and dance.

As James Brown put it, Get Up Offa That Thing!  What's yours?

A lot of songs do not have the same effect on everyone. What does it for you might not do it for the person next to you. One of my favorites, "American Woman", makes me want to jump up and dance and it doesn't matter if it's The Guess Who or Lenny Kravitz singing it.  There's something about that song that moves me. It's not simply the lyrics and the fact that I am an American woman, it's the guitar licks, the drums, the way all of the music comes together and has great rhythm to me. There's other songs as well and I've often wondered WHY? Is it the words, the vocals, the beat, or what? 

For example, there's the song "Royals", the Lorde version, that has me singing every time it comes on and my mother just shakes her head as she doesn't like it nearly as much as I do. So, I believe that might rule out genetics!

Songs trigger emotion. What is it about a song that motivates you to forget everything else around you and make you want to get up and move to the music? Is there a part of the brain that is stimulated to produce this effect? If so, apparently, we're not all wired the same. Every song doesn't "sing" to everyone in that way. But, then there are songs that light the fire in many people. Nearly every time I hear Queen's "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions" anyone that is around will stop what they are doing and live in the moment of the song. Most will sing along and some do theatrics. I've witnessed that song affecting a lot of people across the years. It seems to be timeless. 

Although I believe lyrics and vocals play a great part in pulling the feeling of "jamming to the music" out of people, there are instrumentals that are powerful without words. Floyd Kramer's "Last Date" was an early one for me, then Herb Alpert's "Rise" and Joe Satriani's (almost anything he does) "Surfing With Alien" and Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good". These songs have no words (Last Date actually does but I never heard them until years later) and yet the music has a pull like a magnet that makes you want to move. It doesn't seem to be just one instrument, although, I surmise a lot of people would say the saxophone would be the culprit. I believe it's any instrument. Piano, guitar, trumpet, Phil Collins' drums "In The Air Tonight" (who can sit still for that?) 

There was a recent heartwarming story in the news where a young girl was in an automobile accident, had a traumatic brain injury and made an incredible comeback. The family and hospital staff credited music played by Bruno Mars, her favorite singer, as the comeback catalyst. 

Every time I hear Flo Rida and Nelly Furtado's "Jump" I want to get up and either exercise or dance.  Linkin Park's "Numb" is another one. 

What songs have this type of motivation for you?  Do you know why?  Can you pinpoint it to an element in the song? An instrument? A lyric? What is your trigger and why do you think it has the effect it does?

I think music plays a critical part in this world. Live entertainment is the best form, but even recorded music does a body good. Mind and body. Our being is being nourished with music.

Get out and support your local musicians. They need it. We need it. Feel free to share here your local bands you think are exceptional. We may not all love the same genres or even the same songs within a genre, but somebody somewhere is bound to love it! Others just may expand their horizons!


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