I play for contra dances, and a core part of our culture is that we

always have live music. It's not that live music is categorically

better: if you ran a test where you put down a curtain in front of the

musicians and secretly played a live recording from a great band

playing for the same dance it would probably go really well. Instead,

we insist on live music because that's the kind of culture we're

trying to build, one where the performers are part of the community,

where anyone can start playing for dancing, and where the music grows

and changes with the culture.

Other groups went different ways. The late 1940s explosion in square

dancing happened in part because of technological progress: it was now

practical to record a band once and play it back millions of times to

support dancing all over the country. Callers would buy a sound

system, including a record player, and all they needed was some

dancers and a hall. This let modern square dancing grow enormously.

Contra dance took a different path, coming through the 70s folk

revival with a strong commitment to live music. Musicians were [...]

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January 12th, 2026

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/LuosdA2EAdJYEe3vZ/contra-dance-as-a-model-for-post-ai-culture