Before Lady Gaga Came to Town: A World Dance Music List*

Music and dance go hand-in-hand. Everyone has her/his song list. Here's a sample set of world dance music before Lady Gaga became famous.

There's natural symbiosis between music and dance. 

Image courtesy of infoblitz.co.nz

With or without words, music always captures human emotions. It also shows human ingenuity. It can influence one's moods, dreams, and choices in life. And yes, it is music that can lead one to move. As Mark Changizi (2010) writes: "Music is evocative because it sounds like human behaviors, many which are expressive in their nature. Music gets us dancing because we social apes are prone to mimic the movements of others."

There are plenty of dance music around that can just make you either nod or head bang, snap your fingers or stomp your feet, sway your hips or lift your arms to touch the air, or make your body feel its tempo or lyrics of the song - and just dance.

Sans some contemporary dance tunes like those of Lady Gaga's, here's a global bunch of music that one can dance to and can use to escape reality, or to forget inhibitions, or to reflect.

Reminiscing Filipino 90s music

The late Francis Magalona was a league of his own when he penned and performed most, if not all, of his songs. One can easily sing and move to the groovy Girl Be Mine and reflective Kaleidoscope World. He may not have been as famous as Michael Jackson, but Magalona was also a great artist. 

The Jerks' Sayaw sa Bubog (Dance on Broken Glass) and Reklamo ng Reklamo (Endless Whining) depict Philippine socio-cultural and political realities.

Pinikpikan's Kalipay (Happiness) and Una Kaya (First You Can) are indigenously crafted.

Reggae defines Tropical Depression's Bilog na Naman ang Buwan (It's Full Moon Again), Ala-Ala (Memories), and Kapayapaan (Peace).

Eraserheads' daydreaming travelogue Overdrive is a feast to youthful ears.

A mixed collection of Western music

Karl Jenkin's Palladio and Requiem Dies Irae, as well as Rodrigo y Gabriela's Orion and word-laden EmineM's Loose Yourself are done with much passion, inviting a dancer to be as passionate too.

Tunes for interpretative dancing includes Sinead O'Connor's You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart, Black Boys on Mopeds, Last Day of Our Acquaintance, Bono and Gavin Friday's Irish music-inspired In the Name of the Father, Madonna's Rain and Frozen, Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes, Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch, Fire, and Tunnel of Love, and Tears for Fears' Woman in Chains.

The following rock classics, some with cutting-edge and progressive lyrics, are good for head banging, torso swaying, hip shaking, rhythmic clapping, and other forms of freestyle dancing:

• On the Dark Side (Eddie and the Cruisers)

• Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)

• Lullaby (Rock-a-bye) (Shawn Mullins)

• Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand (Primitive Radio Gods)

• Betterman and Daughter (Pearl Jam)

• 3 AM and Push (Matchbox Twenty)

• Don't You Forget about Me and Alive and Kicking (Simple Minds)

• Beautiful Girl and Disappear (INXS)

• Pride, Angel of Harlem, and All I Want is You (U2)

• Name, Slide, and Iris (Goo Goo Dolls)

The late Michael Jackson leads the pack of pop dance music artists with Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel, They Don't Care About Us, Human Nature, and Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’. His sister Janet adds Love Can Never Do Without You, Alright, Together Again, Runaway, and Escapade to the list.

Annie Lennox/Eurythmics hits the same genre with Walking on Broken Glass, There Must Be an Angel, and Here Comes the Rain Again.

One can also dance to woman-friendly No Scrubs and Unpretty by TLC, as well as Ani DiFranco's 32 Flavors. Ditto with Tracy Chapman's Revolution and Give Me One Reason, as well as Arrested Development's thought-provoking Mr. Wendal, spiritual Tennessee, and clashing Everyday People.

Dance is freedom

There are millions of other danceable songs around the globe, including ballroom pieces, Motown hits, and tribal compositions. With various techniques, dance shows how body movements could merge with words and melodies. The art itself creates a space for expression, as well as a source of freedom for anyone who just wants to dance.

Source:

Changizi, Mark. 2010. What Must a Theory of Music Explain? (accessed October 23, 2010).

*This piece was previously published on Suite101. The author credits the artists and musicians in the list, along with their respective record producers and supporters who uploaded videos of their work on YouTube.com.

What May Affect a Worker's Balance in Life?

There are individual differences that influence how people balance paid work and personal life. These include gender, personality, and coping strategies.

Man and woman have different balancing styles 

br3akthru and FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In An Examination of the Implications and Costs of Work-Life Conflict in Canada (1999), Linda Duxbury and colleagues recognize the adverse effects of work-life stress on the overall productivity and wellness of employees. They observed that “…the variability in employee responses to work and family environments…” are affected by “fundamental individual differences”, specifically:

Gender

There are physiological and sociological bases for gender differences when responding to work-life issues. Women are more stressed than men due to their biological programming: “…wherein women tend to exhibit emotional symptoms…men tend to manifest physiological diseases…”

In Work-role Expectations and Work-Family Conflict: Gender Differences in Emotional Exhaustion (2004), Margaret Posig and Jill Kickul observe that among men work-family conflict (or the extent to which work demands lead to household tension) contributes to the indirect link between emotional exhaustion and work-role expectations. The same can be said for women; but job problems caused by family commitments often results in work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion.

Enilda Delgado and Maria Canabal’s Factors Associated with Negative Spillover from Job to Home Among Latinos in the United States (2006) also note how gender influences negative spillover (NS) of work demands to home life: “Working conditions, including hours worked, supervisor support, job pressure, and job autonomy significantly impact NS for both groups.”

According to Duxbury et al. (1999), the socialization process also affects gender-based responses towards work-life stress, with women’s role expectations containing “a higher level of stressors.” Within the domain of personal life (PL), this could mean expecting them to do chores and caregiving even after performing paid work (PW); while in the workplace, it is occupying jobs where autonomy is minimal. Thus, women’s varied response from men can also be attributed to differences in PW-PL stressors caused by gender stereotypes.

Personality and Coping Strategies

When faced with a taxing situation, everybody uses “adaptational techniques…to master a major psychological threat and its attendant negative feelings,” explains Ellen Galinsky of the Family and Work Institute. The coping style reflects an individual’s personality and “interpretation of potentially competing environmental demands.”

Herta Toth’s Gendered Dilemmas of the Work-Life Balance in Hungary (2005) offers a related finding. Through 30 interviews with male and female managers of a Budapest-based company, it was found out “that men and women have different perceptions of work-life balance and adopt different coping strategies to manage work and family commitments.”

Thus, apart from describing work-life conflict as highly perceptual, Duxbury and colleagues view coping behavior as the outcome of an employee’s decision to do (or not to do) something about the problem. Such manner of coping is shaped by her/his psychological make-up and cognitive assessment of the situation. However, they note that analyzing coping styles remains unexplored in this context.

Red Wine and Its Health Benefits for Moderate Drinkers*

Drinking red wine does not necessarily make a person alcoholic. There are people who occasionally drink it, and there are also those who regularly take it for one reason or another.

Several studies have indicated that moderate consumption of red wine can be good to human health. The list of benefits includes:

• Nurturing cardiovascular health and liver health

• Fighting atherosclerosis and brain diseases

• Protecting men and women from cancer

• Controlling inflammation and preventing acne

• Hampering the aging process

• Inhibiting hypertension and stroke

• Supporting weight management

• Reducing bad cholesterol and clotting

• Curbing diabetes

• Promoting good eyesight

• Hindering osteoporosis

• Blocking vascular injury in light smokers

• Inducing good sleep

Five Ways to Secure a Company's ICT Network

ICT network security is a must for any organization.

Most business owners and managers who are concerned with employee performance and productivity know the importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs). They allocate resources for the setting up of an ICT system that is largely comprised of various digital technologies.

Part of having an ICT system installed is ensuring the optimal functioning of such infrastructure. Not all enterprises, however, adopt network security measures. Based on GeoTrust's Best Practices for Securing Your Enterprise (n.d.), the following are five of the recommended network security measures:

Baseline Test for Athletes - What Is It and Why Is It Necessary?

An athlete's mental health plays a role in his/her ability to recover from injury.

A fundamental, yet critical component of sports performance and athlete management is a baseline test. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorse the use this assessment tool to various professional and amateur sports groups. The National Football League (NFL), the Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have adopted a policy that mandates this step to ensure the health of their players.