By: Carly Recoon
There was a stirring among students at Williamsville East High School on Thursday, February 24th when it was announced that the Winter Dance, scheduled for that Friday, had been cancelled. Students at East seemed uninterested in this year’s Winter Dance; many students blamed the lack of enthusiasm not only on poor advertising but also on warnings from administration.
For years the school has been attempting to filter out bad behavior and inappropriate attire, but to no avail. “They scared everyone away by making threats before tickets went on sale,” said senior Brigid Wojciechowski. “People didn’t want to risk getting homecoming taken away for next year.” Many students were afraid that next year’s Homecoming would get cancelled if anything out of line occurred at the Winter Dance.
According to Assistant Principal Mrs. DeSantis, the timing of the dance was the chief reason for its cancellation. She recognizes that students may feel apprehensive because of the extremely distasteful dancing and alcohol-related suspensions levied at Homecoming this year, but she wants to stress that administration doesn’t want to cancel dances.
“Everyone loves homecoming, but it needs to be fun and safe for everyone. There is a broad spectrum of students, and there are many kids who just want to dance with their friends and not grind.”
It might sound preposterous, but many schools nationwide have cancelled dances for that very reason. At New Hampshire’s Exeter High School, Principal James Tremblay made the decision to cancel school run dances because of the mob mentality dance styles. “Dances are wonderful to have…but if we can’t behave the right way, it’s not the kind of environment we want to foster,” he said. In every instance, there have been major discussions what is acceptable in school environments, and, furthermore, who or what to blame for this rise of pop-culture.
Music is a necessary part of our culture, and as the years have changed so has the style, pace, lyrics, and rhythms. People who criticize the current generation for provocative dancing styles need to recognize that this is not the first time dancing has broken traditional barriers. Just as Elvis’ thrusting caused controversy in the 1950’s so has Miley Cyrus’ twerking in the 2010’s.
When you turn on the radio today, almost every song you hear has some type of insinuation to promiscuous activity. According to Rachel Florence, a Senior at Earl Haig High School “Radio stations play songs that gain more listeners. It’s not always based on what the song lyrics are saying… if I like a song, I’m going to turn it up loud and sing along.” Studies have shown that sexual promiscuity and excessive profanity in modern music videos affect the young psyche.
Youth and adolescents, are becoming increasingly influenced by pop culture media, music, and videos. When student display ‘distasteful’ clothing or dancing it is seen as a wreckage of character and class. Schools are now beginning to see a decline in interest of school dances and dances being cancelled because of the strict policies against ‘sexually stimulated dancing’, however it is still tough to place the blame on one group of people. Kids cannot take the blame for mimicking what they see on the media because that’s exactly what everyone else did when they were kids.
“Schools can cancel dances and put bans on certain types of dancing, but they can’t stop an entire generation from acting the way we want to act,” Matt Evans said, a sophomore. The progression of music over the years is only a result of the way people have changed. Back in the 30’s there was much more of a reserved element to society and dancing was much more modest. However, with the introduction of Rock & Roll, Electronica, Pop, Hip-Hop, and R&B throughout the past five decades, people began to feel a more electric and rebellious spirit.
Each generation creates a new standard of pop-culture, but at the same time they face newer and harsher critics from the generation that preceded them.
