<\/p><\/div> In this 2006 photo from The News & Observer archive, Patsy O’Neal from Raleigh, dances with Chip Thomas from Roxboro, during the Triangle Beach Music Festival at Bryan Farms in Garner, NC.<\/p>\n ehyman@newsobserver.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n <\/p>\n The Carolina-grown, soulful sound of beach music returns to the Triangle this week for another summer season of blues and grooves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With a boatload of performances on the horizon sure to attract veteran fans and new listeners alike, here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Defined by its pop-soul feel and a tempo reminiscent of the doo-wop tunes of the 1950s, beach music provided a summer soundtrack for the Carolinas and Georgia through the 1960s and \u201870s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The genre got its roots from early R&B influences and paved the way for the signature \u201cCarolina shag,\u201d known as the \u201cswing dance of the South.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shagging, named the official state popular dance<\/a> of both North Carolina and South Carolina, is a high-tempo, swing-liked dance primarily performed to beach music that evolved from the jitterbug and jump blues dances, according to the N.C. General Assembly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beach music first evolved in the late 1940s and began to gain popularity in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Carolina Beach, North Carolina, into the mid-\u201950s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Brendan Greaves \u2014 the owner and founder of independent, North Carolina-based record label Paradise of Bachelors<\/a> \u2014 segregation prevented many white listeners from hearing music from Black artists. But at beachside clubs on the Carolina shores, white teenagers vacationing in the coastal south flocked to Black venues to listen to popular music from Black soul and R&B artists.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There, the inventive music from bands like The Tams and the Platters gained a new audience, and propelled their music into wider popularity, later named \u201cbeach music.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Greaves, based on research he published as part of a UNC graduate program with colleague Mike Taylor, found Black musicians rarely called their own music beach music. But the term was popular with white musicians emulating their style with new tunes. Grieves said the term became a \u201cnostalgic designation\u201d to describe music suitable for shag dancing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBeach music exists because shag dancing exists,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you dance to beach music, you\u2019re shag dancing, so it\u2019s this cyclical thing.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prominent southern radio stations, like WLAC in Nashville, played the hits on the airwaves in the \u201860s and \u201870s, with DJs spinning records they thought had a good tempo for shag dancing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beach music also saw a major revival in the 1980s, with bands like The Embers and the Chairmen of the Board attracting a prominently Southern fanbase with their blues hits.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Ethan Hyman
\n <\/span><\/p>\nWhat is beach music?<\/h2>\n
What is beach music\u2019s history and how is it different from soul?<\/h2>\n
Where can you find beach music in the Triangle?<\/h2>\n
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