What is Shag and/or Beach Music?

Question: What is Shag and/or Beach Music?

Answer: Shag started as a dance popular amongst collegiate kids in the South. Various reports have the dance itself dated as far back as the Twenties (!), but the music we've now come to associate with the phenomenon can best be classified as easygoing R&B, primarily from the mid-Sixties. Unlike most genres of music, Shag (often called "beach music") didn't have a scene to spring from, no primary city of development.

Of course, the events that use the name have a point of origin - the beaches of South Carolina, where white kids had broken the color barrier as early as the 1930s by convincing local DJs to add rhythm and blues to their lists. However, there were no bands dedicated to shag music during the movement's zenith in the mid-60s. Shag was one of those rare cultural events that picked its own music after the fact.

That doesn't mean there's no distinct sound or feel to the music. The shag dance is sort of a lazy jitterbug, done on beaches, often at night, always with someone of the opposite sex. Therefore, the music shaggers picked for their soundtrack had to be sunny, sexy, fun, and lazy (average tempo: 110-135 bpm). Depending on who you talk to, shagging can be done to songs as diverse as Elvis' "Return To Sender" and Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," but the general consensus is that there should be a slow shuffle at the bottom and some sort of southern soul on top.