At the What What Club we play music from the 1920s to the 1950s. Although we describe our music as 'swing', we also play early rock and roll numbers.

We have a full 7 Piece House Swing Band with Singer and a number of talented DJs.

Swing music, also called lindy, jitterbug, and jive, is a form a jazz which is believed to have originated at Savoy Ballroom, Harlem, New York during the late 1920s. By 1935 it began to gain widespread acceptance, and the strong rhythms, loud tunes, and "swinging" style led to an explosion of creative dance and dancing as a pastime, both inside and outside the black community in which swing has it's roots.
 
 


Swing at the Savoy Ballroom
 
 


Film Swing Time, 1936,
Fred Astaire -Ginger Rogers
  		The various rowdy, energetic, creative, and improvisational dances that came into effect during that time came to be known, collectively, as swing dance.

Up until around 1939 swing was frowned upon by some conservative Americans, and it was banned by both Hitler and Stalin.

The popularity of Swing declined during the 1940s, and by 1949 swing had evolved into several divergent genres of art and popular music, including jump blues, rhythm and blues, bebop, rock and roll, country and western, and funk. In general, the shuffle rhythm was replaced in prominence by the backbeat.
 
Although a form of Swing Dance called Ceroc has been popular for some time in France, the popular Swing Dancing revival in the UK is more recent. Here Celebrities such as Madonna and Sienna Miller are now regularly seen in 1920s clothing attending or throwing Vintage Parties. People are attracted to both the dancing and the dressing up. The revival of interest in Swing is probably also connected to the revival of interest in Ball Room dancing and White Tie Balls with Waltzes etc.
 
Although some people who come to The What What Club are serious and expert swing dancers who have been at it for years, the majority are not. It's easy to enjoy the dancing no matter what level of skill.