There are any number of songs by the late, great Michael Jackson that make me want to dance. Most of them, in fact. In addition to being a phenomenal and innovative dancer himself, MJ also had a preternatural talent for producing songs with just the right mix of rhythm and groove to force listeners’ bodies to almost involuntarily respond.
There are a few different ways to understand the “make” in “songs that make you want to dance.” For example, there are the driving and frenetic sorts, like OutKast’s “Hey Ya,” that make you want to dance because you’re overcome by the pure joy of their sonic assault. Then there are the slower and steadier sorts, like Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” that make you want to dance because you find yourself kind of sliiiiding into them, like slipping into a vat of honey. My choice for today falls somewhere between those. It’s of the groovier sort, the kind that makes you want to dance by laying out a perfect rhythmic pocket to sit and sway in, like a porch swing.
Here’s my pick, Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel”:
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