Are we losing beach music?

Thanks to the power of social media, some friends and I had a very nice time the other day reminiscing about beach music and the memories that those songs conjure up. Songs like "With This Ring" and "Carolina Girls" and " You're More Than A Number In My Little Red Book" and so on. Beach music is arguably the one style of music that is most synonymous with the Carolinas. The Shag dance itself, some say, originated off the Carolina Beach boardwalk.

For some of the older folks in the discussion, the conversation took them back to times shaggin' in Myrtle Beach or Atlantic Beach. For me, it was more about thinking back to the songs we listened to while spending summer evenings in my grandparents' cottage on Topsail Island and then, later, enjoying concerts at various college events featuring General Johnson and the Chairmen of Board, the Embers and even Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. (My wife and I even learned the Shag for our wedding reception.)

But the discussion also touched on something else: is beach music dying? As one person commented on Facebook, "My big thing is how much all this great stuff has faded into history. The new generation needs to be educated. How about we form a 'Beach Music Revival Society?' "

Thankfully, through conversations like this and through events like the North Hills Beach Music Concert schedule in Raleigh, beach music continues to live on. (The N.C. State University marching band even plays "Hey Baby" in-between the third and fourth quarter of football games, which results in a stadium singalong.) Even some of those same bands continue to tour and perform. But let's do our part to keep it alive. In fact, we've created a Spotify playlist that is open; feel free to add appropriate beach music songs.

In the meantime, enjoy these oldies and (definitely still) goodies.

Kay Yow (1942-2009)

RALEIGH (AP) | N.C. State’s Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach who won more than 700 games while earning fans with her decades-long fight against breast cancer, died on Saturday. She was 66. | ESPN.com

Yow coached the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team to a gold medal in 1988, won four ACC tournament championships, earned 20 NCAA tournament bids and reached the Final Four in 1998.

But for many fans, Yow was best defined by her unwavering resolve while fighting cancer, from raising awareness and money for research to staying with her team through the debilitating effects of the disease and chemotherapy treatments. In her final months, Yow was on hormonal therapy as the cancer spread to her liver and bones.

She never flinched or complained, relying on her faith as the disease progressed. She commonly noted there were other patients with “harder battles than I’m fighting” and said it was inspiring for her to stay with her team.

“Almost everybody is dealing with something,” Yow said in a 2006 interview.

Yow’s story touched players, fans | The News & Observer

Yow’s considerable efforts will live on | ESPN.com

ESPN videos: Remembering Yow | Yow’s Legacy

WRAL video: Yow: 38 years of coaching, inspiration

Halls of Fame: Basketball | N.C. Sports

Our international readers seem interested in Link Wray, 'One Tree Hill' and Kristen Davis

Not sure if one can scientifically gleam much from the Dare Society's Feedjit traffic map; however, it sure seems like our international visitors have a keen interest in the following posts:

-'Sex' star Davis to launch fashion line at Belk (Peru, Canada, Bucharest)

-Wray's 'Rumble' among best guitar songs of all time (England)

-'One Tree Hill' picked up for sixth season (Bucharest, Bangkok)

-A visitor from Chile seems to be interested in musician Ryan Adams, while a Swedish visitor appears intrigued by the N.C. State-East Carolina rivalry.

These posts have been hit pretty often from our oversees (and across the border) friends. Why is that? Well, I can assume that anytime the word "sex" is in a title, it will probably fly up the search engines. Link Wray appears to have had quite the European following, so that one's understandable. Perhaps our Bucharest and Thai friends think the post about "One Tree Hill" is in regards to the U2 song and not the CW teen drama?

So, our international visitors: Welcome! And what was it that brought you here? Inquiring minds want to know.