Five years or so ago we asked the question: "Are we losing beach music?" This genre of music is so quintessential North (and South) Carolina; for it to fade away is to lose a significant part of our cultural history.
Thankfully, for years we had the pleasure of "Charlie Brown" bringing us his beach music radio show. Sadly, Ed Weiss (his real name) passed away recently at the age of 80. From the News & Observer:
His radio show, “On The Beach,” was syndicated on about 40 stations across the Southeast, making him one of the most well-known voices in Beach music radio.
Beach music, R&B music largely recorded by Black artists, started gaining traction among young, white North Carolinians in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Because the music industry was still heavily segregated at that point, teenage Carolinians could only hear the music on jukeboxes in beach towns like Atlantic Beach and Myrtle Beach. ...
As Beach music spread, it popularized “shag dancing”— essentially a slowed-down version of the jitterbug — which is now the official popular dance of North Carolina. Weiss was inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame in 1996 for his contributions to the movement.
Listen, I am not someone who hangs on to the past just for the history's sake. North Carolina has changed dramatically, and the folks who have moved here have brought tremendous cultural positives from points beyond. That's a good thing. However, as a native North Carolinian, Beach music is and was a major part of my upbringing -- and for many people before and after me. Heck, my wife and I shagged at our wedding. But I do worry that more and more people do not know about Beach music and how great it is. In fact, I heard a comment recently that a local lifestyle magazine editor was given the suggestion to include something about the genre, and the response was "what the hell is Beach music?' That makes me sad. And I don't necessarily blame that person; we have clearly not kept it pertinent enough.
R.I.P. to Ed Weiss. But hopefully beach music will live for decades to come.
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