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This question was put on hold as off topic, presumably because it is thought to not be useful to future readers. Can I get more specific reasoning for this? It's entirely possible that this question doesn't belong on this site, but this reasoning does not seem valid to me.

This question is very different from questions like 'Transcribe this song for me' or 'Tell me what song this is' - I understand how those types of questions would only benefit another user if they were looking for the same exact song. Instead, this is a fairly common question among new (especially younger) dancers who struggle to hear the difference between the categories, and don't have the musicality that's required. To many, it seems like people are arbitrarily saying 'this song is okay' and 'this song is not okay' and they don't have the sample size to identify a trend. This is actually a self learning or resource request (pretty common on SE sites) and is more a question of 'How do I identify/recognize these strictly defined but undocumented* categories of music?' - only a beginner does not know they are undocumented and probably doesn't understand they are strictly defined. A beginner will not know to type any of those keywords into Google, they are much more likely to type words similar to what the OP did. That's one of the best things about SE sites in my opinion - they often bridge the gap between cluelessness and being able to learn much more on your own. I have frequently mined new keywords from them and used the keywords to open the door to knowledge I previously was not connected to.

To be clear, I'm not opposed to more specific/better wording as an edit/addition to the OP's question. But I think that removing the current wording will result in many Google searches missing the connection - that they could have had - to this path of learning.

*I really mean not well documented, and certainly not online/in commonplace books as would be the case for the typical Stack Overflow or Cross Validated question. It even differs from musical study, in that it is not a widely studied. Most ballroom courses/lessons spend as little time as possible on the theory behind/connection to the music.

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    +1 for bringing it to meta. "Don't get mad: get meta." hehe
    – luser droog
    May 18, 2015 at 7:42

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The first sentence of the question tells exactly what the OP wants from us:

Can someone direct me to where to find popular ballroom music?

Which if you look on the "What can I ask?" section of the FAQ you will find that this question falls under two different off topic reasons which are:

  • recommendations of pieces to listen to, study, or play
  • requesting a list of resources

The question is not what defines ballroom or tango music, but asking us to find the music for him. It's not really part of our scope to find songs that fit a certain criteria or lists of songs for people nor do I personally want it to be. Most questions would have near infinite songs that could fit the criteria and most likely there will be more made that fit the criteria.

If you wanted you could ask and answer your own question that is directly about what defines ballroom or tango music, but that's not really the OP's question but a follow up question that I would agree with you fits in the scope of the site.

As to why that close reason was chosen, we only have 3 predefined off-topic close reasons and most users will choose the one that best fits why the question is off-topic. In this case it was finding a particular song(s) that is why people chose that off-topic reason.

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    i disagree that this aligns with 'recommendations of pieces' because the ballroom aspect makes it less of an opinion, and more of a right v. wrong answer (as much as any art can have a right/wrong answer). as for requesting a list of resources or finding a particular song, can i instead add to the op's question, something like 'or, if such a resource does not exist, what are some suggested ways to develop it for myself'?
    – aeroNotAuto
    May 9, 2015 at 18:29
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    @aeroNotAuto just make a new question like I said. It's not really helpful to the OP if you completely rewrite his question just so it better fits in with our site.
    – Dom Mod
    May 9, 2015 at 18:38
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    well that's actually my point, i had no desire to change any of the op's text, just add to it - the point would be to leave the op's text so that new ballroom dancers with the same question would find the op's question through google, read my expansion/clarification, and learn what they should be asking. there's not much of a point to creating a new question that only contains the proper wording, as a new dancer won't know the keywords that would lead them to it.
    – aeroNotAuto
    May 9, 2015 at 18:41
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The closure reason has nothing to do with it being Ballroom or any other style of music, is is simply that it is not a question about the practice or theory of music. You could almost translate the question to "How to I search the Internet for some terms I am not 100% sure about?"

It sounds like you are knowledgeable about that particular area, so I'd second Dom's comment on either editing the OP's post or even asking and answering your own question if you can word it in a more useful way.

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    yea, i have no problem with/am willing to add to the op's post to make it better suited for this site. but if the consensus is that i should remove much of the op's text/post a new question, i don't understand how that would help beginners get here from google.
    – aeroNotAuto
    May 11, 2015 at 13:49
  • i took a first crack at it...was i correct in flagging the post after editing it? i thought i read in the help somewhere that i was supposed to do that.
    – aeroNotAuto
    May 11, 2015 at 18:48
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    @aeroNotAuto You can flag it for re-opening, but editing a closed question automatically puts it into the review queue for reopening so it's not really necessary. I have reverted your edit, however -- adding something the OP didn't ask goes beyond the "clarify meaning without changing it" tenet of our editing rules (at least without consulting the asker). As Dom suggested I think it would be best to ask a separate question.
    – user28
    May 11, 2015 at 21:17

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