Since I am often accused of being a "traditionalist", and since I learned a great deal of tango in BA, and had the privilege of study and have long conversations about tango & tango music with very experienced dancers, and have been dancing for a long time.  Then I will enter the conversation and express my personal opinion on the matter.

2 BIG items are being ignored in this conversation:

1- THE MUSIC HAS TO BE DANCEABLE.

2- DANCING/PERFORMING TANGO STEPS IS NOT THE SAME AS DANCING TANGO

Because tango steps MATCH tango music.  This simple reason keeps people all over the world dancing to the oldies.  And dancing tango is not about steps (if this does not make sense to you, I suggest you keep dancing and studing before calling someone else "narrow minded" (I say this because I made that mistake).

I think you will find people all over the world from BA to Japan that would like new music (including my self); the problem is not that people are opposed to new music; the problem is that new music is not danceable and/or not as danceable as the oldies.

A good example is Carlos Caceres, one of his songs "Tango negro" is often played at milongas in BA, but his song is one of the few that is danceable.  There are new tango orquestras popping out all over the world, many are good ones (like our own Berretin & Tango Pacifico), and I think in the future, we will see many good and NEW danceable songs coming out of them.  I have counted 4 bandoneon players in Portland, I think that is fantastic.

When I started 14 years ago, I too thought that one could dance tango to any music, and I remember Suzana Miller telling me around about the music being danceable and matching the steps.  I thought she was antique and narrow minded (see my recommendation above), but it took me 7 years of intense studying and dancing to realize that she was right.  I particularly remember something she said:  "Once a dancer understands the relation of the music with the steps, a dancer can not dance tango to anything that is not danceable tango", I found this to be 100% accurate.

I used to host a milonga and I used to DJ it, I often played non-traditional tango and once performed a milonga at the water front to James Brown' "sex machine", I have a large collection of non-traditional tango music.  But this music is for listening.

I used to attend many alternative milongas in BA (I also used to dance open frame), one big difference is that "alternative" in BA is used to play non-traditional TANGO music, in the US and Europe "alternative' is used to play any music, most of which does not have a tango rhythm.

As I have danced in several cities, I noticed that in communities where non-tango music is played at milongas, their "traditional" dance level and floor craft is horrible, but in towns (like Portland ) where traditional tango is played, then the "traditional" dance level is much better.  Note:  Other dancers may have had different experiences.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from dancing whatever to whatever, I encourage anyone to start a new dance where one can dance tango steps to NON-DANCEABLE music, but for the love of CULTURAL RESPECT, do not call it Argentine Tango or a milonga, and don't be dissapointed if experienced dancers do not attend.

Since I am an accountant during the day, I think $ has a lot of power for change, so I encourage you to use your $ to support and buy CDs/songs from new orquestras, I think this is a great way to get new music.  I mentioned 2 groups on top, but there are many more and I hope some of you can share some names and links.

Thank you and happy dancing.