While in Richmond last week, I got clued in on a new trend within the Hip Hop community. There is nothing but collective dancing going on in clubs right now.
It seems that the no-name kids in Suburbia are becoming big Hip Hop artists by doing two simple things: inventing a dance and releasing it on youtube. And like magic, they get a record deal. This shatters the traditional model of the music industry. While looking into this new trend of dancing, I came across this article. This author states that:
- Several years ago two interesting things started happening, at the street level, kids stopped fighting in the clubs, stopped buying cheap knock-off jewelry to look like the rap superstars and simply started battle dancing. Look at the number of rap videos today that don’t have any scantily clad women in them. All of Al Sharpton’s protests don’t really matter, the free market has a funny way of solving even complex social issues.
At the same time, many of the most influential DJ’s in the world (largely influenced by Diplo and Lowbudget’s seminal Hollertronix project Never Scared) took an interest in Baltimore (the genre, not the city) and mashing genres on top of heavily hip-hop influenced tracks.
Such a great observation. I think people just want to have fun right now. 50 Cent the Gangsta is out. Kanye West the Creative Guru is in. I think the new culture bubbling up is about creativity, group activity and just about having a great time.
But I would add a new twist to what the author says. It’s not about individualistic battles between groups anymore. No more “you got served” but more about the collective group dancing. Back to the roots of the line dance, etc. Most of these dance moves are so easy to replicate and very contagious. You see someone else doing the dance, you do it with them, youtube the video to find out who it is or learn how to do the dance and it spreads like wildfire. Check them out for yourself.
Watch my Feet
Crank Dat Spiderman
Sponge Bob
Crank Dat Batman
Errbody on D
Lion King Dance
View Comments so far ↓
1 El Gaffney // Oct 8, 2007 at 9:35 am
hey man, this is great. the impact of line dancing on violence, clothing, etc. it’s a herd behavior – i’m going to pass this link onto mark earls. “it’s official like the man with the whistle.”
2 mikekarnj // Oct 8, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Yeah, I was thinking about it this morning. This would be the coolest documentary ever. We could use all the insights and herd behavior as driving points for it. Throwing the idea out there!
3 mikekarnj // Dec 24, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Yeah, I was thinking about it this morning. This would be the coolest documentary ever. We could use all the insights and herd behavior as driving points for it. Throwing the idea out there!
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