By Kelsey Bischot
Sentry Staff Reporter
A new dance sensation has taken not only Youtube but the whole nation by storm: the Harlem Shake. It can be seen imitated by everyone from local high schools to Youtube sensations alike.
The Harlem Shake refers to the electronic song by DJ Baauer that gained its popularity through a ‘meme’(for those of you who do not know what this is, it is a is a concept that spreads from person to person via the internet). Baauer (Harry Rodrigues) quickly built up his name with this dance craze and song. Just a year ago Baauer created his song “Harlem Shake,” by giving the track a creative mix of dance music, Dutch house synth riffs, a rap sample, animal noises, and drum and bass. This collection of sounds came together to be known as the “Harlem Shake.” Baauer simply put his song online with no expectations. However, just a few months later his song was displayed on Scottish DJ Rustie’s “Essential Mix” for BBC Radio 1. This gave him the recognition and start up to his quick rise to fame. The song went viral and only a couple months later, his song exploded and could be seen around every music avenue and Youtube video. By February 7, YouTube exploded with homemade videos set to the song, mimicking the ‘original’ Harlem Shake video by amateur comedian Filthy Frank. Most of the homemade videos are usually shot in 30 second sequences with one person(usually masked or costumed) breaking out into crazy uncontrolled dance moves for the first 15 seconds. The when the beat drops, the video cuts to a crowd of people that break out into a series of convulsive and crazy dance moves with no set routine and requires no skill. It also has no particular step or style, the participants decide how to make it original and add in their own style and creativity which usually includes many people thrusting and flailing. Many of the people also wear crazy costumes or outfits to add to the obscenity of the video.
However, the Harlem Shake is nothing new. The original Harlem Shake dates back to 1981 to a street dancer names Albee. Albee created this dance which used to be called the Albee which he himself described as a drunken sake. It was later dubbed The Harlem shake which was a sort of rhythmic shimmying back and forth (quite the opposite of the ‘new Harlem Shake’ Then in the late 90s, it became a mainstream dance sensation but soon faded away from its spotlight. This shows how a cultural ‘artifact’ and dance can reemerge into modern times and how modern dances and sensations have their roots in earlier times. It also seems to take inspiration from the popular flash-mob. They share the same idea where one person starts off dancing alone and a crowd shortly joins and breaks out into dance.
While the dance has swept Youtube and the nation, it can be seen integrated at Yorktown as well. The Yorktown Dance Team (YDT), has recently made a Harlem Shake video at their recent competition, Reach The Beach. YDT added their own style to it by beginning the video with everyone stretching and warming up and then junior Hillary Jones started the dance by crazily dancing with a motorcycle helmet on. Then the beat dropped and everyone went insane.
“Our YDT stylized Harlem shake was crazy. We had so much fun…we just went insane and brought the craziest costumes,” Jones said.
Has this crazy and convulsive dance become the new Gangnam style? That is for you to decide but in the meantime, move over Psy because this dance is taking the nation by a storm.
