It’s everywhere lately. Everyone from The Daily Show to Buzzfeed to the Florida Gators and the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon crew has done it. And now, the Harlem Shake video meme is coming to The National.
It’s everywhere lately. Everyone from The Daily Show to Buzzfeed to the Florida Gators and the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon crew has done it. And now, the Harlem Shake video meme is coming to The National. In collaboration with Q94 and XL102, the National is doing a free event this Saturday night that is intended to be the biggest Harlem Shake meme video in Virginia. So will RVA come out and represent? Or is everyone already sick of this meme and ready to move on to something else? That is the question. But I hear you saying, “Where’d this stupid Harlem Shake meme come from, anyway? Why is everyone doing it all of a sudden?” OK, here’s a quick crash course:
“Harlem Shake” is a song released by Baauer, an electronic music producer signed to Mad Decent Records. He dropped this track last August, and it’s gotten some acclaim in EDM circles. But the whole meme started about a month ago, when a guy named Filthy Frank posted a 30-second video on youtube, in which he and several friends dressed as Power Rangers danced in a dorm room to Baauer’s track. They’re all doing a goofy pelvic-thrusting dance, and then when the drop (the slowed-down voice saying “do the Harlem Shake”) hits after about 13 seconds, they go nuts.
As the originator of a ubiquitous meme, that video isn’t too remarkable. But things escalated quickly, and the meme evolved as it spread, with different elements becoming more and more important. The mature version of the meme is best demonstrated by the Maker Studios version, which came out two weeks ago. One person in the video is wearing a helmet and dancing to the song while everyone else in the video goes about their business. Then when the drop hits, everyone else is suddenly spread out all over the room, dancing, going nuts, doing goofy shit that has no relation to what they were doing a few seconds before.
That video led a lot of other people to get in on the act, and that’s when all the celebrity versions started appearing. Noteworthy variations on the meme include the one by indie rock band Matt And Kim, who get the entire audience at one of their gigs involved:
The Late Night With Jimmy Fallon version, in which a ton of extra people in LNJF hoodies appear when the drop hits:
And the Daily Show version (which aired on the show last Thursday), which flips the script by starting with Jon Stewart dancing with a helmet on, surrounded by his crew, who all disappear when the drop hits:
Interestingly enough, Jon Stewart is one of the only creators of a Harlem Shake video meme who makes an attempt at doing the actual Harlem Shake, the dance the song is named for. The Harlem Shake is a dance created in New York in the early 80s by a Harlem resident named Al B, who once told Inside Hoops that “it was a drunken dance, you know, from the mummies, in the tombs. That’s what the mummies used to do. They was all wrapped up and taped up. So they couldn’t really move, all they could do was shake.” This interview is from a decade ago–the last time the Harlem Shake was popular. At that time, the dance move was appearing in a lot of hip hop videos:
The kids who started this meme (and most of the people who picked up on it) don’t seem to know the phrase as anything more than the title of the Baauer song, which I assume is why the typical dance performed in the meme videos is a simple pelvic-thrust move.
At this point, it seems like a lot of people are starting to get sick of the whole Harlem Shake thing–over the last few days, a whole bunch of “Death of the Harlem Shake” videos have been appearing on youtube. For example:
So what about this Saturday night? It’s always better to do something fun than to be the too-cool hipster type leaning against the wall (or worse yet, sitting at home in front of the TV) and complaining about what other people are doing. Therefore, as of right now, we’re in support of the idea, and we hope most of you are too. The dance parties in this town never really get going until 10 anyway, so why not start out a little early and get in on something that promises to be a lot of goofy fun? It seems like a good idea for RVA party people to get one last hurrah with this meme before it gets totally stale. So show up at the National, located at 708 E. Broad St, on Saturday night at 8 PM, and join the party! No tickets necessary–admission is first come, first serve. Click here for more info.
That’s our opinion, but what do you think? Are our local radio stations and venues getting in on the trend before it gets old, or are they beating a dead horse? Tell us what you think in the comments.
