PSY must be slitting his wrist right about now as The Harlem Shake has already pushed ‘Gangnam Style’ aside on YouTube, making it an oddity from all the way back in 2012 that people are forgetting about already. (Seriously; I actually forgot what his name was until only a moment ago!). But unlike what the name suggests, we can’t blame silly New Yorkers, or even crazy Koreans, for this internet craze. Nope, it was some Aussies that created this phenomenon, a group of Queenslanders to be exact.
Five young fellas from Caloundra, calling themselves The Sunny Coast Skate, randomly decided to dance to ‘The Harlem Shake’ by electronic musician Baauer. This very repetitive song plays as one person dances, usually with a mask or costume on, while everyone else is doing normal, boring stuff, totally ignoring the weirdo dancing by themselves. Then 15 seconds into the video, bam! Everyone’s dressed up and going ape shit! There have since been a ridiculous amount of copycat videos of peeps, each one more weird than the last. But I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all. A bloke I work with said to me that we should make our own version with our work mates. If only we could be arsed to actually make that happen.
So for once, Australians were the pioneers of an internet craze that everyone will love for about a week or two. Pretty cool for something started by a bunch of bored guys mucking around for shits and giggles.
Though I have no doubt this song will be playing at nightclubs for the next few weekends, I can’t imagine the “dance” side to it will take off. Nightclubs are designed for everyone to dance the whole night, not have just one person dance, then everyone joins in afterwards. Yet again, flash mobs exist…
This article’s already probably a bit late in getting published with how fast the internet works, but whatevs, I do what I want.
Leave a Comment