So, uh, I have a message for you, Gangnam Style. I know I said you were annoying, and I probably hurt your feelings in doing so, but I take it back and I hope you will come back to me.
I know it probably sounds like I’m trying to make amends with an ex-girlfriend, but it’s actually just me protesting against the new Harlem Shake dance trend. The Harlem Shake is a dance move that involves shaking your body using mainly your hips and shoulders. Also becoming popularized with it is the viral trend of making a super humiliating video that encompasses said dance move to Baauer’s instrumental hip-hop track “Harlem Shake.”
How does one make a Harlem Shake video, you ask? It’s much easier to understand if you YouTube it (although it’s highly likely you’ve already seen at least one Harlem Shake on your Facebook newsfeed), but I’ll try my best to explain it. In a nutshell, the typically 30 second video clip starts off with one person dancing the Harlem Shake in a room while the others in the room nonchalantly act as if they don’t notice the dancer. Once the deep voice in the song declares, “And do the Harlem Shake,” and the bass drops, the video cuts to a new take in which everyone in the room is dancing and going wild. The participants in the videos are typically dressed in funny costumes or wacky disguises (I’ve seen a banana and a Spiderman suit been done), most likely to mask the embarrassment they’ll inevitably face after the video hits social media websites.
It’s been a little over a month since the Harlem Shake trend went viral. In a short matter of time these videos appeared all over the place, practically out of nowhere, and the song shot to number one on iTunes just as fast. The song has since fallen out of the iTunes top 10, thankfully, and I hope the trend itself follows in the song’s footsteps and fades away ASAP. While the Harlem Shake was funny and quite entertaining at first, it has quickly become irritating and extremely predictable. The best part of the videos is the sudden surprise of seeing a room full of people come to life, but now that these videos have been made so many times, a viewer can expect what’s going to happen: a bunch of goofs looking like fools. Annoying, annoying, annoying – that’s all the Harlem Shake is.
I don’t mind the song itself as much as I do the video trend, but I can’t say I can listen to it all the way through without wanting to stick pins in my eyes. C’mon, people, if you want to scream and shout and let it all out listen to will.i.am and Britney Spears’ “Scream & Shout;” it’s much less irksome (and it’s my favorite song at the moment. Oh, but also because I like jump to promote Britney Spears at any given opportunity).
In the mean time, because I don’t expect to be able to sidestep this annoying trend until it dies down–hopefully– within the next month, I recommend you check out some that I actually found worth watching. There’s a cool one that Kansas State University did, an entertaining one done by the Norwegian Army, and–prepare to get really excited–a funny one brought to you by the one and only Backstreet Boys.
Don’t let me forget to tell you one more thing: I really was serious about bringing back Gangnam Style. I say we all hashtag #BringBackGangnamStyle on Twitter and see if it has a chance at giving the Harlem Shake a run for its money. Who’s with me?
