O no! Not a-gai-ain *child’s voice*
Less than half a year after PSY shook up the universe with Gangnam Style, another weird music/dance phenomenon is shaking it all up…
Very different than Gangnam Style, Harlem Shake is about spoofs, stupidity, remarkable videos only. The original owner of the song, Baauer, actually had nothing to do with it. The song itself is not even new. In May 2012, Brooklyn producer Baauer (23 years old) released the single. Little did he know that less than a year later, it would become one of the biggest memes on the internet. Very different than PSY, who intented to make a Youtube sensation [see the article I wrote shortly after I discovered Gangnam Style last year: here]
The start?
It started only 2 weeks ago and is already the newest big dance-sensation-in-the-making! Here are the idots that sparked it all [today, they’ve got close to 14 million views]:
The viral videos?
Did PSY create a totally new long-lasting genre and movement beyond his own video and spoofs? One where it’s about making the craziest alternative to an original viral video? And is this the first proof of it? Maybe. Very well possible actually. What helped for the Harlem Shake: the format is ultra simple. Whereas Gangnam had a bit of a “story” and was a full fletched 3’30”, these Harlem Shakes are merely 30″ and not much is really happening in them! The “plot” goes like this: The song starts, crowded space, all of a sudden one person starts dancing, and then -once the bass drops- the whole room joins in, mostly in very ridiculous movements! The virality around it is stunning : About 5.000 “Shake” videos are being uploaded every single day; and they’ve already reached over 50 million total views. God help us!
There are two spoofs that each crossed the 20 million views already, today:
THE ARMY VERSION
UNDERWATER SWIMMERS
Where is it going?
Celebs are jumping on it. Guess what… more shaking will follow quickly once that happens. First it was all about emulating the early starters, and proving that you can do better, now it will be about emulating the celebrities. One Direction uploaded their own Harlem Shake video yesterday:
The Daily Show also contributed:
My prediction: something new has started. And it will be bigger than PSY’s billion. Two reasons: it’s stupid (and that works well in the viral world of youtube), and it’s simple to do yourself (anyone with a phone cam can make a Harlem Shake video).
HERE is another article I wrote 2 years ago about a viral “incident”.
Or is it about “the first follower”? See the following leadership-related video; very relevant for how “movements unfold”:
Wherever this will go, you better start shaking 
WHAT DO YOU THINK? “FUN!”..or…”WHATEVER?”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s so bad it’s funny, really.
We made one in our office last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufU-2TamScg
Hey Meredith! I’d seen that one! Didn’t realize it was at your office. Good fun.