So there’s this new viral sensation called the Harlem Shake. It involves someone dancing around by him or herself for 15 seconds, sometimes in a crazy costume, followed by 15 seconds of a whole crowd dancing like crazy to the tune of Baauer’s electronic dance song, “Harlem Shake.” I still don’t really get it. It looks like it is more fun for the people in the video than anyone watching. But maybe I’m totally soulless, who knows.
But did you know that the “Harlem Shake” was actually originally a dance move from the 1980s? It is really hard to find footage of the original dance, but from what I can tell it involves stepping side to side while your shoulders move up and down quickly and rhythmically. The dance originated in Harlem, N.Y. Most claim the dance was created by a man named “Al B,” an alcoholic who would perform the dance on demand. The dance was named “albee” after his name, but then eventually was called the Harlem Shake. The dance became mainstream in 2001 when rapper G. Dep featured it in his music video for the song, “Let’s Get It.”
The real Harlem Shake is a piece of 20th-century black urban culture and history. But this new song and the resulting “dance” phenomenon surrounding it has taken that piece of history and all but erased it from our public consciousness. It is next to impossible to find footage of people doing the dance outside of a couple of music videos from artists like G. Dep, Eve and Jadakiss, but with one click you can find thousands of videos of this new “Harlem Shake.”
Obviously the vast majority of the people in these videos do not realize it, but all this flailing and shaking that these (predominantly white) people are doing is a parody of the original dance, which actually required skill and rhythm to master. Knowing about the original dance now, it is hard to watch these videos and not feel a bit uncomfortable at the sight of a bunch of white people culturally appropriating a piece of black culture for their own joke.
There are ways one can borrow pieces of a different culture and create something new while still giving credit where it is due and developing a creative dialogue. Plenty of examples exist of this positive inter-textuality between black culture and white culture: music that was originally solely part of black culture like jazz and rock ‘n’ roll was introduced into white culture, which in some cases helped promote the original black artists — though not always. Some black artists were completely and deliberately obscured when their music was stolen for the use of other white artists. For instance, Little Richard’s music was repeatedly taken by white artists and used for their own success.
This new version of Harlem Shake seems more a product of ignorance than of a blatant desire to erase a piece of black culture for the artist’s own gain. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this is exactly what is happening. But the damage is done. At least until another artist comes along and reworks the dance in a responsible, creative dialogue with the original, this nonsensical flailing is what people will think of for the next however-many years when they hear the words “Harlem Shake.”
— Lindsay Lee is a junior in mathematics. She can be reached at [email protected].
