This past year we’ve seen numerous dance crazes take the social media world by storm and everyone is feeling nostalgic about the most popular dances from our childhood. We’ve seen these moves time and time again, but where did they even come from and why do we even do them?
When things come back in style, its usually clothing that your mom used to wear in the ‘80s. For the world’s most recent dance craze, the Running Man is the focal point of bringing things back. Started by a viral video and adapted from late ‘90s New Jersey clubs, the dance is done to a hit pop song called ‘My Boo’ by Ghost Town DJs. The move includes mock running on the spot, which sometimes gets confused with the ‘Running Man’ move of the 80s, which has been done by MC Hammer and Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bellaire.
There’s no doubt that this move is a fad that may be forgotten soon, but odds are it’ll be back just like your mom’s neon coloured body suit.
Its only been a year since so many people got into the trend of whipping and nae nae-ing. Silento brought the world the song titled ‘Watch Me’ in May of 2015 and just like so many other moves, viral videos broadcasted the mass quantities of people who took part. Most fads aren’t made to last, but there isn’t any guarantees that you won’t bust into the whip and nae nae whenever you hear this song.
Chances are the majority of the world participated in this next dance craze by recording videos and posting them online. The Harlem Shake is a song that was produced by Baauer in 2012 and became an instant hit, again not for its lyrics, but by the freestyle craze that came with it.
Thousands of videos were made of people doing what seemed to be everyday things, until the ‘Harlem Shake’ lyrics made them jump into a freeform style of dance simultaneously, in big numbers. This one may just have been a fad of 2012, but you can still watch the many videos on YouTube any time you need a throwback.
At the start of a new decade, ‘Teach Me How to Dougie’ was originally recorded by Cali Swag District and became famous not by its lyrics, but by its practiced and perfected dance move, The Dougie. With a series of moves from swaying back and forth while sliding your hand over your head to loosening up your knees for the full effect, this move made 2010 a time to be alive.
If you’ve ever heard of Soulja Boy, then you’ll know his most popular hit ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’ from 2007. Like most songs on this list, its never the lyrics that truly stuck, it was the dance moves that went with it.
The song consisted of two important moves; the ‘superman,’ which involves jumping with your arms back in the form of, well, Superman and the ‘crank that’ move, which involves hopping to one side and cranking your arms in the opposite direction and then vice versa.
You might still remember the moves every now and then when ‘Crank That’ comes on your old school playlist, but odds are the dance is too outdated to repeat.
The start of the 21st century brought with it a dance that would travel through the next two decades and never be forgotten by ‘90s kids, everywhere.
The Cha Cha Slide was the dance of all school dances, showcasing awkward times that would stick with us forever. From hopping to stepping to sliding, this dance can be perfected by anyone, mainly because the lyrics tell you exactly when and how to move. The credits for this one belong to DJ Casper who rang in the new century with a craze that definitely left an impact.
With the abundance of dance crazes fighting to be the next big thing, they also appear to be lasting shorter and shorter time frames.
Whether these dance crazes brought you great embarrassment or were a feat achieved, we can all agree that dance has brought us together throughout the years.