The Power of Imitation
One of the features of videos that go onto become YouTube crazes is their imitable quality. By looking at the ‘Happy Slapping‘ phenomenon, one can see that the trend took off because of the ability of teens to film their actions and share them online. The reckless aspect of happy slapping proved far too tempting for a core group who then imitated what they saw online.
While Internet video has proved to be the fuel on the fire for some dubious trends such as happy slapping and train riding, it has also to a revolution in the world of Hip-Hop. The Sunday Times reported on dance crazes spreading like wildfire across America a couple of weeks ago. Again, YouTube proved to be the instigator. One performer at the centre of this phenomenon is Jason Fox. As the Sunday Times reports:
He uploaded to YouTube a home-made video of his crew doing the Aunt Jackie, a hand-clasping, foot-stomping blend of breakdancing and a Broadway chorus line. It rapidly became an online sensation with hundreds of thousands of viewing.
Don’t think that this trend hasn’t hit the mainstream, the latest hip-hop tune doing the rounds in the charts is Soulja Boy’s ‘Crank That’, which is a tribute to Atlanta’s snap dancing.
Here are examples of some of the various dance genres spreading across the States:
Krump
Hyphy
Juking
Technorati Tags: Dance, Edelman, Trends