I’ve been following new dance moves within Hip-Hop culture for a while now. Harlem Shake, Chicken Noodle Soup, Lean with It, Heisman, Two Step, Cupid Shuffle, etc. Here’s a new one coming out of Harlem called the Aunt Jackie. It has an old school beat with a new school dance. Personally, I think the song is horrible. Ignoring that for a second, the dance is what people are catching on to. And I like it.
I spent a greater part of the afternoon reading Herd by Mark Earls. [Great book. Go buy it now if you haven't already!!!]
Just finished the chapter on interaction where Mark Earl states:
Interaction drives mass behaviour…If you are going to study mass behaviour with a view to changing it, you have to understand the interactions between individuals [as well as other contextual issues]. You have to go beyond describing individual experiences of a particular behaviour and see the interactions in a given population.
This is a perfect example of mass behavior and cumulative advantage. This dance is a form of ‘interaction’ between people in the Hip Hop community. Knowing that over 90% of communications has nothing to do with what you say, this dance move is a form of communication between people and a way to interact and connect with each other.
Another new dance coming out New Orleans called the Cupid Shuffle. Should hit mainstream fairly soon.
What does this say about community? For one, I think it signals to other people that you are part of that community. Much like wearing a NY New Era hat signals that you are from NY, or driving a BMW states that you are wealthy. Doing a dance states that you are “in the know” and that you belong. It’s undeniable and a one-way ticket into the culture.
How does this relate to WOM? Much like I stated before. Dance moves in Hip Hop culture is a form of viral marketing. No need to do a funny website [like Officemax's Spread the Cheer campaign]. If you create a new dance move and it catches on, that is the MOST EFFECTIVE form of communications within the Hip Hop community. Let’s say you go to a club and you see someone doing the Aunt Jackie or Cupid Shuffle. You’ll automatically want to know what they are doing because you want to fit in and belong with the group. You’ll probably go home and youtube the dance and you’ll see that over 1M people have viewed the clip. You’ll like the dance because other people like the dance and that will transfer to the artist.
A new form of viral communication.
Like Mark Earls states in his book. Look at what people are doing to interact within a given population. That’s how you being to understand them…
I’ll be digging deeper into dance moves within Hip Hop culture in future posts. Would love any input, insights you guys have on the topic. PLEASE post them below!!
UPDATE: Barrie makes a good point…
I think that dance has always been a big part of culture and communication, but maybe not to other cultures. How do they communicate with each other through dance?
I’ll have to think about this one…
