With its opening calls of “Con los terroristas,” many know what’s coming: the craze known as the “Harlem Shake.” Characterized by short 30-second dance videos, many people have become hooked almost instantly.
The Harlem Shake craze started roughly two months ago. Originally being released as a single by Brooklyn producer Baauer, shortly after, a group of people began to film themselves dancing to the first 30 seconds of the song, wearing masks and strange costumes. Since then, more than 40,000 Harlem Shake videos have been uploaded to YouTube, racking up more than 175 million views.
Another wave of videos comes in from the animal kingdom. It all started off with a short, seven-second video of a goat screaming like a human. Then, it blasted off into the so-called “goat-dubbing.” The most popular of these videos originates from Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
These videos spread like wildfire among students “about a month ago,” according to junior Taylor Beglane and sophomore Sammy Stephen. Many students watched these videos through Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. The Hurricane Watch episode from March 1 included a Harlem Shake segment by the cast of Footloose. On March 8, the Concert Band class watched a goat-dubbed video of Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” after a Hurricane Watch episode.
Students here have caught on with the Harlem Shake trend, creating their own videos. Senior Francesco Logozzo posted his “exercise” (and very NSFW) version on his Facebook, which has received massive popularity among students. Junior Taylor Beglane, along with her friends Anna and Logan, “were super bored and thought it would be funny. Others thought it was too. It’s on my Facebook page.”
In today’s world, videos go viral in almost an instant. “A celebrity or company could find it and spread it around, or it could be someone who’s already famous, or it could just be a normal video that a lot of people find addicting. They all need to have something that hooks people,” stated Taylor Beglane. One student believes that “anything that hasn’t been thought of before and is funny will go viral. People like videos of pranks, like gallon smashing, or when people are doing something stupid and hurt themselves.” Sophomore Katie Vish stated, “Stupid people doing stupid things mixed in with cool dancing is the key to a viral video.”
Believe it or not, the Harlem Shake and “goat-dubbing” crazes already seem to be winding down. “The screaming goat craze will die out when the next viral video comes to take its place,” stated one student. Katie Vish thinks that the craze will fade out “as soon as possible, hopefully.”
“With viral videos, they are popular for a ‘day’ and then they get overdone, so another comes and takes its place,” said sophomore Katia Brinsmade.
