Evolution of Dance

2006

Date: 6 April 2006 · Place: YouTube · originally a motivational-speaker routine · Figures: Judson Laipply, motivational speaker, 30 · Tags: YouTube, Dance 01. Six Minutes of Decade-Hopping Dance Judson Laipply, an Ohio motivational speaker, uploads a six-minute clip of his stage routine to YouTube on 6 April 2006: he dances through fifty years of pop hits, Elvis to Eminem, in costume changes and stage choreography. The routine is well-rehearsed and the editing is clean. By the end of 2006 the video is YouTube's most-watched clip with 70 million views. It holds the position for over a year. Laipply books larger speaking gigs and tours internationally. 02. The First YouTube Megahit Evolution of Dance is the first video to make clear that YouTube has displaced every prior viral-video host. Newgrounds, ebaumsworld, Albino Blacksheep, iFilm, Revver all become legacy infrastructure within eighteen months. The single-stream player and the embed code win. The video also proves that long-form (six minutes) can outperform short-form on the new platform. The forum-era assumption that virality requires a thirty-second loop dies here. Sources • YouTube, Evolution of Dance • New York Times, 'Web Sites by and About Kids Confront Issues of Online Safety' (May 2006) • KnowYourMeme, Evolution of Dance