Harlem Shake

2013

Date: 2 February 2013 · Place: YouTube; Brisbane, Australia (Sunny Coast Skate) origin upload · Figures: Baauer (Harry Rodrigues), producer · Filthy Frank (George Miller), first costumed upload · Sunny Coast Skate, viral catalyst · Tags: YouTube, Dance, VideoReply 01. Thirty-One Seconds Baauer's instrumental Harlem Shake drops on Mad Decent's Jeffree's imprint in May 2012. On 30 January 2013 George Miller, performing as Filthy Frank, posts a short video of four costumed friends thrashing to the drop. On 2 February 2013 the Australian teen crew Sunny Coast Skate copy the format with a clean structure: one person dancing alone in a helmet for fifteen seconds, the bass drop, jump cut to the entire room in costume losing their minds for fifteen more. The structure is the meme. Within a week forty thousand response videos exist. The Norwegian army, the Miami Heat bench, the Today Show, Facebook HQ, and a Boeing 737 in flight all post versions. 02. The Billboard Rule Change Baauer's track hits number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 March 2013, the first week YouTube views count toward chart position. The Harlem Shake forces the rule change. Residents of actual Harlem object that the dance bears no relationship to the local 1981 Albert Boyce original. Schlepa, a Harlem resident, films interviews of neighbors watching the videos with visible distaste. The meme's geographic illiteracy becomes part of its record. "That's not the Harlem Shake." — Harlem resident in Schlepa's street interview, posted 20 February 2013 Sources • Billboard, 'Baauer's Harlem Shake Hits No. 1', 27 February 2013 • Kevin Ashton, The Atlantic, 'You Didn't Make the Harlem Shake Go Viral, Corporations Did', 28 February 2013 • KnowYourMeme entry, 'Harlem Shake'