http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/04/asia/police-running-man-challenge/
http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2016/04/26/video-running-man-challenge-college-basketball-vines-compilation-song
Dating back to around a year ago, a popular dance trend labeled, "The Running Man Challenge", became a social media phenomenon all across the world. The first link provided displays a video of New York and New Zealand police officers doing "The Running Man Challenge." The second link describes the "The Running Man Challenge's" origin and the official video, along with others, that began this social media frenzy. The original video was posted to Instagram by two Maryland basketball players named Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley. In the post, they show themselves doing their own version of the dance move, the running man, to an old popular 90's song, "My Boo" by Ghost Town DJ's. The video quickly became very popular and persuaded other people to make their own videos of themselves doing "The Running Man Challenge." Other college athletic teams decided to make their own versions, along with celebrities such as Kyrie Irving, Chance the Rapper, and Kevin Hart.
Although "The Running Man Challenge" is definitely not as popular as it once was in 2016, the social media trend brought people all around the world together from a single video. Through the use of the social media we have today, we have the capability to discover new dance trends such as "The Running Man Challenge" easier than ever before. Capturing these trends on camera and posting them to social media allows them to become more popular quickly. This is illustrated through the reading we had in class stating, "Dance, like all U.S. culture, has been deeply affected by the technology and growth of mass media....Because the camera, both by design and through the editing process, determines the ultimate view of a dance, media technology played a powerful role in what and how dance movement was viewed..." Social media can be used as a platform to bring people with different cultures closer together. "The Running Man Challenge" is a good example of this because it brought people together through the use of a popular dance trend.
I agree that the running man was a very popular dance. Now it is used in other songs such as Juju On That Beat, so people are still continuing to perform the running man.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I'm sure the trend spreads more and more when they have professional people like the New York cops making videos about it. Instead of spreading through the younger demographic, older people on Facebook would probably see something like that and find it funny. When Mark Anthony Neal was talking about sampling being as a way to cite music, starting trends based on older music brings the music back to life and relevant. I wonder what's to come next.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read. I also think it's interesting how the running man dance itself evolved from the 90's to what it became in 2016 with the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this. I didn't even think the Running Man would be something evolved from the 90's. It is interesting the comparison of dance groups such as the Lily Hoppers having flash mobs and groups dancing today such as the college teams you mention doing the running man.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this blog post! I never really tagged along on the "running man" challenge in 2016 but I remember how big it became for our generation as well and older and younger generations. I blog post I commented on before with was about the dab. Its funny to see what dance moves trends come about in the United States. Some lasting longer than others, and some crazier that I could image. Commenting off of Alana Geller's comment, this dance move has been added to other songs and is still being performed today.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I love how you tied together trends from not only America but the rest of the world as well. This brings forth interesting questions regarding global interrelatedness, American influence (and vice versa), and dance! As we discovered in class, Ballet in particular was heavily influenced by European (British) culture. I wonder what America has had heavy influence on in other countries?
ReplyDeleteBrandon,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it crazy that dance used to be an art form that could only be enjoyed by the people who could see it physically, and now millions of people can see it because of a camera and the internet?