Shaking A Dead Horse

As you know if you read this blog a lot, I often find my way to fads later than most people. I didn't know what Gangnam Style was until about 3 minutes before it was uncool, therefore it should be no surprise that I didn't find out about these Harlem Shake videos until this week, right about the time the internet decided it was sick of them. For those of you who may have missed this fad (consider yourself lucky), the Harlem Shake are quick videos, usually about 30 seconds, and start off with one person dancing in the middle of a pack of people while no one pays any attention to them. About ten second in the beat changes and the video cuts to the same group of people, usually now dressed in crazy costumes and flailing around like idiots. Because the videos are so short and easy to make the fad exploded in a short amount of time and now it appears the gauntlet has been thrown down by the internet to make the most absurd Harlem shake video you can come up with. They are quite popular among high schoolers and college age kids, but occasionally you will see the a sports team or random office make one, probably at the request of HR, who sees it as some kind of team-building exercise that will break up the monotony of a Wednesday afternoon.

The videos even managed to make the news after someone made a Harlem Shake video on a plane, which is now being seen as a safety issue. Of course, this has prompted a few news stations to make their own Harlem Shake videos and start to look into the history of the original Harlem Shake dance, which was a real thing back in the 70s and looks nothing like what people are posting online today. Either way, I figure this should pretty much be the beginning of the end of this particular fad. As we all know, as soon as corporate America starts making copying a fad to try and appear 'hip' to the kids that particular pop-culture moment is on its last legs. No one cares where the video actually came from and they certainly don't want a history lesson with their internet fad. Not to mention, even though a few are amusing, once you've seen five Harlem Shake videos you have seen them all. I'm waiting for some Senator's office staff to make one, which should officially kill the videos once and for all and we'll look back on them with the same quizzical "Why did people do that again?" looks we now give things like flash mobs. Frankly, we're due - the videos have been around for almost three weeks, which is a lifetime in the world of the internet.

I think part of the reason the video is so popular is that the song behind the videos is kind of catchy. Seriously, the hook gets inside your head and it just wraps itself around your brain. As I said I just started watching a few of these videos the other day and as soon as I watched the first one I couldn't get it out of my brain anymore and this is coming from a guy who doesn't usually like this kind of music. For all I know the popularity of these videos is based on how a pyramid scheme works, in that all people want is the song to be stuck in another person's head. But, as I watched a few more videos and the addictive song playing underneath, I couldn't help but notice the name of the person who actually created the music (please note I didn't say wrote - this is techno music, which means it was probably done on a computer) is never mentioned by name. In fact, trying to find out the name of the artist who owns the right to the song takes a little digging. Even then, I can't help but wonder how many of the people who made these videos actually bothered to download the full song, just the clip they needed or if they were content to simply use any old music while filming. Watching a few of the videos it occurs to me you probably could have used any music you wanted, considering there is no set dance you need to follow along to do. Hell, on a few of the videos there may not even have been any music playing when they filmed.

This is where I honestly feel bad for musicians today. People are uploading thousands of these videos every hour and yet I bet the Baauer (that would be the artist's name, in case you were wondering) isn't getting a cut from any of it, even though YouTube is probably raking in extra advertising money from all the people watching Harlem Shake compilations. If I have learned anything from the internet is that no matter how well you think your copy-written material is protected, someone has figured out a way to get it for free and if they can't they will move on to something which they can find free. He's got to be terribly conflicted about seeing his song become a worldwide sensation but not actually getting anything out of it. Popularity is nice, but it gets a lot better when it starts to translate into actual sales figures. Unless people actually buy the song (I would put that figure at about 15% of the people who make videos) it is just theoretical money, which no company will take in exchange for goods and services. This is why I don't understand the people who try and create the next big viral video sensation. Sure, you'll be famous for 10 seconds, but wouldn't you rather be the driving force behind something which will help you pay your rent next month?