The Other Dances That Live On
01/11/2013
Dance has always played an important role on music and in music videos. There are so many dance styles that we know today that have lived on through these music videos from the past, with more being produced today. I don’t mean Jazz, Ballet or Jive. I mean the YMCA, the Macarena, the Oops Upside Your Head, and John Travolta’s disco moves in Saturday Night Fever which popularized disco music and dance all over the world.
The American disco group, Village People released their biggest hit, Y.M.C.A in 1978. The dance is still popular today where the arms are used to spell out Y.M.C.A. The Macarena by Seville duo Los Del Rio became a world record for group dancing in 1996 when 50,000 people danced the routine in Yankee Stadium in NYC. It also hit the number 1 spot in over 10 counties worldwide with its popularity mostly coming from the dance routine. The Oops Upside Your Head (1979) dance was different altogether. The funk anthem is “danced” to with people sitting on the floor in rows performing a rowing action. This was very popular during the 1980’s.
And then we have John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever dancing to Stayin’ Alive with disco fever, sexual promiscuity and polished choreography which is still influenced on dancefloors today, alongside Beyonce’s Single Ladies dance which ignited an internet dance craze in 2012. The dance was inspired by Mexican Breakfast (1969) and consists of a mix of dancehall, disco and bounce.
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk and Thriller, Whigfield’s Saturday Night, The Bangles’ Walk Like An Egyptian, MC Hammer’s Hammertime Dance and Madonna’s Vogue are all dance styles that are still seen today