The Harlem Shake

I'm going to go a little off topic here and talk about the whole Harlem Shake phenomenon that's sweeping the world currently. I'm sure by now you've seen at least one video on YouTube with people dancing ridiculously to the Harlem Shake song by Baauer because there are over 40,000 different versions of it. The videos are around 30 seconds in length and consist of one person dancing to the song alone for about 15 seconds, then it cuts to several people in absurd costumes making strange gestures for the rest of the video. I've seen plenty of things go viral before, but I don't think I've ever seen something get so popular so fast. This fad became famous almost overnight.

It all started on February 2nd with a video uploaded by The Sunny Coast Skate, who are five kids from Australia. 

This video kickstarted the whole Harlem Shake craze. As of February 10th, 4,000 Harlem Shake videos per day were being uploaded. It seemed like every famous person or group you can think of were getting in on the action. Videos were being shared over every social media platform in existence. The online site, Reddit, was a big factor in probably my favorite Harlem Shake video by the UGA swimming team.

The strange part to me is that this song came out almost a year ago, but thanks to five teenagers in Australia, the song is more popular than ever. In my opinion, this video craze will die out just as fast as it became popular. I'd say that by March we won't be hearing too much about the Harlem Shake anymore.