A huge part of covering developing internet trends is that you are typically amongst the first to become absolutely sick of them. When I left work yesterday, I was a happy-go-lucky, plucky chap whistling the “Harlem Shake” tune in the elevator. Now, less than 24 hours later, I hope I never hear that song again.
And yet, the fad is only picking up momentum. Pretty soon, we’ll have to sit through that awkward phase when daytime television hosts start doing their own versions. Certainly Ellen will make one where she is the oddball dancing, and then, suddenly, her whole audience of plump midwestern women are gyrating awkwardly. Even worse will be the derivatives and parodies that follow, each wave progressively getting worse and more viral. I guess what I am trying to say is that the Harlem Shake just might be the new Black Plague.
Check out this statistic that YouTube is proudly trumpeting on their “Trends” blog. For those of you who suffer from an indifference to reading graphs, allow me to sum up the data: Over 12,000 “Harlem Shake” videos have been uploaded to YouTube as of February 11th, and collectively those 12,000 videos have been viewed over 44 million times (with our friends at Maker taking the lion’s share — their version has been viewed over 6 million times).
As it is likely that you aren’t sick of this business like I now am (you clicked on this article after all), please check out this fine assortment of notable Harlem Shakes, including the very first “Harlem Shake” vid, the one that established the current “format” and my personal favorite one (at the very bottom).
The Original
The Game Changer
College Humor
The Chive
Break
Buzzfeed
T-Pain
My Favorite
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