YouTube
has done it again. It seems that every month there is some new mindless trend
that takes over everyone’s computers. Even if you don’t want to or don’t care
to see this new craze, it comes on the news and other shows that could be platforms
for much better things than YouTube sensations. We currently live in an age
where anyone with a YouTube channel is an expert, from beauticians to fitness
experts. There are good things about this site. They do have strong copyright
laws and will rip down your video in a minute if you don’t own the rights to
it. Unfortunately, that same luxury is not afforded when it comes to those
mindless trends. That is how we have come upon the latest, most offensive craze
to date: “The Harlem Shake.”
A
little over a decade ago, there was a dance called the Harlem Shake that had
people going crazy on the dance floors at clubs everywhere. It wasn’t a secret
handshake or some clandestine act that was only done behind closed doors. It
was in music videos, and in fact there were YouTube instructional videos on how
to do it. Recently there has been a rash of videos with this same name. This is
not the Harlem Shake. It actually looks like a mass anxiety attack or a group
seizure. Some blow this off and say it’s a trend. You know what else is a
trend? Having things stolen from us and called by the same name. It’s been
happening to times going back even farther than slavery, starting with Jesus
Christ. In the Bible he is described as having skin of bronze and hair of lamb’s
wool. In paintings he looks like Ashton Kutcher on the latest season of Two and a Half Men. For
some reason we continue to encourage the ripping of our babies from our arms
and glorify the new idiotic form they take once the mainstream gets its hands
on it. We don’t even reclaim our baby or demand that it be renamed as an act of
courtesy toward those from whom it was stolen.
Some
call my distaste for this “reaching,” but I ask that those people take a look
at history. Some of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits were Ain’t Nothing But a Houndog and My Babe, two songs written and performed
by African-American artists who were already on the R&B charts. These
artists were not credited by Elvis, nor were they compensated by his covers of
their songs. Elvis has the Graceland memorial in his name. The artists whose
songs he and his record label stole, however, don’t even have accurate
Wikipedia pages. The same happened with Chuck Berry and his song Surfing USA, which went on to be a smash
hit for The Beach Boys. Most people did not find out about this until watching
the movie Cadillac Records some
decades later. Many African-American artists died before being recognized for
greatness that Caucasian performers were allowed to become rich and famous for.
I
cringe every time I see this rebirth of the Harlem Shake being laughed at and
glorified, especially when an African-American does it and shrugs it off as a
trend. How a person can take something that already had a name, do something
completely different with it, and then rebrand it is totally beyond me. I actually
see it as a mockery toward the original dance. Since it is a YouTube sensation,
the sheep will follow and laugh at it. The question why they couldn’t give this
a different name is posed. It is simply because calling it the Harlem Shake
will get people to watch the infinite number of videos that have stemmed from
this “trend.” In the end the origin is erased, and now it is replaced with foolishness.
The original artist[s] who created the dance will not be remembered, just as
Little Walter’s voice was erased from My
Babe. As an artist myself, I truly feel disgusted by this. People are
posting these videos and can’t even point out Harlem on a map.
Going
even deeper, I find it interesting that it is the Harlem Shake that they chose to do this to; Harlem, home of the
Harlem Renaissance, a pivotal movement in the history of Black art and culture.
It is a time and a place that isn’t mentioned in many of today’s textbooks. The
time period when Black intellectuals rose and created a name for themselves
outside of the sharecropping stereotypes of the south and the cleaning the
homes of rich white families of the north coincides with The World Wars and The
Great Depression. In modern times Harlem, a borough of a city most closely
identified by drug wars, police shoot-outs, and robbery, is still very rich in dance
culture and other forms of artistry. Now that gentrification is slowly making
its way through the city, their art is being stolen and dying. It is heartbreaking
to say the least. It is my wish that the African-American community not
contribute to and encourage the stealing of our culture any longer.
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