DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Harlem Shake Makes Comeback
LENT DAY 15 of 40, © NaimaLett.com/blog
FUN FRIDAY!
The Harlem Shake has officially made a comeback!
…and is looking good at 30 years old.
The newest version, which has taken over the internet (and many college campuses, military bases, fire houses, swimming pools, and even airplanes… YES, AIRPLANES!), debuted at #1 on the Hot Billboard chart last week, after Billboard adjusted its ranking to include YouTube hits.
Times Have Changed
Remember when artists toured non-stop and prayed for enough radio spins and record sales to make #1? Not anymore! Now it’s all about iTune downloads and YouTube views. With over 100,000 Harlem Shake-type videos being uploaded, the song has had at least 400 million views and counting.
The producer, DJ Bauer, who studied at City College in New York, recorded the dance-craze song in his bedroom in Brooklyn in May 2012, posted it on his SoundCloud, and was happy when it got picked up as a free digital download through a dance hall label. But in February 2013, the song was used on 1 YouTube video of 4 friends clowning and the rest is history. What started as a free download has turned into serious cash as Bauer gets a piece of the advertising revenue generated every time anyone clicks on a video using his song.
Harlem Wants Its Shake Back
But everyone’s not happy with Bauer’s success. Several complaints have sprung up, especially from Harlemites, that Bauer should be the last person benefiting from the Harlem Shake.
The dance was originally called the Albee after its creator Al B. who used to perform it in Harlem starting in 1981 during the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic at Rucker Park. Al B. says he fashioned the dance after how he figured Egyptian mummies would dance. Because they were all wrapped up, all they could do was shake (Inside Hoops). This ain’t deep, Fam.
Once the Al B. caught on all over Harlem, it became the Harlem Shake and 20 years later, in 1981, Puffy/Puff-Daddy/P.Diddy/Diddy/Sean Combs re-popularized the dance in the video of one of his Bad Boy artists, G. Dep. So, basically, this is the 3rd life of the Harlem Shake, but now, a DJ figured out how to monetize it.
Just Wondering…
Did Puffy pay Al B. when he popularized the dance in Bad Boy’s video? Probably not.
Will Bauer pay Al B. or Puffy anything off what he’s making through YouTube hits? No.
Would Al B. have had to put his choreography on video back in 1981 and copyright the moves and/or trademark the name and sell products of him doing the dance in order to capitalize now? Is anybody getting paid for creating the Electric Slide dance? Just wondering…
I don’t even know how one begins to try to compensate in this situation. I mean, maybe Bauer could’ve given a shout out to Al B., like Michael Jackson did to James Brown and Fred Astaire, but Mike didn’t send anybody a check when he re-popularized their moves. And Usher and Chris Brown and Justin Bieber aren’t sending Mike’s estate a check. See what I mean?
Having Fun
I’m all for compensating artists for our creativity; I just don’t know how that happens in this case. All I know is there are millions of people around the world having fun right now doing a silly dance to a song that a young DJ mixed in a small bedroom in Brooklyn. What you gonna do?
Dance is a celebration. When David took Goliath out, 1 Samuel 18:6 says, “… the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres…” They had a big old party in the streets. The whole town got involved. They probably out-shook the Harlem Shakers.
What’s my point, find a reason to dance today. Shake, celebrate, have fun. Make a joyful noise. Even if everything ain’t the way we want it to be, it’s still better than it could be. Besides, some of the videos, like the Army one above, are quite hilarious.
Lots of love from the LaLa,
Naima
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