http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh6Q8dDVjlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj5tp5qHLxw

(sonic quality is not there since it’s youtube, but it definitely has atmospheric texture and danceable, if not a bit 90’s retro.)

… more pies! (and hip hop is/is not deadz)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYhoPee450

SHUT up with hip-hop IZ D34D already.

Back in college, I performed with a Commitments-style R & B band (it was multi-racial, but yes, I do get the irony of mentioning this anecdote in this thread). One of our performances was in one of the large dining halls on campus, and during Mustang Sally, a line dance about four rows deep spontaneously broke out in front of the stage. Frankly, it was amazing to watch. Everybody doing it knew the steps, and somehow it was organic and precise at the same time.

So I wouldn’t lump in line dancing (i.e., stuff from an R & B tradition) with “shitty dance crazes”, although some of it has been co-opted, Pat Boone style.

FIRST: May I just say that I love that you’ve updated the image of the Chipmunks? Before they were just these chipmunks. Now, they are cool.

SECOND: Dare I hope that these new and improved Chipmunks will do a rap?

THIRD: Oh, I think it’s guaranteed they’ll do a rap.

BIGWIG: Precisely. They will be rapping chipmunks. We’re considering changing the title to Alvin and the Rapmunks.

FIRST: I love it!

SECOND: Rapmunks!

THIRD: Rapmunks.

BIGWIG: However, they will also need to be street, and have attitude.

Mainstream hip hop IS fucking bland, just as bland as anything that dominates pop culture is going to become. ”

mainstream hip-hop becomes bland because everything is controlled by less than 3 major labels and one or two big outlet (mtv, clear channel) all those are programmed by very few people.

of course, the chart race to the bottom. Nobody wants to air the hard pieces or non standard form.

but the internet suppose to change that, instead of same few people mouthing same conventional wisdom. (well, if he actually go out and dig stuff. He might find some interesting thing instead of whining. It’s his job as a music reporter.)

And yet, this was the line dance that decisively won the 1996 presidential election. Things were neck and neck between Dole and Clinton until Al Gore came to the rescue with his own stunning version, and of course the rest is history. If Gore had only line danced in Florida in 2000, how different the last eight years would be.

Hooray for line dancing - more macarena please! Although for wedding party fun, it is much better to dance to Dhoom Machale.

A lot of objections here say things like, “but the guy doesn’t know about __________.” That’s beside the point. Mainstream hip hop IS fucking bland, just as bland as anything that dominates pop culture is going to become. But it’s also a given that there are tons of great, vital artists doing work that doesn’t make it into line dances at weddings.

The reality is that hip hop is still great–but it’s no longer NEW. So I think it’s a little misguided to throw around the “oh, that old fart just doesn’t get it” insult.

The problem isn’t that Ryan fails inexorably in his attempt at the Soulja Boy. It’s that he nails it. The slight bend of the knees and cross step, the rednecky hop and flip of the wrist, the goofy Superman in flight — it’s all, alas, straight-up Soulja Boy. In fact, if you compare Ryan’s rendition with the original, you, too, might find yourself preferring the subtlety of Ryan’s moves. (His cross steps aren’t as aggrandized, for one.) Are these not trying days when a 60-year-old Wisconsinite improves “the game,” when even Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel tries his hand at the Soulja Boy?

We are witnessing nothing less than the Macarena-zation of a genre.

No, he does it like an old stiff white guy, just like anybody’s personality shows in their performance.

Also having somebody whose only knowledge of hip hop is top 100 artists telling me why hip hop sucks in ‘96, is not very credible. To disrespect and summarize the genre like he does tells me he doesn’t know squat about old guys like africa bambaataa, or any modern hip hop that’s not on his local radio station.

I’m not hearing that he’s irritated that people with poor rhythm are executing complex dances. Because then he says this:

Since when did young black men, heretofore the arbiters of pop culture, become so lame?

Oh, fuck you, dude. I think this is the idea that spawned his thesis.