If you, like me use social media a lot, you might have come across this extremely popular term/meme – Harlem Shake on Facebook, 9Gag and Twitter. And most likely, like me, you’ll probably be like thinking…

WHAT ON EARTH/EXACTLY IS HARLEM SHAKE?

At first I was like..meh, maybe it’s nothing. But later, the term Harlem Shake just kept coming up!

So I went to check it out and well, all I can say is…it has the potential to be the new Gangnam Style, maybe. And now let’s see if you can tell what harlem shake is from this Youtube Screengrab?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

HAHA! I was like….(pardon the vulgarity, but seriously, this meme seemed like the perfect one to use)

Then I found this article from Yahoo News which kinda explained the phenomenal – Harlem Shake. Yeah, read it, and you’ll be enlightened.

Move over Psy.

The newest dance sensation, the “Harlem Shake” is taking over the web and everyone – including Singaporeans – is doing it.

The quirky dance has no particular step or style – it just requires one to “get jiggy” with the beat. The more awkward looking the move, the merrier.

Most of the videos, usually shot in 30 second sequences, usually sees one person breaking out a funky move to a dance beat in different scenarios before the rest around him or her join in with their own style. The more outrageous the move, the better (props included).

The meme first started gaining traction last week and is attributed to a silly video from a video blogger named “Filthy Frank“.

Filthy Frank’s Original Harlem Shake video

Since then, the dance has exploded on the web, evoking memories of the way Psy’s “Gangnam Style” quickly went viral.

BUT according to Youtube, this is the ORIGINAL Harlem Shake video which kickstarted off the entire Harlem Shake sensation.

A YouTube blog last week entitled “The Harlem Shake has exploded” said over 12,000 “Harlem Shake” videos have been uploaded to the site since the start of the month. 4,000 new videos are being uploaded daily now.

A dance move popularized in the 80s, the Shake got a “refresh” in 2011 when New York DJ Baauer released an electronic dance track called Harlem Shake, which is the same backing track that people are grooving to in the viral videos.

Full Harlem Shake Song (Original) by Bauuer

The infectious dance style has now also invaded university campuses all over Singapore. Check out the videos below to see!

Media companies have jumped on the bandwagon. Buzzfeed, College Humor and others have uploaded some pretty wacky moves.

Then comes a Harlem Shake Roulette a website that pulls together all the videos, Chatroulette-style to satiate the newly triggered desire to watch people quiver and tremble in a random repetitive actions.

News Article Credits: Yahoo NewsRoom

Alright and moving on to share more Harlem Shake videos for you and myself to judge. Starting off with those by our local Singaporeans followed by the the more popular Harlem Shake videos that are going viral including those by popular celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest.

#987DoubleDSchoolDrop Harlem Shake (Singapore Polytechnic Edition)

#987DoubleDSchoolDrop Harlem Shake (Ngee Ann Polytechnic Edition)

Harlem Shake (Swimming Pool) featuring popular SG blogger – Peishi and SG Youtube Star – Bancho

Harlem Shake (SINGAPORE’S SEXIEST GIRLS!) – LOL

Harlem Shake (Original Army Edition)

UGA Men’s Swim & Dive Harlem Shake

Harlem Shake (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon version)

Harlem Shake Brady Bunch by popular vlogger – nigahiga

Anderson’s Staff Dances ‘Harlem Shake’

Harlem Shake (Ryan Seacrest, Kendall & Kylie Jenner Edition)

And for the guys out there, here’s a sexy bikini one for you. HAHAH! ENJOY!

Harlem Shake v Bikini Edition

Also, a 10 minute compilation of Harlem Shake that is pretty popular – over 2 million views!

Ultimate Harlem Shake Compilation 2013 || YDFV

So yeah..based on the number of videos made so far, celebrities, schools, etc doing it and a Harlem Shake Wikipedia page, plus more and more people catching on to the harlem shake craze, you can be prepared for this (maybe):

Gangnam Style 2012 – Harlem Shake 2013?

In my opinion, well, I think that for now, it’ll be interesting to see how people can make their Harlem Shake videos to be more creative like the one done by UGA Men’s Swim & Dive. I thought that was kinda cool!

The rest were well, some were awkward and weird, as they were you know, wanting part of the fame that Harlem Shake can bring. So, hopefully there will be more creative Harlem Shake videos in the future. But I think it’s going to get rather annoying after a long long while. Yeah, overplayed like hell just like Gangnam Style (but I still do like Gangnam Style!).

And for you – what are YOUR views/opinions about Harlem Shake?
Feel free to leave a comment(:

Till later,
♥ mitsueki