Every few years, a mindless dance craze begins to influence the masses and change the course of music.
In addition to the essential Florida classics, like the City Boy/Girl and the Peanut Butter & Jelly, many dances have emerged over the years.
We had the Chicken Head from St. Louis, the Crip Walk from California, Beat your Feet from the D.C. area and Footwork from Chicago.
These dances start out in spurts, at small gatherings and parties, and before you know it, everyone is doing them. As a result, one of two things occurs: the dance trend either runs itself into the ground or becomes an instant classic.
Although you have your regional dances that are nice for neighborhood block parties or local clubs, there’s always that distinctive one that ends up transitioning into so much more.
One dance that has had quite a go in clubs and house parties nationwide is the Lean With It, Rock With It, which is also a song coined by Dem Franchise Boyz. This song, along with a few other notable DJ Collipark, Lil John and D4L tunes, has helped usher in a whole new type of rap – snap music.
Typically, the music generated from the South is seen as just a bunch of bass, a repetitive beat and very simple, elementary-like lyrics.
Well in addition to these staple features, there’s now a cute little snap to go along with it. This snap music phenomenon has penetrated dance floors across America and infiltrated hip hop radio stations alike. It has also put Atlanta, the birthplace of snap music, on the map.
With the expansion of the snap movement, more styles have developed and produced new dances, like the Poole Palace and the Westside Walk it Out. Sadly, in an effort to trample the success of the snap music movement and put New York back at the forefront of rap, a new dance is on the scene – the Chicken Noodle Soup.
This dance is a blatant attempt to shadow the southern style triumph that is snap music. Wasn’t the Harlem Shake enough? The Chicken Noodle Soup is a here today, gone tomorrow fad, while many will be snapping at cookouts and family reunions for years to come.
Every region has its era in music and dance history, so give us our time to shine. In the 1950s, it was the Twist; in the 1960s, it was the Jerk; in the 1970s, the Bump took over; in the 1980s, break-dancing made its mark; and in the early 1990s we had the Tootsie Roll.
So the next time you’re in the club and you see large groups of people snapping their fingers in a lively manner and swaying their bodies in the same the direction, think about the beauty and innovation of the snap movement.
Remember, snap music is here to stay, so snap out of it and snap it up!
Yewande Addie is a sophomore newspaper student from Atlanta. She can be reached at omolola15@yahoo.com.