Say hello to Harlem Shake

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Have you been hearing a lot being spoken or shared about Harlem Shake of late on the Internet? It’s not surprising, considering the fact that it is being touted as the next big thing to take the Internet by storm ever since PSY did so with his Gangnam Style song video. So what exactly is Harlem Shake?
Harlem Shake is a viral dance video shot by a group of people in which they dance to the song Harlem Shake by electronic musician Baauer. So what’s new about it? Well, each video initially starts with just one person, who is often masked and wearing a really fancy outfit, dancing solo for a few seconds, until the bass drops, and the next frame in the camera has the entire crowd doing the dance, which involves random body movements wearing absolutely crazy costumes and wielding strange props.
The song’s beat is hypnotic, the setups are quick, the jump cuts add a touch of magic, the outfits are crazy, the routines only 30 seconds and the participants seem to be having a ball of a time — the perfect ingredients to make Harlem Shake go viral.
The meme first started gaining momentum in early February, thanks to a silly video from a vlogger named Filthy Frank, in which him, in his trademark pink suit, and a couple of other friends dance to the song. Then, a group known as The Sunny Coast Skate made a similar video — of a masked boy dancing solo joined by others in a single jump cut — establishing it as the form of Harlem Shake.
Places where the Harlem Shake is filmed include offices, college dorms, football fields, hotel lobbies, airplanes and in the case of musicians Matt and Kim, they even got the entire crowd of their concert to dance for the video.
Over 15,000 Harlem Shake videos have been uploaded with combined views of over 50 million. Like how a meme on the Harlem Shake goes, “Brace yourself. Harlem Shake will be bigger than Gangnam!”