fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2256 ]

[ SECRET POST #2256 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2256 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[The Most Popular Girls In School]

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[Rust and Bone]

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[My Mad Fat Diary]

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[Sailor Moon]

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[Harvest Moon: A New Beginning]

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[American Horror Story Asylum]

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[Homestuck]

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[DC Comics]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 021 secrets from Secret Submission Post #322.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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A video just popped up on my tumblr dash from the Melissa Perry Harris Show, with her talking about the Harlem Shake videos being cultural appropriation.

While I respect her opinion, and to be honest she has far more of a right to claim it, I just don't see the incredibly stupid craze of making 30 second clips to a song that says 'Do the Harlem Shake" as cultural appropriation because I don't think its trying to steal the original dance and create a new 'white' one. I think its just think its the only dialogue of the song, and that's easier to say then 'That weird dancing video.'

I also already knew what the real Harlem Shake was, so I never thought they were connected, they just happened to go by the same name...which also might be why I can't see the cultural appropriation thing.

No.

It was a basically unknown catchy dance song, not even near some respected or even popular cultural staple. The meme has nothing to do with the song's black influence -- it's only used because of the "shake" part of the lyrics and the song structure of that segment.

Besides, people aren't making it "white" or anything like that. I've seen plenty of black people in Harlem Shake videos.

Ah, thank you. This says what I was trying to say so much better.

what is the harlem shake

The internet got bored again.

basically it is either a dance that makes your limbs look like crazy noodles or it is a meme consisting of internet videos where a guy flails his arms around alone and then a bunch of people show up and hump each other in spandex bodysuits

Re: Do you think the Harlem Shake is cultural appropriation?

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-08 03:00 (UTC) - Expand

Of course it is! What else are hipster teens supposed to put under the #whitehistory tag on twitter!

so I never thought they were connected, they just happened to go by the same name

Same. If some want to see it as appropriation, I can't quite blame them for it, and it does annoy me a little considering what most people are doing now is not the Harlem Shake, but I'm not bothered too much by it.

The real Harlem Shake is actually way cooler than the videos anyways.

I don't know if I would call it cultural appropriation but I do think the craze is at least embarrassing and I wish they would call the dance something else.

nope.

but then it seems i can't do a lot of things without being accused of appropriation.

Like eating certain food or wearing a scarf or drawing coloured characters and, apparently, being entertained by a song.

I didn't even know there was a real Harlem Shake??? but then i'm not music savvy

.......wtf IS the original harlem shake? is there an aboriginal dance ritual consisting of people flailing around and one of them is in a sleeping bag?

Anything with black people in it=Cultural!

http://youtu.be/EMA9uNIsKaA

I wish there was because that would be awesome.

only if the macarena and gangnam style are.

jeeze it's only people having a bit of fun with some music.

I think I was just idiotic naming on whoever started the trend. It obviously has no basis in the actual dance and only complete idiots or sheltered people really think that is how you do the Harlem Shake.

Some people think it's cultural appropriation. Some people are very stupid.

Pretty much.

No.

Because that song in the Harlem Shake meme was not chosen because of anything that has to do with culture. Instead, it was chosen because of it was the perfect melody for the gag they were doing. A steady beat for a few seconds then a BOOM followed by a thick bass line. It's the boom followed by the almost 180 change in tempo that makes the meme work. Again, not because of anything that has to do with Harlem, New York. It could have been any song with that pattern. It just happened to be that song.

But here's a FADER article that goes into detail about the history of the song and the meme. It explains how it has nothing to do with the original Harlem Shake.

If it's cultural appropriation, then "cultural appropriation" has lost all meaning.

I think she was saying the cultural appropriation isn't that white people are doing it... it's that outsiders have decided they have the right to take a term that's already been clearly established as a community's dance style to mean something different for no real reason. And I don't know a lot about Harlem Shake but could it be considered sort of mocking? Like 'this is what you guys look like to me when you do that dance'? I'm tired and out of the loop so please feel free to correct my ignorance at will.

No, I think that's pretty right on.

But the people's right to make and enjoy dumb internet meme videos shall not be abridged, I guess.

Re: Yeeah I watched that MSNBC video and I think I'm about to incite a dogpiling but here goes...

anonymouslyyours - 2013-03-08 04:25 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Yeeah I watched that MSNBC video and I think I'm about to incite a dogpiling but here goes...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-08 19:26 (UTC) - Expand

that seems to be the problem, yeah

I can understand why she dislikes that it is called that, and I think in a broader context, for younger people who didn't know that there was an actual dance called the Harlem Shake, they will not understand that the original dance came first.

But I wonder what else you are supposed to call it? "Con los terristas?" Cause I think that is the only other line in the 30 seconds of song it samples.

Also, as others have pointed out, I don't feel as though they are calling the dancing that they are doing the Harlem Shake, or even trying to make fun of it? Then again, I was not there when they were making it, so maybe they were.

Re: Yeeah I watched that MSNBC video and I think I'm about to incite a dogpiling but here goes...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-08 06:05 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Yeeah I watched that MSNBC video and I think I'm about to incite a dogpiling but here goes...

(Anonymous) - 2013-03-08 20:11 (UTC) - Expand

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