'Harlem Shake' goes viral in the Philippines

'Oppa Gangnam Style' horse-dance is now dethroned in the Philippines as new dance craze goes viral this February, the 'Harlem Shake' - an internet meme which receives peak popularity online. The king of Youtube videos now showcase a 30-second dance step and original act in the beat of "Harlem Shake" by electronic musician Baauer.

The viral video should not be confused with the original Harlem Shake Dance. The internet meme is established in a video uploaded on 15:17 February 2, 2013 by The Sunny Coast Skate (TSCS) of Queensland, Australia which kick started the internet explosion. In the video, 4 boys are hanging out in a bedroom while a 5th boy, wearing a while motorcycle helmet is dancing the "Harlem Shake". After 15 seconds, all 5 boys are dancing the "Harlem Shake."


On the two-hour interval, 'Do the Harlem Shake' video was also uploaded on Youtube by DizastaMusic. When they asked him how that first video came to be, Filthy Frank told Fader: “I was in a room with a few people. One of my friends was just playing the song on the speakers and I asked what [it was], and it just happened to be ‘Harlem Shake.’ As soon as the drop of the song came, we just started going crazy. We thought, well, we could turn this in to something good.”


TSCS's Harlem Shake has a total of 14 million views now while the 36-seconds DizastaMusic 'Harlem Shake' already have 15 million views as of writing.

The video begins with one person (often helmeted or masked) dancing to the song alone for around15 seconds, surrounded by other people not paying attention or unaware of the dancing individual. When the bass drops, the video cuts to the entire crowd doing a crazy convulsive dance for the next 15 seconds.

According to Mashable, the success of the videos was in part attributed to the anticipation of the breakout moment and short length, making them very accessible to watch.

Thousands of 'Harlem Shake' Youtube videos is being uploaded everyday. As a result of virality, Baauer's single reached #1 on the iTunes America chart and #2 on iTunes in the UK and Australia on February 15, 2013 accoding to reports.

In the Philippines, 'harlem shake' became the highest in the rising search term on Google over the last 15 days. More versions of shake craze is from Filipinos which also receive good number of views on Youtube. On Philippine television, the meme is introduced over 'It's Showtime', a noon-time show of ABS-CBN.


 



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