Elaborate dance routines make a comeback in music videos | Show biz

LOS ANGELES, September 24 – It’s a trend that is spreading like wildfire. Every new music release generates dance challenges – almost immediately – on TikTok, the leading app for teens. While most viral dance routines were previously started by ordinary, albeit talented internet users, a growing number of artists are embracing the phenomenon and giving fans examples of dance steps they can replicate on social media. . We take a closer look at some of the most recent and important examples.

When it comes to dance moves and routines, every era has its legends. The 1980s were marked by the famous “moonwalk” by Michael Jackson, while the following decade was swept by the more relaxed movements of the “Macarena. When we look back on the year 2021, we will surely remember the demonstrative choreography performed by Lil Nas X.

Most of us first got a glimpse of the Atlanta rapper-singer’s dancing skills in the video accompanying his country rap hit, Old town road, where he tried his hand at line dancing. They are also showing in the videos of his latest singles, Montero (Call me by your name) and Baby Industry. He performs a rather lascivious dance on the devil’s thighs in the first, and topless twerking in the middle of a group of prisoners in the second. Enough to shake things up in the rap and hip-hop community, where many fans are more used to videos advocating a more patriarchal sexuality.

Lil Nas X would have trained for several weeks with choreographers Kelly Yvonne and Sean Bankhead to perfectly learn the dance routines of his latest hits down to the smallest detail. And it looks like that hard work has paid off: “Industry Baby” has over 129 million views on YouTube, while the video from Montero (Call me by your name) won three performer statuettes at the last MTV Music Video Awards.

“Internet killed the star of the video”

The Atlanta musician isn’t the only one to have turned to renowned dancers to spice up the videos accompanying their tracks. In fact, it was commonplace until the mid-2010s, when record companies began to dramatically cut their music video budgets in the face of the rise of YouTube. Stop spending millions of dollars like Gwen Stefani did to film the visuals for Make me like you or Madonna for Give me all your love; it was time to save some money. A trend that the duo The Limousines recounted bitterly in their 2010 hit, “Internet Killed the Video Star”.

But a decade later, things have changed again. A new generation of stars like Dua Lipa and Chloe Bailey are once again coming to dance studios to follow in the footsteps of their 2000s predecessors. “To see this generation of artists surpass themselves is incredible. It makes everyone want to take it to the next level, ”choreographer Charm La’Donna told The Face. “Everyone is ready to play and train, so the performances [over the last few months] raised the bar. I am here for this.

Normani is a perfect example. The former Fifth Harmony singer has “broken the Internet” on several occasions with her videos which feature a choreography as catchy as it is sophisticated. That of his last piece, Wild side, was particularly trying for the 25-year-old. “I really wanted to push myself with different styles of choreography throughout the video. When I tell you all that my knees were going through this … “, she wrote in a Tweeter a few hours after the video was released.

As usual, Normani called on choreographer Sean Bankhead to launch his latest single. This collaboration proved particularly fruitful as their dance routine gave birth to its own challenge on TikTok. The #WildSideChallenge has since amassed over 40.2 million social media views and was covered by Brazilian funk queen Anitta. A rather surreal situation for Sean Bankhead. “We knew when we were creating Wild side that it wouldn’t be a TikTok dance. We didn’t want it either. We wanted to do a stimulating choreography that wasn’t watered down to match the challenging era of what dance and music is like right now. So seeing people doing it, getting up and learning this difficult choreography, it really hit me, ”he said. Paper journal.

Dance to the rhythms of K-pop

While more and more music lovers are starting to dance thanks to TikTok, K-pop fans have been doing it for decades. And for good reason: the choreography is an integral part of this musical genre born in South Korea. Dance moves were even the hallmark of Seo Taiji and Boys, the predecessors of successful South Korean boy groups like BTS and EXO. Over the years, the dance routines of K-pop groups have become so complex that they have given rise to their own workout videos. They are almost as successful as the official videos. Proof of this is the dance performance video for How do you like it by Blackpink. The dance tutorial has more than 853 million views, compared to 968 million for the video accompanying the song.

This enthusiasm for dance lessons comes as no surprise to Michelle Cho, assistant professor of popular culture at the University of Toronto. “Learning K-pop choreography strengthens fans’ embodied sense of connection with their K-pop idols, as well as with the fan community,” she said. Korea’s time. Proof that even if times change, dance is still unifying. – ETX Studio