Every now and then, a video shows up on YouTube that turns into a heavily mimicked sensation over night. Just look at Psy’s Gangnam Style that went on to dominate charts the world over.

 

 

Now a new meme that looks set to be 2013’s Gangnam Style is taking YouTube by storm in the shape of Harlem Shake by electronic musician Baauer.

 

All of the Harlem Shake videos share a common thread in that one person, usually masked, starts strutting their funky stuff while a group of people around them continue with their daily lives as if nothing is happening. Then, when the beat drops, everyone starts crazy dancing. Over the last week the presence of this trend has accelerated and there has been thousands of spin off videos made.

 

Original shake video

The boys’ original video (

) has already had more than 17 million views on YouTube and has promoted a whole lot of spin-off videos which mimic the original but each finds their own way to bring a new dimension to the craze.

Now, the world has been graced with an “Army Edition” (

) “Fat Mexican Edition” () and tons of other styles

One YouTube user has even put together a top 10 compilation of their favourite Harlem Shakes which can be viewed here:

 

With this latest craze, the Harlem Shake song plays an important role, its heavily influence by the point where the bass kicks in, after about 20 seconds it switches and people go crazy for the rest of the song. The actual Harlem Shake dance name has been around since the 80's, however most say that the original dance does not relate to this trend. Many say it could of been any song, it probably just refers to the dancing.

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