Harlem Shake

         

          YouTube has been the source of many overnight sensations throughout the recent past years.  I think it is amazing how quickly a video can go viral once it is posted for everyone to see.  Psy's famous dance video, for example, gained millions of views within the first week.  The Harlem Shake videos are currently one of the most recent video explosions on YouTube.  A group of boys decided to create a funny video to go along with a part of the song "Harlem Shake" by American DJ and producer, Baauer.  It became a huge hit, with millions of views within a couple of days.  Now, people are mimicking the video by making their own. 
          The Harlem Shake videos have totaled to over 30 million views altogether.  In the videos, it usually begins with one person dancing, usually wearing a mask or something to cover their face.  While the one person is dancing, the other people featured in the video are doing regular everyday things, as if nothing was irregular about their day.  After a certain part of the song clip, everyone in the video is doing something funny, usually also wearing some type of costume.  There are people who feature their videos in offices, retirement homes, underwater, with motorcycles, parking lots, schools, and much more.  In fact, Molloy College created one also!  There are even some videos that feature people in the marines and army doing this dance.
          Along with these videos, of course, there are many people who do not like them.  I have seen numerous videos of people from Harlem that find the videos to be insulting, because they are portraying the "Harlem Shake" dance the wrong way.  My opinion about this situation is that you cannot please everyone, and sometimes I feel that people take things to seriously.  I don't believe that the boys who began this dance craze meant to offend anyone while making their video.
          I find this internet explosion to be hilarious, especially because everyone is making a different video to the same song, with the same concept.  My favorite (posted below) is when a news station participates in this outbreak of Harlem Shake videos.  I hope you get a good laugh!

There are many more "Harlem Shake" videos to choose from.  Go to YouTube and type "Harlem Shake" in the search box.
Click here to watch Molloy College's Harlem Shake Video


Vocabulary:

1. Sensation (noun) - widespread public excitement
2. Explosion (noun) - a fast or rapid increase
3. Mimic (verb) - to copy, imitate
4. Irregular (adjective) - not normal, not following the same method
5. Insult (verb) - to treat with rudeness
6. Portray (verb) - to represent or make a likeness of something
7. Opinion (noun) - a personal view or belief
8. Offend (verb) - to hurt feelings, annoy
9. Hilarious (adjective) - extremely funny
10. Concept (noun) - a general idea

The term "go viral" means to become extremely popular on the internet within a short amount of time.


Vocabulary Cloze Exercise (Fill in the Blanks):

          The Harlem Shake videos have become an overnight ________________!  So many people have tried to _____________ (copy) the first video by making their own.  The ______________(increase) of Harlem Shake videos came very quickly.  They each tried to ___________ (represent) the first Harlem Shake video.  People look like they are not doing anything ____________(not regular) in the video, until the second part of the song clip. These videos did not mean to ____________ (hurt feelings) anyone.  Some people think that they were ___________ing (treating with rudeness) the people from Harlem by doing the dance the wrong way.  My ________ (belief) is that the videos were ___________ (funny).  I loved the whole __________ (idea).  


Grammar Point - Count and Noncount Nouns:

          The definition of a noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or a process that has been nominalized (has become a noun).  A count noun consists of singular and plural nouns that are countable.  For example, phone/phones, day/days, notebook/notebooks, thought/thoughts, and foot/feet are all countable nouns.  They can be preceded by a or an, and also by a number.  Noncount nouns (also called mass nouns) are nouns that cannot be counted as a whole.  They do not have a plural form, and cannot be preceded by a or an, or a number.  For instance, love, hate, rice, milk, and information cannot be counted.  Rice would be able to be counted if you were counting each grain of rice, but rice as a whole would not be able to be counted.  There are always exceptions to the rule, and some nouns can be both count and noncount, such as time. 
          
For more help on count and noncount nouns, click here.


 Grammar Activity:

           This blog includes many examples of count and noncount nouns.  Fold a piece of paper in half, and label one side "Count Nouns" and the other side "Noncount Nouns".  Reread this blog entry, and for every noun you find, write the noun in the correct category on your paper. 


For more practice, try this game!