Harlem Shake
Harlem Shake 2013 video fad set to Baauer's track "Harlem Shake," in which one masked person dances alone until a beat drop cuts to a whole room convulsing in costume-clad chaos. Thousands of copycat clips flooded the web within weeks.
Origin
The format was kicked off in February 2013 by a short video from vlogger Filthy Frank and the comedy group The Sunny Coast Skate, who built the now-standard structure around Baauer's 2012 song.
Spread
It became one of the fastest-spreading formats ever, with office teams, sports squads, and even news anchors filming their own 30-second versions. The predictable build-and-drop structure made it endlessly reproducible.
Legacy
The craze burned bright and brief, largely fading within a couple of months, but it pushed Baauer's song to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a case study in how memes accelerate and collapse. Notably it bears no relation to the actual Harlem shake dance, which residents were quick to point out.
The Chain Trail
No tracked memecoin is currently mapped to this meme.
Key facts
- February 2, 2013: The first "Harlem Shake" videos using Baauer's track appear.
- February 2013: Tens of thousands of copycat videos are uploaded within weeks.
- March 2013: "Harlem Shake" tops the Billboard Hot 100, aided by new streaming rules.
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