Mosh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the type of dance. For Eminem's song and music video see Mosh (song). For the professional wrestler, see Charles Warrington. For the Bangladeshi rock band, see Moshpit(Band).
Moshing is a type of dance characterized by jumping around and pushing others to music, particularly loud punk rock, hardcore, alternative rock or heavy metal music.
Moshing is typically done in a mosh pit or circle pit. Originally moshing was done in front of the stage at a concert, but since then, moshing has appeared more frequently throughout entire dance floors. Moshing etiquette has often involved helping up those who fall down.
Moshing has been gaining popularity in the hip hop, Breakcore, Eurodance, and Rave scenes.
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[edit] History
[edit] Hardcore origins
Originally called slam dancing, the term mosh may come from the term mash. In the early 1980s, the dance was frequently spelled mash, but pronounced mosh, as in the 1982 song "Total Mash" by the Washington D.C.-based hardcore group Scream, on their Still Screaming album. Later, the term began to appear in fanzines of the time with its current spelling.
The invention of the term mosh has sometimes been credited to Vinnie Stigma of the hardcore band Agnostic Front, as an acronym of March Of Skin Heads.[citation needed] However, most authorities cite either Darryl Jennifer or H.R. of Bad Brains as the term's originator, from their Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word mash, in the songs "Mash down Babylon" and "Mash It Up".
Many early punk scenes referred to this type of dance as thrashing, and the term moshing gradually gained significance during the crossover thrash days. This fusion was created by bands like D.R.I.. Slam dancing is often thought to have originated in Southern California during the west coast second generation punk movement, but British punk rockers of the 1970s were fond of slam dancing by doing the pogo (a simple dance involving jumping up and down and slamming into other people). The American variation began as bands like Black Flag and The Circle Jerks started playing hardcore punk. Fans from the beach cities began attending took slam dancing to the mobile skanking form, which was called the HB Strut.[citation needed][edit] Beyond the hardcore scene
The dance form later spread to the heavy metal music scene, where headbanging and crowd surfing were incorporated. In the mid-1980s, when thrash metal bands like Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax were still playing club venues, mosh pits were a regular part of the concert experience. By the time of the Woodstock 1999 music festival, moshing had been described as a full-scale riot.[citation needed] Venues that expect moshing now typically use various crowd control methods, including concert rules, the removal of problem-causing audience members, bouncers] in the pit, and a T-barricade that separates the pit into two halves, as well as from the band.
Although The Smashing Pumpkins played a problem-causing concert that made headlines for moshing, it was revealed that the trampling death of Bernadette O'Brien (a 17-year-old fan from Cork, Ireland) was actually due to crowd surfing.[citation needed] The concert ended early, and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. Due to the media's false portrayal of mosh pits as synonymous with stage diving and crowd surfing, her death was wrongfully blamed on the mosh pit.
On July 30, 2006, a violent fight broke out in the mosh pit at a Korn concert in Atlanta, GA, resulting in the death of 30-year-old Andy Richardson on August 1, 2006.[citation needed] No one present at the show has given police a good description of the assailant(s). Lawyers representing Mr. Richardson's family say they may file civil lawsuits against Korn and the concert promoters. In a statement to Fox News, Richardson's mother Gloria said "There needs to be more security or they need to not have these concerts at all."
In 2000, Michael Moore's The Awful Truth television show took a portable mosh pit across the United States on a flatbed truck. In Iowa, he challenged candidates in the U.S. presidential primaries to dive into it. The premise was that the show would endorse any presidential hopeful crazy enough to do it. At one debate, this mosh pit was called "the defining moment of the 2000 election" by New York Times columnist Gail Collins.[1].h
[edit] Types of moshing
Moshing is a catch-all term for any dance performed in a mosh pit or circle pit. There are several variations of moshing:
- Slam dancing is characterized by pushing other dancers and throwing one's body into other dancers.
- Grindcore has its own style of dancing, often called grind (not to be confused with the urban dance style), which resembles a blend of skanking and a slow mosh.
- Hardcore dancing is fast and formulaic. It includes windmilling, moves resembling breakdancing, and solitary martial arts moves.
- The Gangsta walk, associated with hip hop music, was originally called the buck jump. It involves quickly and wildly circling the dance floor. It First appearing at rap conerts in the Memphis, Tennessee area, and is closely related to Crunk.
- Heavy metal performances are associated with the Speed Pit or Speed Mosh. The faster the metal is, the more intense it gets. Metal moshing generally consists of pushing, shoulder and body checks, Irish whips (a wrestling move that involves taking a person by the arm and launching them) and a contest in which two moshers lock hands and spin at a frantic pace, seeing who can hold on the longest. The loser is usually sent flying into a crowd.
- Industrial music concerts often have mosh pits similar to those at metal or punk concerts. Industrial pits incorporate dancing styles similar to those found in clubs playing electronic body music or industrial music. Due to the clockwork nature of industrial music's rhythm, fans sometimes stomp their feet on the floor, causing vibrations.
- Skank slam dancing is often seen at ska punk and ska-core concerts.
- The Wall of Death (aka The Braveheart) happens when the crowd is divided into two halves. The music builds to a crescendo, and as it reaches fever pitch, a signal is given by the band and the two sides run at each other.
- The Riot Line is similar to the Wall Of Death, but is a one-sided simulated attack' by a group of moshers at the beginning of a song. It may randomly occur when a group of friends lock arms together and charge from the back of the venue room to the front of the stage, knocking over any one in the way.
- The Dogpile may be the result of a reckless trip and fall of a mosher, resulting in others tripping and falling atop of eachother, and in some cases, one or more hyped-up moshers or bystanders may humorously run and jump onto the dogpile. Often it starts as an accident, but sometimes it is purposely initiated.
- Hardcore dancing is often considered a form of moshing although this is controversial. Hardcore dancing is often described as 'fighting invisible ninjas'. It involves kicking, punching, skanking and other acrobatic dance moves. It seen at hardcore gigs. It is extremely unwelcome when one or two people start hardcore dancing in a metal type pit as it can be extremely dangerous. They are generally beaten for this.
[edit] Trivia
In the Finnish language the verb moshata, meaning to mosh, refers to both moshing and headbanging, with the latter being the more common meaning.
[edit] Media
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[edit] See also
- circle pit
- crowd surfing
- Hardcore dancing
- headbanging
- list of dances
- moshcore
- ninja pit
- pogo (dance)
- stage diving
- Wall of Death
