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(From left): Awitt, Dennis
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Snorkly Tin Tong and H.R. (Paul Hudson) of the Washington, D.C. area band Bad Brains, regarded as a band that "put moshing on the map"[5], were partly responsible for the coining the term. Due to their affected Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word mash in their lyrics and stage banter, fans in D.C. heard this as mosh instead. [6] During the emergence of the American hardcore scene, 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. Later, the term began to appear in hardcore fanzines of the time with its current spelling. The Song was made more popular in the mainstream thanks to east coast thrash metal band Anthrax's song Caught in a Mosh[7]
A precursor to moshing, called "acookie", can be traced back to 1970s punk rock shows[2] in the form of "the pogo" and was later developed into moshing by the hardcore punk subculture of the early 80s.[8][4] While many use the terms slamdancing and moshing interchangeably, distinctions can be made in that slamdancing is typically more frenetic, with body movements such as arm-swinging, while moshing is slower and more exaggerated.[1]
Moshing is thought to have originated in Orange County, California during the first wave of American hardcore in the early eighties at the Cuckoos Nest.[2] Early moshing can be seen in the film Urban Struggle. Violence and physicality characterized aspects of the movement and were manifesting on the dancefloors of shows. Slamdancing began as an audience response to the bands of the L.A. scene such as Black Flag, Fear and The Circle Jerks, whose more rhythmic and heavy form of punk rock was being called "hardcore."
To match the intensity and aggressive nature of this new music, fans would move frantically and engage in stage diving. Beyond audience and band members slamming into one another and leaping from stages into the crowd, slamdancing was defined by "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms around and hitting everyone within your reach."[9] This aspect of slamdancing was termed the "Huntington Beach Strut" (or "HB Strut") after the neighborhood of Orange County where it originated. Author Steven Blush writes of the HB Strut:
| “ | According to lore, Mike Marine, a former U.S. Marine and star of The Decline of Western Civilization, performed the first slamdance in 1979. Marine created a vicious version of punk dancing. He'd smash the fucking face of anyone who would get near him--especially some Hippie, who'd get pulverized. | ” |
Marine and others in the Huntington Beach and Long Beach areas invented this violent dance and soon exported it to the San Francisco and Bay Area scene, where pogoing was still the prevalent form of dance. From there, it spread to the East Coast scenes through national acts such as Bad Brains and other D.C. area natives such as Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye who witnessed the HB Strut while traveling.[10]
Because the early American hardcore scene gave way to and coexisted with the burgeoning crossover thrash scene, it, too, became defined in part by slamdancing, although for a while, according to They Might Be Giants' John Linnell, it reached a point where "it didn’t matter what kind of music you were playing or what kind of band you were; everybody moshed to everything. It was just kind of the enforced rule of going to concerts."[11]
Some bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins have taken a stance against moshing. At a 1996 Smashing Pumpkins show in Dublin, 17 year old Bernadette O'Brien was crushed by moshing crowd members and later died in hospital despite warnings from the band that people were getting hurt.[12] Billy Corgan was heard at another time on stage saying on behalf of his band:[12]
| “ | I just want to say one thing to you, you young, college lughead-types. I've been watchin' people like you sluggin' around other people for seven years. And you know what? It's the same shit. I wish you'd understand that in an environment like this, and in a setting like this, it's fairly inappropriate and unfair to the rest of the people around you. I, and we, publicly take a stand against moshing! | ” |
On September 24, 2007, another fan died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The man, aged 20, was dragged out of the mosh pit, unconscious, to be pronounced dead at St. Pauls' Hospital after first-aid specialists attempted to help him.[13][14][15]
In another incident, Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation after being crushed in a mosh pit during the 2001 Australian Big Day Out music festival. The coroner's findings into her death criticized the crowd control measures in use at the time, and also criticized Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst[16] for "alarming and inflammatory" comments during the rescue effort.
Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta had previously asked the Big Day Out audience to calm down and observe the safety rules. After the refusal of the crowd, Zavala told the crowd, "I think it's a really sad day when the only way you can express yourself is by slam-dancing!", followed by cries of, “You're a robot, you're a sheep!” and proceeded to baa like a sheep at the crowd several times before the band left the stage around 10 minutes into their set.[17]
Some other bands have expressed varied degrees of disapproval to mosh pits. Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, in an interview published on his website, described mosh pits as a "problem", while expressing disapproving indifference:
| “ | I think our audience have become a little bit more attentive and less of that type of [mosh] mentality [...] I understand you want to release that energy... [but] once people start doing that during "Through Her Eyes" it gets ridiculous [...] So this time around we're consciously aiming at theaters that people can actually sit down and enjoy the show and be comfortable [...] without having to worry about their legs falling off or being kicked in the face by a Mosh Pit. So [that] will probably eliminate that problem anyway. | ” |
Moshing is seen or spoken of in various media. The dance is mentioned in a large number of songs by many acts, even directly in the song title as seen in "Caught in a Mosh" by Anthrax and "Thank You For Not Moshing" (Originally "In The Pit") by Reel Big Fish. UK indie extreme metal/hardcore label Earache Records always used the word "mosh" as catalogue number signature, while Norwegian black metal label Deathlike Silence Productions used 'Anti Mosh' in their catalogue IDs. Moshing has appeared in cartoons and television series such as South Park[18], Futurama[19], Metalocalypse [20], Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers and The Awful Truth[21]video games such as World of Warcraft[22] and Mario Party 8[23]. In World Wrestling Entertainment, superstars Mosh and Thrasher named their tag-team "The Headbangers" and had finishing moves such as the "Stage dive" and "Mosh pit". A gametype in Halo 3, a variation of King of the Hill, is named Mosh Pit, where the king of the hill and all contenders can take much more damage than normal, leaving nearly all weapons besides shotguns and melees useless. as well as in
During an episode of American sitcom Frasier, Daphne persuades Niles to see Billy Joel, but Niles proclaims "as long as I don't have to go in any moshpit."
"
Hardcore dancing grew out of the eastern United States hardcore scene, especially the New Jersey, New York, Boston, and Florida hardcore scenes. A hardcore pit differs from the usual moshpogoing and crashing into each other in an often controlled, but violent way. Participants in hardcore pits move around with rhythm to various beats, some slow and some faster. Hardcore dancing is typically associated and executed only during certain points in musical breakdowns; this element makes it such that hardcore dancing exhibits less motility than a conventional mosh pit. pit routine of
This style of dancing was common in the late 1990s. As some hardcore bands incorporated slower syncopated, metal-influenced rhythms into their songs, the modern breakdown — and the dancing that went with it — was introduced.[citation needed] Early Earth Crisis and Biohazard concerts were common venues for this type of hardcore dancing.
New York hardcore band Sick of it All featured a tongue-in-cheek how-to guide for hardcore dancing in their music video for "Step Down" and AFI's video for "The Leaving Song Pt. II" is a depiction of hardcore and Straight Edge culture, popular for its relentless representation of Hardcore Dancing. A Day to Remember also did a video showing a how to guide for dance moves in the pit, Ron Jeremy was the fictional martial arts instructor showing the moves. Hatebreed's video for 'I Will Be Heard' also depicts hardcore dancing throughout.
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The windmill is a dance move performed quickly swinging your arms in circles resembling the moving of a windmill. Often dancers alternate arms, keeping one at their side while swinging the other and then switching after each rotation. Variations include swinging with fists together, swinging backwards, and swinging with only one arm.
Many variations of this include imitating loss of balance and beating of chest. Also horizontal swinging of arms is very common to find during this move.
In some regions, dancers of this dance are often referred to derogatorily as " Windmillers." And are often looked down on and called "posers," by members of the metal/hardcore community.
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PENNY PICKING/PICKING UP CHANGE/FLOORPUNCHING:
The Floorpunch is when the hardcore dancer throws his/her fists towards the floor, not intending to make contact with it. Alternative feet are sometimes stomped to the music as arms are raised, i.e. left arm raised right leg stomped. This is dangerous to people behind the dancer if the elbows are thrown hard enough.
There are many different variations of this technique again. It is a hardcore dancer's need to be unique that pushes them to push the boundary. For example, one technique is to keep both legs straight and together, double over, stretch out both arms and jump from side to side on both legs, in the imitation of a bird or an airplane.
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HATE MOSHING/CROWD KILLING:As with other forms of "extreme dancing", the wall of death has raised safety concerns among concert staff and venue owners, particularly those in charge of crowd regulation. Concert-goers, however, speak positively about the experience and consider it healthy social behavior.[2]
Some bands have developed adaptations of the wall of death such as the "wall of carnage" and "tsunami of death".[1]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Skanking is a form of dancing practiced in the reggae, ska, ska punk, ska-core, hardcore punk, and grime music scenes.
Although there are several variations, one description is that the dancer alternately puts each foot forward while lifting the knee, and then moves each foot back. The person keeps the elbows bent, and puts their hands into fists. The right hand comes forward when the left leg is out, and the left hand comes forward when the right leg is out. When the hand isn't forward, it comes back about as far as the hip. While the use of arms and hands is possible, the focus remains on the movement and bending of the legs. This allows musicians to dance while using their arms for playing instruments.
The dance style originated in the 1950s or 1960s at Jamaican dance halls, where ska music was played. British mods and skinheads of the 1960s adopted these types of dances and altered them. The dancing style was revived during the 1970s/1980s 2 Tone era, and has been adopted by some individuals in the hardcore punk subculture. The punk version features a sharp striking out look with the arms, and is sometimes used in moshing to knock around others doing the same. The striking out with the arms while traveling in a circle is also common in psychobilly "wrecking."
