How did they dance in the 80s
What are the Common Dances from the 1980s? (with pictures)
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J. BeamE.T. phoned home, the average salary was just under $16,000 US Dollars (USD), and minivans, video cassette recorders (VCRs), and cable television were modern concepts. The 1980s was a decade of spending, and the newly launched cable music channel, MTV, inspired both the music and the fashion world. Madonna and Michael Jackson were huge pop stars, and along with other influences, they spurred some popular dance styles.
Break dancing was by far the biggest dance craze of the early 80s. Beginning as a street dance of the '70s and evolving into a popular style all its own, break dancing was born of hip-hop influences, and performing most moves required immense physical aptitude. Break dancing often involved standoffs between dancers to see who could out-maneuver the other.
Another dance craze, if one could call it that, was slamdancing.
Catching on largely because of the development of new age punk and heavy metal in the '80s, slamdancing, also known as moshing, is nothing more than a group of people slamming into one another and jumping around to the sounds of loud metal music. The mosh pit followed, and relevant music concerts have ever since had a place where fans assault one another under the guise of a dance. Whether it's fun or dangerous is debatable, but slamdancing in the mosh pit looks like it's here to stay.
Nearly anybody who attended a wedding reception in the late 1980s will remember hearing the "Electric Boogie" reverberating across the room and a solid line of people performing The Electric Slide.
This dance craze was made most popular by the 1989 re-release of the "Electric Boogie," copyrighted in 1982 by Bunny Wailer.
Though the '80s brought an amalgam of dance moves and styles, many of which are forgotten, there is no question that MTV had a large role in what became popular. Whether it was MC Hammer’s “Hammertime” or Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”, videos of musicians singing and dancing were available in people’s living rooms round the clock.
One final popular dance of the 80s, and possibly the one that issued in the new decade, was the Lambada.
Though it has long-standing Brazilian roots, the Lambada gained worldwide popularity at the end of the decade with the release of the Hollywood film of the same name. The Lambada is considered a very sensual dance, even though it is fast-paced and heated.
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Best 80s Dance Moves | GIFs of Awesome Dances from the Eighties
I Love the '80sLists about things you love—or at least remember—about history's most bodacious decade.
Moonwalk your way through this list of the best '80s dance moves - you know you want to.
This GIF collection of popular dance steps from the eighties will take you back to an era when wearing shoulder pads and acid wash jeans were totally cool. The decade also saw the rise of MTV because, believe it or not, the channel actually played music videos back in the day! Popular 1980s artists like Michael Jackson, Madonna, and the Bangles released videos featuring moves that millions of fans all over the world attempted on the dance floor. Even though the majority of us failed, it was still fun to shake, shimmy, and slide to the beat. It's no surprise that several '80s dances on the list below remain popular to this day.
The 1980s brought memorable dance steps such as the Running Man, the Roger Rabbit, and the Cabbage Patch. These silly names were tame compared to what people actually looked like when they were doing the steps. Pantomime moves also became increasingly popular at dance clubs and parties, so it was completely acceptable and hilariously entertaining to watch children of all ages dancing the Sprinkler or the Lawnmower.
The most iconic of these, however, came from the brilliant mind of the King of Pop, who glided across the stage with his Moonwalk.
Hollywood also helped bring various styles of dance into the mainstream in the eighties with films like Footloose and Flashdance. No one can forget the dance sequences in these movies, especially the famous lift in Dirty Dancing. Even street-inspired moves turned the breakdancing craze into a worldwide phenomenon, thanks to the 1984 movie Breakin' and its sequel Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
What are your favorite 80's dance moves? Vote up for the hilarious GIFs below that you think should totally go to the top of the list and down vote any dances you think aren't so bitchin'. Take a trip down memory lane and check out these other awesome Ranker lists, including the greatest 80s teen stars and the most successful charity singles ever.
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The Moonwalk
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The Thriller Dance
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Breakdancing
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The Running Man
TOP 15 Fashion Dances of the 80s (name + movements)
Thanks to the emergence of the music channel MTV (premiered on August 1, 1981), in the early eighties, Western pop culture experienced a real explosion of various genres of music, which were accompanied by the emergence of original dance moves.
The production of clips has taken on a mass character, round-the-clock broadcast has promoted many unknown names, which has allowed even fairly average artists to break out into world stars.
The second result of large-scale clip-making was the active spread of pop music and pop dances - hip-hop, dance, electronica, Latino, which soon turned into the mainstream and formed a series of popular dances of the 80s. Many of the musical currents and dance movements continue to live and remain in the trends of the 21st century.
1. Moonwalk
Michael Jackson "Billie Jean".
The technique consists in the illusion of moving forward, although in reality the dancer is moving smoothly back.
After his death, Michael Jackson turned into a criminal and persona non grata for major studios and channels, but we are not prudes and fans of cancellation culture, so we will always respect the best songs of the disgraced king of pop music and admire the famous moonwalk that drove crowds of fans crazy .
Jackson is not the author of the “moonwalk dance”, because this technique was used by Marcel Marceau, Charlie Chaplin, Cab Calloway, Jean-Louis Barrault and other stars of the first half of the twentieth century. But it was Michael, performing the super hit "Billie Jean" at the Motown 25 concert in the spring of 1983rd, showed the world a movement that eventually became the hallmark of the artist. Breakdancing
The first breakdancers appeared in the States in Puerto Rican and African American communities populated by active youth. Young boys and girls wanted to dance to hip-hop, soul, funk and other currents of music where the percussion solo plays a key role.
Breakdancers took to the streets in the early seventies, but breakdancing took shape in the next decade, peaking in popularity in the 1980s.
Now breakdancing is not just a part of street culture, but also a sporting event that will be included in the program of the Olympic Games from 2024 (yes, in Paris 2024, the best breakdancers will receive gold Olympic awards).
3. Mosh, Moshing (Mosh Pits)
"9 craziest moshings".
The most brutal, aggressive and evil dance of the 80s, whose arena was punk, hardcore, metalcore, deathcore concerts, where people pushed, jumped, stage-dived (when a person, a star or an ordinary frisky punk, jumps into the crowd, but does not fall to the floor, but floats, as if on waves, on outstretched arms) and went crazy in other frenzied collective movements.
Another name for moshing is the term slam, although "slam" is rather a precursor to mosh.
4. Roger Rabbit
Bobby Brown "Every Little Step" after which Roger Rabbit got its name.
5 Robot , head and body to simulate a robot. How well the late king could do it since the Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine" album.
6. Running Man
Janet Jackson "Rhythm Nation".
Has nothing to do with the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the same name.
The second name is “The Hungry Caterpillar” and the main popularizer of this African-American street dance in world culture was another representative of the Jackson clan, Janet, whose hit “Rhythm Nation” was released together in a video emblazoned with “Running Man”. After Janet, Bobby Brown, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and other American rap and hip-hop artists of the 80s of the 20th century had fun in the rhythm of a hungry-running human caterpillar.
7. The Butt
E.U. "Da Butt".
A slightly indecent title hides a rather innocent and modest dance for today, consisting in a rhythmic energetic movement of the fifth point. Born in the eighties and present at every modern disco.
8. The Biz
Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock "It Takes Two"
Biz is quite simple and primitive, but in combination with other hip-hop dances it turns into a spectacular spectacular dance attraction , in which you want to participate in any outsider onlookers. As in the video clip of Rob Baze, whose “Biz” is easily joined by all honest people.
9. Thriller
Michael Jackson "Thriller"
Once again the great and terrible Michael, this time in the company of zombies dancing an exciting thriller dance in the street, on the roadway and right in the cemetery .
Released on December 2, 1983, the pop hit "Thriller" quickly became a cultural phenomenon and an anthem for the American folk holiday Halloween, and also won a Grammy.
10. The Cabbage Patch
Miami-based music crew the Gucci Crew II used a baby doll as a source of creative inspiration and came up with the song "The Cabbage Patch", adorned with a characteristic cabbage dance. Details in the next video.
11. Sprinkler (The Sprinkler)
Dance-imitation of a garden hose, with which a person waters a lawn or vegetable garden.
An unknown author guessed that a water spray, or sprinkler in English, is great for creating an incendiary dance. First aired on MTV at 19The 87th "sprinkler" quickly became fashionable and in the list of top dances of the 80s.
12. Lambada (Lambada)
Kaoma «Lambada»
A pair dance attraction from Latin America, which flew around the planet like a swift hurricane thanks to the song of the same name by the French band “Kaomi” and consolidated its fame with two funny and captivating films – Lambada” and “Forbidden Dance”, which in turn give lambada the right to be among the popular dances of the 90s.
13. Harlem Shake
A modest resident of Harlem named Al B first called the future dance hit "Harlem Shake" by his own name - "AlBee", but when the novelty of the Harlem artist spilled out of the area and overgrown with fans, then another title appeared, which the author recognized as the main and only one.
Although it wasn't until 2001 that rapper Travell Gerald Coleman, or simply G.Dep, danced the "Harlem Shake" in the "Let's Get It" video, making it an international mainstream.
14. The Worm (The Worm)
The Worm will obviously not be able to dance for everyone, but only for a trained sports guy or girl. Initially, the worm was danced at punk and rock concerts of the eighties, but a little later, a caterpillar or a dolphin, as the worm is also called, logically began to be used by break dancers, the main feature of which is sharp and very traumatic jumps on the floor.
15. Dirty Dancing
A scene from the movie "Dirty Dancing" 1987.
We complete the catalog with an imperishable classic, inextricably linked with the figure and face of Patrick Swayze. The film actor and ballet dancer ideally combined two professions in his work and created a wonderful image of a poor young man who makes his way through life with the help of dance art. Screenwriter Eleanor Bergsteen and choreographer Kenny Ortega co-created the edgy forbidden "dirty" forbidden fruit, but it took Swayze's talent to make "Dirty Dancing" a worldwide sensation and one of the best films of the 80s.
School discos of the 80s / Back in the USSR / Back in USSR
From the author: “There is a very good quality in human nature. Over time, everything bad and negative is forgotten, erased like an unnecessary, unloved cassette. Only bright, beautiful moments of the past remain in memory ... "
And especially if it is the past - childhood and youth. It was these wonderful memories of my youth that remained school discos in the mid-80s of the last century.
Yes, yes, you heard right. At that time, there were already “discotheques”, and not “dances for young people in the club”. We, the Soviet younger pioneer generation, were very drawn to the advanced and forbidden, and therefore unknown and, as it seemed to us, ultra-modern Western trend of life. It thundered all over the world with the incendiary rhythms of disco, the popularity of which became the prototype of school sincere parties. Numerous recordings and vinyl records of then popular performers leaked into the "scoop" from behind the "hillock".
I remember at our first disco in the seventh grade, dedicated to the Spring Festival, my friend brought to school rare foreign pop records, which he took from his uncle, a seafarer who was abroad at that time. And the best, in his opinion, record of Joe Dassin immediately fell on an old school player with one rag speaker. In the pronunciation of the performer's name, the proud owner of the record emphasized the first syllable, which was immediately corrected by a classmate who knew a lot about music.
The beautiful soulful rhythms of Joe Dassin, by the way, were liked by our grown-up classmates. And we, childishly naive teenagers, overcoming shame and blushing, invited them to a slow dance. With the lights on and the teacher in his usual place (at his table in the corner by the window), checking notebooks, at a "pioneer" distance between the dancers in a pair, these dances aroused an incredible imagination and excited thoughts ... Then it was the height of happiness and tenderness.
Large school discos in the assembly hall were held on New Year's Eve and at the end of the school year. Their great popularity garnered an almost one hundred percent presence of high school students. The girls came in their best clothes and put on their first modest make-up. Many were embarrassed to dance, but stared and envied the dancers to the fullest. The best dance of the evening was the "white" slow dance, when the girls invited the guys. There were no DJs.
Their place was occupied by "advanced", liberated and disappointed in their studies, three-year-olds, "who know a lot about music." They brought more powerful Japanese equipment with amplifiers and huge speakers to school discos.
Often used and the old "reel" tape recorders. Twilight reigned in the hall and there were self-made devices of light music from three or four traffic light filters blinking to the rhythm of the music. And any disco with a mirror ball, illuminated by a bright stream of light and giving birth to hundreds of “light bunnies”, was considered advanced. Recordings were also hard to come by. Vinyl records from popular artists in the retail trade sold with a bang and were a sought-after expensive black market product.
Worn records changed each other. Dynamic melodies of Bonnie and Abba, Andriano Celentano and Puppo, Disco Stars and Space, Bee Gees and Pin Floyd, which became popular back in the late 70s and early 80s, were heard.
The immortal hits of the Beatles often sounded.
A little later, the legendary hits of Modern Talking and everyone's favorite singer CC Catch, Bad Boys Blue and Silent Circle, Pet Shop Boys and Sandra, Flirse and Savage burst into the disco speakers. The highlights of school discos were Heavy Metal bands - Metallica, Queen, Scorpions, Accept, ACNDC. Whose hits, with the permission of the director, were allowed to be played only once or twice a night. Sometimes the little-known incendiary rhythms of Rock-n-Rolla slipped through. It was danced by a few dancers.
After the release of the beloved movie "Courier", which accurately describes the youth mores of that time, with its revealing music and dancing at the end, the rhythms and movements of Brake Dance became very popular. Not a single school disco in the mid-80s took place without them.
Along with foreign performers, new domestic groups became popular - Forum, Mirage, and even later - Tender May and remixes by Serezha Minaev.
The songs of Y. Antonov, A. Pugacheva, S. Rotaru, which are now in demand, were almost never staged at modern retro discos. They were loved and listened to by people of the older generation - the same age as the stars, whose youth fell on the first confessions of the legendary Soviet singers and singers.
We raved about popular music. They listened to it at home, copied each other's cassettes with their favorite hits, exchanged records, chased for new releases. There was not much recording equipment. And the height of the dreams of that time for a young music lover was a real two-cassette Japanese tape recorder. Then the services of recording studios were in demand, selling cassettes or recording new albums of famous performers on your cassette.
The class was stratified into groups of lovers of a particular style of music. I remember that the names of favorite bands and the names of performers flaunted in prominent places in school notebooks and diaries. And my school line with the inscription Demis Rusos, a Greek disco performer, was broken out of revenge and disdain for this style by a classmate, an ardent fan of Hard Rock.
