From Gangnam Style to Baby Shark '“ the top dance crazes of all time revealed

Dance crazes have long been an iconic part of popular culture, flooding dance floors at office get-togethers, parties and celebrations up and down the country.

Over the past decade, iconic dance routines have exploded thanks to the growth of social media.

Dance crazes such as The Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style have meant that dance routines have become more famous than the artist or song themselves.

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And as we prepare to celebrate the end of 2018 and/or prepares to celebrate the start of a brand new year, 31 per cent of Brits admit to feeling embarrassed by their dancing skills at the Christmas office party.

In order to tackle this type of dancing at Christmas office parties, Mecca Bingo has conducted social listening across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to discover the top dance crazes over the past decade, based on how many of us have attempted to replicate our own (often embarrassing) versions on social media.

Top dance crazes:

1. Gangnam Style by Psy (458k social mentions)

Taking the top spot as the most popular social media dance craze is Gangnam Style. The Korean single was released in the Summer of 2012 by Korean artist Psy. Psy a relatively unknown K-pop artist became a worldwide internet sensation overnight. The music video went viral across the globe with everyone from the Evian babies to the US Navy who have all created their own version of Psy’s Gangnam style, it now has over 3.2 billion YouTube views and over a million sales in the UK alone2!

2. Thriller by Michael Jackson (399k social mentions)

Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller” was released back in 1983. The dance shows Jackson becoming a zombie along with a horde of the undead. Named the ‘greatest video’ by MTV, it has clocked up over 139 million views on YouTube, and the accompanying LP became the highest-selling album in music history with over 100 million copies sold worldwide.

3. The Harlem Shake (160k social mentions)

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The original Harlem Shake was a street and hip-hop dance originating in Harlem, New York City in the 1980s.. However in 2013, The Harlem Shake an internet meme in the form of a video swept the internet. At its peak, there were well over 4,000 iterations of the dance uploaded to YouTube daily,with offices, universities, celebrities and even the Norwegian Army and The Simpsons creating their own versions, The Harlem Shake hit over 1 million views online.

4. Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show (68.6k social mentions)

“The Time Warp” featured in the 1975 rock musical The Rocky Horror Show, and now has over 2 million YouTube views. The much admired song made it into the UK song charts.

5. The Floss Dance by The Backpack Kid (63.2k social mentions)

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Although it is one of the most recent internet sensations, the floss dance is still ranked at position 5 of the most socially mentioned dance crazes of all time.

The floss dance originates from an Instagram-famous Fifteen-year old schoolboy known as The Backpack Kid (with 2.2 million Instagram followers). The backpack kid is thought to have invented the ‘floss dance’

who was propelled to stardom by Katy Perry and quickly became an internet sensation. Celebrities across the world have been posting videos of themselves trying to ‘floss’.

No 6. Macarena by Los del Rio (59.2k social mentions)

No 7. Cha Cha Slide by DJ Casper (56.7k social mentions)

No 8. Moon Walk by Michael Jackson (55.1k social mentions)

No. 9 Night Fever by Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever (47.2k social mentions)

No 10. Baby Shark (33.9k social mentions)

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Baby Shark is another Korean sensation that has been watched online over 3.3 billion times since 2012 and is up there with the original ‘Gangnam Style’. Baby Shark has been translated into 10 languages by the creators PinkFong.

More details at Mecca Bingo