Electronic song soundtracks viral video sweeping the nation

After only two months passing, the theme song for 2013 has already been decided.  While it’s nowhere near as glossy and Korean as last year’s “Gangnam Style” craze, “Harlem Shake” by trap producer Baauer has been sending millions around the world into 30-second homemade dancing fits ever since the song went viral.

On Feb. 2, an Australian skate team called Sunny Coast Skate uploaded a video of one of their members wearing a motorcycle helmet while dancing to the song in a room surrounded by other members of his team as they visibly ignore him, idly playing video games and using a computer.  That is, until the bass drops…

It is at this moment that all hell breaks loose, so to speak.  Everyone who was once lounging around is now dancing harder than motorcycle-helmet guy ever did, sending their bodies into convulsions as though they were having standing seizures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCjGboyNnI

No need to call 9-1-1 though; they’re just doing the Harlem Shake.

By this point, simply reading or hearing the words ‘do the Harlem Shake!’ is enough to cause most people to start hearing the song play in their heads, as 40,000 variations of the video have already been uploaded as of Feb. 15, according to data pulled from YouTube.  At the meme’s peak, 4,000 versions of the video were uploaded each day.

While none of the videos are even a month old yet, they have clocked in at a combined 175 million views.  An impressive total, surely, but some question the longevity of the meme.

Normally memes that rise to prominence as quickly as the Harlem Shake videos did are doomed to become stale in a fairly short period of time.

Some have noted that the meme was burning out when the Today Show, a place where cool things go to die, performed their own version on the air.

One thing is for certain, however:  the Harlem Shake is fun.  Whether it’s families and friends, the Dallas Mavericks, T-Pain or the Norwegian Army, everyone is doing the Harlem Shake.