Twerking

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"Twerk" redirects here. For other uses, see Twerk (disambiguation).

A woman twerking at a music festival.
A woman twerking at a music festival

Twerking (

low squatting stance.[5] Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce".[6] Moves include "mixing", "exercising", the "bend over", the "shoulder hustle", "clapping", "booty clapping", "booty poppin", "the sleeper" and "the wild wood"—all recognized as booty shaking or bounce.[7][8]
Twerking is one among other types of choreographic gestures within bounce.

As a tradition shaped by

Virginia Beach, Miami, Atlanta, and Houston.[9][10] In 2013, it became the top "what is" search on the Google search engine[11] following pop artist Miley Cyrus performing the dance at the MTV Video Music Awards.[12]

(video) Backup dancers twerking at a 2015 Pharrell Williams concert in Japan

Etymology

A 2013

Oxford Dictionaries blog post states, "the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to "work it".[13] Local bounce practitioners attribute the term to a contraction of "to work" ("t'work"; or, spelled as it's pronounced, "twerk").[14][15]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an early 19th-century use of the word as a blend of "twist" and "jerk" (or "twitch"), which was reported by the BBC in conjunction with the black cultural context.[16] The word is said to have originated from the inner-city of New Orleans and was used frequently in New Orleans bounce music by rappers and DJ hosting block parties in the housing projects.[1] On record, the 1993 song "Do the Jubilee All" by DJ Jubilee - which contains the lyrics "Twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk" - has been cited as its earliest use.[17][18][19] However, a possible earlier use is in Funkadelic's 1979 song (Not Just) Knee Deep, which contains the lyrics "It didn't twerk, no" (often misquoted as "It didn't work, no") at 1 minutes 20 seconds.

The word became popular in the 2000s, when it was used by Atlanta rapper Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz.[20] A Google Trends search reveals that interest in the word "twerk" arose in November 2011.[21]

The

low, squatting stance".[22] Merriam-Webster gives the definition as a "sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the buttocks especially while squatting".[23]

The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of the term may fuel the stigma[24] around twerking as a sexual and provocative dance.[25]

Origin

Elizabeth Pérez (2015) states in the

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal:[2]

Booty dances have threatened the status quo by emphasizing group membership, the free movement of forceful

Bantu-language-speaking slaves – are Central African in origin. A number of scholars well versed in the matter have arrived at Kubik’s conclusion: ‘motional emphasis on the pelvis, buttocks, etc., especially pelvis thrusts or circular pelvis movements described in United States jazz dance history as “Congo grind” are always suspect of a Congo/Angola background’ (Kubik 1979, 20).[2]

Precursors

Pérez (2015) states:[2]

The historically proximate precursors to twerk are as seldom cited as its analogues. Twerk emerged from earlier movement styles, like ‘the up-and-back hip-swinging bowed-legged movements of a dance called the

ballin’ the jack, both with their heyday in the nineteen-teens (Gaunt 2012, 108; George-Graves 2009, 59; Oliver 1999, 107–108). In the same period, ‘From Florida came the Swamp Shimmy, in which vigorous undulations of body, hips, and limbs made up for lack of forward movement’ (Oliver 1960, 149). The historical record indicates that dances like twerk date to the antebellum period in the American South. Enslaved people performed sinuous snake hip and fish tail dances on plantations during festivals and special gatherings, such as celebratory dinners. Perhaps tellingly, like the snake hip movement, twerk can serve as an ‘embellishment’ or ‘an independent dance in its own right’ (Hazzard-Gordon 1990, 123).[2]

Twerk dance

In 1990, the introduction of bounce music into the New Orleans music scene brought along the dance of twerking.[1] In 1992, Panama singer Renato recorded the videoclip "El más sensual" (the most sexy), a reggae song with the twerking dance.[26]

The diffusion of the dance phenomenon began earlier via local parties and eventually strip clubs often associated with mainstream rap music and video production aired by video cable television shows that featured rap music and R&B music. Popular video-sharing platforms such as YouTube amplified interest since the advent of digital social media.[27]

Twerking can also be seen in Destiny's Child’s 2001 Bootylicious music video, in Beyoncé’s 2003 Crazy in Love music video, in Eminem's 2005 Ass Like That music video, and in Rihanna’s 2013 Pour It Up music video.

Rise to national attention

Twerking first received national recognition in the United States in the early 2000s, when the song "Whistle While You Twurk" (2000), by Southern hip hop duo Ying Yang Twins, peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs component chart. It was later referenced in their later track "Say I Yi Yi" (2002), in which the lyrics "she got her hands up on her knees and her elbows on her thighs / she like to twerk and that's for certain I can tell that she fly" are heard. The chorus of Silkk the Shocker's 2001 song "That's Cool" features the line "Somebody that's off the chain / who could twerk that thang.”

R&B and pop girl group

Jumpin' Jumpin'". Beyoncé made use of the word and dance in her 2005 song and corresponding music video "Check on It".[28]

In 2013, the dance became a viral sensation beyond

Word of the Year 2013.[32]

Billboard charts

In 2006, the hit single "

Futuresex/Lovesounds
, featured Timbaland rapping the lyrics "Let me see what you're twerking with / Go ahead, be gone with it, Look at those hips". In 2007, the song "Pop, Lock & Drop It", by American rapper Huey, reached number six on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The 2012 single "

Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj
peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, makes numerous allusions to twerking.

In November 2018, the

Twerk" featuring rapper Cardi B which peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 29. The lyrics to the song ("Twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk with her") is self-explanatory as to how the City Girls wanted to grab the attention of their female audience.[36] The music video has over 200 million views on YouTube as of June 2022.[37]

In the media

In 2011, the Twerk Team, a group of female dancers from

Drake, in the line "Bounce that ass, shake that ass like the Twerk Team".[38] Australian rapper Iggy Azalea has incorporated twerking into her live shows since 2011.[39][40] In July 2012, during the Workaholics episode "The Lord's Force", Anders Holm says "Let's just, uh, put on some twerk videos or something, right?".[41]

In March 2013, American pop singer

West Hollywood, with her girl group YLA.[45][46] Hudgens was again seen twerking in a video for Shade 45's radio show Sway in the Morning.[47][48] American actress and singer Ashley Tisdale can also be seen twerking in a video for Shade 45's radio show Sway in the Morning.[49][50]

On July 9, 2013, a video was posted on the Twitter-owned video sharing service Vine entitled "Twerk Team", which featured a group of five women provocatively twerking to "Don't Drop That Thun Thun". The clip was shared by users over 100,000 times, becoming a trend for the community and users created their own responses and parodies featuring the song, collected under the hashtags "#dontdropthat" and "#thunthun". The viral popularity of the Vine clips led to an unexpected increase in sales for the song; prior to the posting of the "Twerk Team" clip, only 4,000 copies of the song had been sold; in the following weeks, sales went up to 34,000, then to over 72,000. By late July, "Don't Drop That Thun Thun" had reached #5 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs chart, and it eventually peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[51]

Both "Wop" and "Don't Drop That Thun Thun" have been cited as examples of how viral and user-created videos can bring renewed interest to songs;

Danny Brown released the song "Express Yourself", inspired by music producer Diplo's song of the same name. The song, produced by Trampy, features a fast-paced electronic beat and is a composition about the popular dance craze twerking.[53] Brown dedicated the song "to all the ladies that like to turn up and have fun," in which he raps "Toes on the wall and her ass in the air / And she twerk that thing like she ain't have a care".[54][55]

In the music video for Barbadian singer

Dance (A$$)" by Big Sean and "Clappers" by Wale. Minaj can be seen twerking in all four of the aforementioned songs' respective music videos. Minaj can also be seen twerking in the music videos for American rapper Nelly's single "Get Like Me" and American singer Ciara's single "I'm Out".[57][58] In August 2013, the song "Twerk", by Lil Twist, featuring pop singers Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, was leaked online.[59]

On July 14, 2013, Showtime broadcast Season 1 Episode 3 of the series Ray Donovan, entitled "Twerk", in which actor Jon Voight's character enters a college library and pays a student to give up his computer terminal so that he can watch online videos of women twerking.[60] A YouTube video of the scene has more than 38,000views.[61]

In August 2013, Juicy J announced via

Webby Award for best viral clip of the year.[66]

Also in September, "Twerk" from the

Twerk It Out", featured the contestants twerking as fast as possible with pedometers on their back.[72]

In August 2013, American recording artist Miley Cyrus, generated controversy following a sexually provocative performance during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, in which Cyrus twerked during a medley of her track "We Can't Stop", "Blurred Lines" and "Give It 2 U" by Robin Thicke.[12] Cyrus also received criticism for "stealing" African American culture, also known as cultural appropriation.[73]

In August 2014, American recording artist

Shake It Off".[74] This caused some controversy with American rapper Earl Sweatshirt saying that the video was "perpetuating stereotypes".[75]

In October 2013, Valerie Dixon who was 27 years old, was arrested in Lake County, Florida, because she was twerking and speaking foul language in front of a school bus. Other arrests in Florida for electric twerking in public include the video blogger Carmel Kitten and two unnamed Canadian tourists.[76]

See also

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twerking.
Look up twerk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twerking&oldid=1227440099"