Do you remember the exact moment you first fell in love with popping? I remember my first time like it was yesterday. It was that first clip where I saw someone do something that I couldn’t believe. You know what I’m talking about. The first time you watch a clip 10, 20, 30 times in a row. When you know that nothing is the same anymore. There is a new love in your life and you HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Mine was Skeeter Rabbit from the Electric Boogaloos. Dressed all in black. Crazy isolations. Crazy ground moves. Crazy boogaloo. My mind was permanently blown that day…
But why do we love popping so much? What are the reasons? What do you tell people? Well, I think I’ve figured out 10 good reasons:
And hey, if you’re not a reader, I made a video just for you. It’s a little bit about why I love popping so much. You can check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-vK4ZZxyT0
1) How cool it looks. This has gotta be the first thing that catches your eye. I mean, really. What looks as cool as popping does? The answer. Almost nothing. Someone who looks like a robot or super funky who makes it look like they have become the music. Usually dressed super fly and getting huge audience applause. It doesn’t really get much better than that. If there’s one thing about popping, it’s an EYE CATCHER.
2) The applause. When you see a dope popper, you wanna scream like a little girl. Well, apparently, so does everyone else. This is why good clips get such huge response. This is why in the club, everyone cheers. This is why poppers always win talent shows and why we’re the most popular part of major TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance. Everyone loves popping because no one understands how you can move your body like that.
3) The moves. Which leads us to the moves. I mean, for most of us, it’s a crazy nice backslide or wave or head isolation that makes us go WHOOOOOOOOOA that first time. The moves of popping are just so unreal. And the coolest part is when you do them, it feels just as unreal as it looks.
4) The feeling. Of course, without feeling, the moves don’t look nearly as impressive. When you see somebody put some serious FEEL into those moves, it can almost make you well up with tears. This popping thing runs deep and can hit you right in the heart of your soul. Every so often, someone catches the music in such a perfect way that it makes you think that part of the song was made so that this popper could catch it. The feeling is a beautiful thing.
5) The sci-fi aspect. We all love the Matrix and we all love good special effects like in Transformers. Something about robots and artificial intelligence and machines just triggers this part of us. And what better way than to BECOME a machine. That’s why so many of us poppers make sounds when we move. Gssssh. Eeeeeerg. Crnnnnnnnch. Hsssssssssss. We’re channeling our own inner machine.
6) The girls (or the guys). Poppers are attractive to members of the opposite sex. It’s a skill that’s cool and easy to show off and gets a lot of attention. This feels GOOOOD. How nice is it when you finish dancing and someone cute comes up to you with a compliment and you can just tell that they’d like to get to you know better. This definitely helps with motivation as well!
7) The competition. Most poppers are guys and most guys are pretty competitive. Poppers seem to be an especially competitive group of guys. The great thing about competition is it makes you train hard. You want to take out your opponent. You want to do something that no one’s seen before that makes everybody scream. And when it comes to competition, there isn’t anything more real than a battle. Just you and your opponent and the music and the crowd. No talking or debating. Just show and prove. It’s almost primal!
The freedom. We live in a time period where a lot of people are really stiff and don’t know how to use their bodies. When music comes on and people start dancing, most people just sit down in the corner. If they do dance, they don’t know what they’re doing and they look uncomfortable and it doesn’t seem like they’re having much fun. It’s such a good feeling to just let loose and be free to the music. Just making up movements as you go and improvising based on the song and the environment and how you feel. This popping thing runs deep…
9) The soul. Popping runs deep right into the soul. Rennie Harris, one of the leading hip-hop choreographers, says that he thinks popping is the most spiritual dance. He says with popping, it’s like you’re going into a trance and channeling the spirit realm and the ancestors, all the way back to the original tribal humans back in Africa. It’s that drum. Boom CLAP boom CLAP, Boom CLAP boom CLAP. Most of the dancers I know have a couple stories about times when they just totally lost themselves in the music and had no idea who they were or where they were and the moves just came so easily it was like someone else was moving their body. Popping, like all art, is an incredible opportunity to connect with the deeper parts of yourself.
10) The music! There’s no feeling and no soul without the music. And poppers dance to the hardest, most bangin, gangster, funky, super dope music. Do you ever wonder why popping music isn’t more popular? I sure do! I mean, the beats are just RIDICULOUS. They are so hard and so funky you think even your 80-year old grandma is just gonna pop up out of the chair and start BANGIN. With this kind of music, you almost can’t HELP but pop.
What do you think? Is there anything I left out? Why do YOU love popping? Let me know in the comments!
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