Meme Dance
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Meme Dance is dance music shaped primarily by a repeatable internet behavior: a move, challenge, cut, gesture, or visual gag that spreads faster than the original scene around the song. The music can be EDM, hip-hop, K-pop, novelty pop, or electro-rap, but it usually has a clear trigger moment: a bass drop, chant, command, or choreography cue. This is not always artistically deep, yet it changed how songs are structured, promoted, and remembered.
History
Soulja Boy's "Crank That" showed how an online dance could make a single self-propel, while LMFAO, PSY, Baauer, the Chainsmokers, iLoveMemphis, Silentó, Ylvis, the Rej3ctz, New Boyz, Ayo & Teo, and later TikTok-native creators proved that dance memes could shape charts. Baauer's "Harlem Shake" was especially important because the user-generated meme, not a conventional artist video, drove the song's explosion. The format later became normalized through Vine and TikTok challenges.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Crank That (Soulja Boy)(2007) — Soulja BoySpotifyYouTube
- Party Rock Anthem(2011) — LMFAOSpotifyYouTube
- Gangnam Style(2012) — PSYSpotifyYouTube
- Harlem Shake(2012) — BaauerSpotifyYouTube
- #SELFIE(2014) — The ChainsmokersSpotifyYouTube
- Hit the Quan(2015) — iLoveMemphisSpotifyYouTube
Show 6 more
- Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)(2015) — SilentóSpotifyYouTube
- The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)(2013) — YlvisSpotifyYouTube
- Cat Daddy(2010) — The Rej3ctzSpotifyYouTube
- You're a Jerk(2009) — New BoyzSpotifyYouTube
- Rolex(2017) — Ayo & TeoSpotifyYouTube
- Teach Me How to Dougie(2010) — Cali Swag DistrictSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Harlem Shake meme histories and Baauer release pages
- ABC News Gangnam Style coverage
- Apple/Spotify pages for The Chainsmokers, iLoveMemphis, and Baauer
- Billboard/Vine/TikTok dance-challenge references