The YouTube Effect

For street dance, YouTube has had a very positive effect. It has opened up another channel through which people can discover street dance and learn more about it.

Before YouTube there were videos but they were personal home videos for people's own use. All these videos were scattered throughout the world in people's homes.

Now since YouTube's inception and status as the number 1 video site, all these videos that were spread throughout the world have found themselves concentrated in this one worldwide hub that is YouTube.

Its significance cannot be underestimated as dancing is a primarily visual form of entertainment. A performance cannot easily be desribed in words, no matter how much detail is included.

But a video speaks for a thousand words here. If you want to see the best dancers in a dance style, you will find many of them on YouTube.

What YouTube cannot do though is trace all of history. Therefore many of the OGs (original generation dancers) in their respective dance styles may not be privy to or necessarily interested in YouTube.

Technology is most rapidly taken up by the young, so therefore we can only really see of history what people put up. The future however we can with confidence say will emerge before our eyes on YouTube.

If a new style of dance emerges you will probably see it on YouTube very quickly. You will not have to travel to the local neighbourhood where it is invented in order to see it at its birth.

The other thing with YouTube is that anyone has the right to put up a video. Therefore dancers that have created something different without necessarily an audience have the opportunity to develop one.

YouTube also serves readily as a secondary viewing screen. You may be at a dance performance or see one on TV that you really like that you want to see again.

YouTube serves this function as well and the more you can learn about a particular street dancer or crew, the more likely you are to become a fan of their work.

This in turn feeds the street dance scene again. If you can easily find out more about something you are interested in, then in all likelihood that scene is going to grow.

The worldwide accessibility of YouTube also gives a viewing pane to other individual styles. You are not closed off in one locality any more.

In the past it was very hard to tell what was going on in other parts of the world. We can now see which countries are strong, which countries are developing...and which countries we cannot expect much from at this present time.

This worldwide nature means that you can be inspired by many different styles and so it is that styles spread more readily throughout the world. People are becoming aware of styles other than those present wherever they may be.

People in London can be inspired by LA style. People in Greece can be inspired by the London style. They are no longer disparate, no longer worlds apart.

The caveat is that if we're not careful all styles may become mixed together. And it may in future become harder for each geographical area to develop a unique style as people have such wider influences.

Street dancers will need to still maintain their identities unique to them, and not just adapt into becoming identical to other dancers that they see and like. Variety is a good thing and is beneficial to the scene - the more there is the more likely that you will stumble across something that is to your liking.

Click here to see how street dancers get famous...

Street Dance 2

The YouTube Effect