The 21st century has seen rapid advancement in the internet, which gave rise to social media like youtube, instagram, and tiktok. And with the rise of social media, there is a trend that went viral on all youtube, instagram, and talktalk. It is known as “Dance challenges”. Dance challenges are challenges where people dance a specific set of dance moves to a popular song.
In Korea, it became famous after an artist named Zico made a dance challenge on his song “Any song”. After Zico’s dance challenge, other artists in Korea like singers and Kpop idols started to make dance challenges to make their songs go viral. Today, it is difficult to find a popular song without its own dance challenge. So why are dance challenges so famous and trendy?
First, dance challenges are not only easily accessible for everyone but also easy for people to do the challenge.. As mentioned before, after the rise of social media everyone uses social media everyday. And people tend to scroll through the videos 24/7. And this is what made dance challenges go viral. With just a quick scroll, dance challenges are very easy to access with their presence on all major social media platforms and plethora of types of dance challenge songs.
But this isn’t it. Dance challenges are extremely simple and easy to participate in. In order to participate in the challenge, all you have to do is practice the dance moves and film yourself dancing and just post it on social media. This ease of participation allows people to feel connected and included in society. Additionally, it gives potential means of going viral and becoming famous. Dance challenges are perfect for people these days, who desperately want people’s attention and reactions
Second, dance challenges provide participants with a feeling that they are being part of a global trend and movement. With the rise of social media, people in the year 2024 became eager to gain attention and feel included in a community. And dance challenges are perfect for those people. Dance challenges allowed people who wanted attention to get what they wanted by just simply taking a video of them dancing and posting in the social media, And by doing it, those people could not only get attention from people, but also automatically feel like they were involved and in the big group of people. Which acted as a key factor of dance challenges going viral, and eventually becoming a trend.
Third, the openness dance challenges are provided to people. In social media, there are various kinds of trends. But some trends were meant for only certain groups or ages due to limits. And many people were upset that they couldn’t be involved in the challenge. But since dance challenges are challenges that only require dances and music, anyone could do it. Kids, teens, adults, and even seniors can easily do the dance challenge. Because dance challenges didn’t have many restrictions or were not limited to professional dancers, anyone could do it. And this openness and accessibility of challenge, acted as a key factor of attracting people, leading to dance challenges going viral and eventually a trend, once again.
Fourth, businesses and celebrities were openly participating in the challenge as a promotional tool. In the past, the way for singers to promote their songs required lots of effort and time. And for them, dance challenges were opportunities to promote their songs with less effort and time consumed. Since people used social media everyday and dance challenges were a trend between people, dance challenges were a thing that could allow singers to expose their songs easily.
All they had to do was again, film their dance with their music, and upload it on social media. And to make it more effective, they often collaborated with other signers too. Unlike the past where people had to advertise their songs through much time, effort, and money, the dance challenges, a new trend, enables easier and cost efficient advertising methods by just filming the dance move and posting it on social media as a dance challenge.
If a company can make an addictive song and dance paired with each other, being famous would be just a matter of time. And these factors, which came as a very attractive factor to companies, made them actively involved in the dance challenge, leading to dance challenges going viral and a global trend.
In conclusion, these days, dance challenges have become a globally famous and global trend due to their openness to people, easiness, inclusivity, and companies actively participating in the challenge.
By: Seungjun Lee
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