Moshing vs Pogo Dance

Moshing is a dance in which participants push and/or slam into each other. It is most associated with aggressive music genres, such as hardcore punk and heavy metal. It is primarily done to live music, although it can be done to recorded music.

In the 2000s, many variations of moshing exist, such as thrashing,^[2] or the more extreme Wall of Death, and are typically done in an area in front of the stage which is referred to as the mosh pit or simply pit. In the Wall of Death, participants are directed away from the center of the standing area by a member of the band until a large, rectangular area is cleared, and, upon the band beginning the next song; the two sides perpendicular to the stage sprint at each other and collide in the middle.

While moshing is seen as a form of positive feedback or expression of enjoyment,^[1][3] it has also drawn criticism over its dangerous nature. Injuries and a few deaths have been reported. However, it is generally agreed that moshers are not trying to harm one another,^[1]and that they follow an unwritten "moshing etiquette".

Etymology

The term mosh came into use in the early 1980s American hardcore punk scene in Washington, D.C. Early on, the dance was frequently spelled mash in fanzines and record liner notes, but pronounced mosh, as in the 1982 song "Total Mash" by the D.C.-based hardcore band Scream. H.R. of the band Bad Brains, regarded as a band that "put moshing on the map,"^[6]used the term mash in lyrics and in concert stage banter to both incite and to describe the aggressive and often violent dancing of the scene. To "mash it up" was to go wild with the frenzy of the music. Due to his Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word, fans heard this as mosh instead.^[7]

By the 1980s, the term was appearing in print with its current spelling. By the time thrash metal band Anthrax used the term in their song "Caught in a Mosh",^[8] the word was already a mainstay of hardcore and thrash scenes. Through the mainstream success of bands like Anthrax, Nirvana and The Melvins, the term came into the popular vernacular.

[edit]Origins

Slam dancing, a precursor to moshing, can be traced back to 1970s punk rock shows in the form of the pogo.^[2] The slam dance during the first wave of American and British punk in 1977 was characterized by stage dives, frenetic jumping, and chaotic motion to match the music. Similarly, practitioners of the pogo would jump up and down wildly to the music, bouncing off of an into one another, though staying mostly in place. The pogo and slam dance were both a part of the punk movement at this time, and converged into a more violent and extreme form, moshing, as the first wave of punk died out and gave way to the hardcore punk subculture that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[5][9]

Crowdsurfing over a mosh pit.

The first dance identifiable as moshing may have originated in Orange County, California, during the first wave of American hardcore.^[10]Examples of this early moshing can be seen in the documentaries Urban Struggle, The Decline of Western Civilization, and American Hardcore, as well as footage from the shows of the era.

Amidst the burgeoning hardcore scene at the time, the dance was initially referred to simply as slam dancing, and was characterized by "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms around and hitting everyone within your reach."^[11] But these circular, rhythmic motions soon came to be known by Los Angeles and Southern California area hardcore participants as the "Huntington Beach Strut" (or "HB Strut"), after the city in Orange County where this particular style originated. Author Steven Blush writes:

“

According to lore, Mike Marine, a former U.S. Marine and star of ''The Decline of Western Civilization'', performed the first slam dance in 1979. Marine created a vicious version of punk dancing. He'd smash the fucking face of anyone who would get near him—especially some Hippie, who'd get pulverized.[12]

”

This more violent version was soon exported to the San Francisco and Bay Area punk scene, where pogoing was still the prevalent form of dance. From there, it spread to the east coast of the United States through touring hardcore musicians such as Bad Brains, Henry Rollins andIan MacKaye, who witnessed the HB Strut while traveling.^[13] Slam dancing also became popular in the burgeoning crossover thrash scene.

[edit]Crossover into mainstream genres

By the end of the 1980s, the initial wave of American hardcore punk had waned and split into other subgenres. The Seattle-based grunge movement was among the many styles of music that directly evolved from hardcore. Through the mainstream success of several grunge bands, the word mosh entered the popular North American vocabulary and the dance spread to many other music genres. According to John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, "it didn’t matter what kind of music you were playing or what kind of band you were; everybody moshed to everything. It was just kind of the enforced rule of going to concerts."^[14]

[edit]Criticism

This notice at a Pearl Jam concert in Los Angeles prohibits moshing and crowd surfing.

Among the first musicians to publicly criticize moshing was Ian MacKaye, frontman of Minor Threat, founder of Dischord Records and early promoter of the straight edge lifestyle. Beginning in the late 1980s, during his time in Fugazi, MacKaye became well known for his opposition to "violent dancing" at shows (despite having done so during Fear's Halloween 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live).

Consolidated, an industrial dance group of the 1990s, stood against moshing. In their third album, Play More Music, Consolidated included the song The Men's Movement, which proclaimed the inappropriate nature of slam dancing. The song consisted of audio recordings during concerts from the audience and members of Consolidated, arguing about moshing.

In the 1990s, The Smashing Pumpkins took a stance against moshing, following some especially tragic incidents. At a 1996 Pumpkins concert in Dublin, Ireland, 17-year-old Bernadette O'Brien was crushed by moshing crowd members and later died in the hospital, despite warnings from the band that people were getting hurt.^[15] At another concert, singer Billy Corgan said to the audience:

“

I just want to say one thing to you, you young, college lughead-types. I've been watchin' people like you sluggin' around other people for seven years. And you know what? It's the same shit. I wish you'd understand that in an environment like this, and in a setting like this, it's fairly inappropriate and unfair to the rest of the people around you. I, and we, publicly take a stand against moshing![15]

”

Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation after being crushed in a mosh pit during the 2001 Australian Big Day Out music festival. The coroner criticized the crowd control measures in use at the time, and also criticized Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst for "alarming and inflammatory" comments during the rescue effort.^[16] At The Drive-In began to speak out against slam dancing at their shows, and their frontman Cedric became known for his anti-moshing speech at the Big Day Out 2001 incident, in which he bleated at the crowd as if they were sheep.Another fan died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on September 24, 2007. The 20-year-old man was dragged out of the mosh pit, unconscious, to be pronounced dead at a hospital after first-aid specialists attempted to save him.

At the Columbus, Ohio stop of Gigantour 2006, Lamb Of God lead singer Randy Blythe chastized the crowd following someone getting hurt in a mosh pit "The world looks at a show like this and thinks we are just a bunch of violent Mother Fuckers who try to hurt each other. Well, that's not what we are about. Next time someone hits the ground pick them up or I will stop the band" Mike Portnoy, founder and ex-drummer of Dream Theater, criticized mosh pits in an interview published on his website:

“

I think our audience have become a little bit more attentive and less of that type of [mosh] mentality [...] I understand you want to release that energy... [but] once people start doing that during "Through Her Eyes" it gets ridiculous [...] So this time around we're consciously aiming at theaters that people can actually sit down and enjoy the show and be comfortable [...] without having to worry about their legs falling off or being kicked in the face by a Mosh Pit. So [that] will probably eliminate that problem anyway. The pogo is a dance where the dancers jump up and down, while remaining in the same location; the dance takes its name from its resemblance to the use of a pogo stick, especially in a common version of the dance, where an individual keeps their torso stiff, their arms rigid, and their legs close together. Similar to the religious dances of the Pentecostal faith and various African tribes, pogo dancing is most associated with punk rock, and is a precursor to moshing. Style The basic steps allow for a variety of interpretations, some of which might appear quite violent. Pogo dancers have their choice of: keeping their torsos rigid or thrashing them about; holding their arms stiffly at their sides or flailing them; keeping their legs together or kicking about; jumping straight up and down, jumping in any direction, or spinning in the air. Occasionally, dancers collide, but this is not necessarily part of pogo dancing. An uninformed bystander might get the impression that the dancers are attacking one another. People sometimes get injured when pogoing, but, more often than not, pogoers who fall to the ground are helped up instead of getting trampled. There is a general understanding that the pogoing is fun, not a fight. As the more aggressive hardcore punk emerged in the early 1980s, dancing became more violent and evolved into both moshing and slam dancing, in which dancers run and jump around, deliberately shove and slam into each other. The risk of injury in moshing is significantly higher, although it is generally agreed that moshers are not attempting to cause each other serious injury. History In The Filth and the Fury, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious claimed that he invented the pogo sometime around 1976 at punk shows in the early days of London's punk scene. Vicious supposedly invented the dance as a way of attacking people who came to see Sex Pistol's performances, but who were not part of the punk movement. Whether Vicious actually invented the dance or not, the pogo quickly became closely associated with punk rock. Shane MacGowan, himself an early follower of the punk scene, also attributes pogo dancing to Vicious, claiming that a leather poncho he wore to gigs prevented him from any other form of dancing except jumping up and down. Another person also attributes the invention to Vicious, but claims the reason was that he wanted to see a band onstage so he started jumping up and down. Jon King of Gang of Four helped popularize the pogo as a stage move for performers.