“Harlem Shake”, not to be confused with the hip hop dance style, is the title of a 2012 heavy bass instrumental track produced by Baauer. In February 2013, the song spawned a series of dance videos that begin with a masked individual dancing alone in a group before suddenly cutting to a wild dance party featuring the entire group. Despite what the name suggests, the videos present a wide range of hip hop dances, including the Bernie, Twerking as well as improvisations.

“Harlem Shake” by Baauer, the stage name of American music producer Harry Rodrigues, was uploaded to YouTube on August 23rd, 2012. The lyric “do the Harlem Shake” is a sample from the 2001 track “Miller Time” by Philadelphia party rap crew, Plastic Little. The lyric was taken from an incident in member Jayson Musson’s life where he got into a fight and finished by getting up and doing the dance. Bauuer’s song was met with positive reception from electronica & trap music blogs, as well as other artists including Diplo, Brodinski, and Flosstradamus. On January 30th, 2013, video blogger Filthy_Frank uploaded an episode that opens with four people dressed in latex suits dancing to Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” (shown below, right).

The Harlem Shake is a style of dance that involves pivoting the shoulder out while popping the other shoulder out at the same time. Introduced in 1981 by a Harlem, New York City resident named “Al Bm,” the dance was initially referred to as “albee” after his name, but later became known as the Harlem Shake as its prominence grew beyond the neighborhood. The popularity of the dance reached its peak around 2001, when it was featured or referenced in songs by several New York-based hip hop artists such as Jadakiss, Cam’ron and P. Diddy.

The dance itself is defined by Urban Dictionary as ‘An eccentric upper body dance move that involves the shaking of the upper torso and shoulders.’ On February 2nd, 2013, several parodies of DizastaMusic’s video were uploaded by YouTubers TheSunnyCoastSkate and PHL_On_NAN, the latter of which would go viral on February 5th, amassing 300,000 views within 24 hours and prompting further parodies from other YouTubers shortly after.

Red is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on October 22, 2012 through Big Machine Records, as the follow-up to her commercially successful 2010 album Speak Now.^[8] It was announced through Swift's live webchat on August 13, 2012, in which she revealed the album title, album cover, as well as answered fan questions. Four promotional singles were released in the month leading up to the album release, three of which debuted inside the top ten of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album features collaborations with new producers and guest artists such as Gary Lightbody and Ed Sheeran, and sees Swift experimenting with new musical genres.
The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was a worldwide commercial success, topping the iTunes charts all over the world and sold 623,000 copies in the first week, becoming Swift's first ever Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper after vaulting from 72 to number one and stayed atop for three weeks. The second single, "Begin Again" was released in October 1. "I Knew You Were Trouble." was released as the third official single (promoted, like "Begin Again," from promotional single status) on November 27.
Red has also spawned three other promotional singles, all of them reached top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Red has been mostly acclaimed by music critics, who praised Swift's versatility as a musician and enjoyed her experiments with new music genres. Red sold 1,208,000 copies in its first week in the U.S, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, the second highest debut for a female artist, behind only Oops!... I Did It Again by pop star phenomenon Britney Spears.^[9] Red is also Swift's first chart-topper in the U.K., and also topped the album charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. The album sold 1.89 million copies in its first three weeks, superseding One Direction's Up All Night as the second biggest selling album of the year in the U.S.^[10] The album has sold over 2.898.000 million copies worldwide.

Brit electro band Hot Chip just released a video for their single “Don’t Deny Your Heart,” and the soccer-themed video sends a powerful message about homophobia in the athletic world. The music video -- which is modeled after a video game -- centers around two players on opposing teams whose tension runs a litttttle deeper than the field.