Jerkin-a-Gerkin, huh?

Holla ! Holla ! :D 

Again, I'm posting this during a rainy cold night. This rain had brought me a lot of misery. Y' know, just like having dilemma or something whenever you hear the raindrops on your roof? Or somekind of sad like the grey clouds stay on top of your head. :(

Seeing today's title probably having you guys thought about annoying person? Bastards and pranks? No, no. That's not it. As the definition I'm taking from Cambridge dictionary, Jerkin  means "to make a short sudden movement". And yes, that's the point on how you do Jerkin! ;)

Originated in Los Angeles, the northern part of California, Jerkin is an urban dance style for the youth that's starting an epidemic around a nation. Evolving from the famous East-Coast juke dancing, Jerkin had spread its virus around the world after Ben J and Legacy made up a few funny dance moves. 

After the dance moves were caught on, they decided to make a song to go with them, and finally the song "You're the Jerk" from New Boyz was born, while in the other place Audio Push wrote and recorded "Teach Me How to Jerk". 

The album came out on August, 16th 2010 on Asylum/Warner. Their offical video on Youtube already has had 3,357,825 (and counting) views! Tons young people have posted videos of themselves doing the dance. The youth around the neighborhoods in L.A have come up with the variations of the Jerk.

The popular basic moves are SpongeBob, Reject, Pindrop, and Tippy Toe. There are no enough informations about the basics since it has been about moving the legs stankily. For example the Reject. It is quite similar to Running Man, one of the Shufflin basics. But you do it backwards. Put the heels back and sliding them forward alternately. Considered a bit of a hard feat for some, but can be accomplished with more practices.

I bet the New Boyz that their song and dance would become such a great hit!

As the Jerk culture continues to flourish, several new groups specializing in Jerk style are being courted and signed by major labels. Arista signed the group Rej3ctz, and the label is looking seriously at many other jerk groups that are flourishing on the internet.


When I recall about people I saw jerkin on videos, streets, and on competitions, there are some similarities in how they dress up. Jerk fashion style is skinny jeans, varying from the usual to the unusual colors and washes, considered a rejection of baggy pants style. Many elements of scene and raver used in Jerkin movements, such as bright and colored clothing, tight pants, or novelty graphic tees. The Jerk-ers also wear hightop or retro shoes, including Chuck Taylor and Nike hightops. Shoes may or may not be multi-colored.

Male wearing skinny pants are always considered gay *LOL* xD

Jerkin is basically hip hop and skater style rolled into one. The beats are hip hop and the fashions are the skaters. The beats is classified as hip hop because of the bass line. The fact that the dance is just as important as (or maybe MORE important than) the song is part of what hip hop is all about. 

Hip hop became big business & had to be marketed far beyond nightclubs where it had begun.

But even hip hop was no longer traditional dance music, dancing never really left!

-Will.I.Am, Black Eyed Peas-

I personally don't like the music, so I thought I'd ask my mom what she thought. She didn't think that the "You're a Jerk" song was all that great. She loved the dance moves though. Maybe the record label thought that it was a great idea, and then it spread for some crazy reasons throughout the music community. These days, it seems as if the musicians write songs about anything, right? But again, as what I had written above, the success about the song is NOT for the lyric or the music itself but for the dance move. The New Boyz should be grateful to Ben J and Legacy after all....
Of course it is altogether possible that jerking will live out its cycle and vanish as quickly as it appeared. But for the moment, there is no arguing with millions of views that the Ranger$ and other Jerkin crews have racked up for videos and music recorded on bargain equipment and set to beats created with software that seems to prove that anyone with a laptop can be a star.





Well, that's all information for today! 
Hope my post will be able to give you informations you need, and also encourage you to learn more about dance moves and genres these days! :D
I gotta sleep, because tomorrow I'll have a dance practice for the audition of school festival's performers. *yawn*
Please do comment below and also check my previous entry if you missed it by accident ! 
Enjoy ~ 

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- Sara T