Boogie to This Quiz on Dance Crazes Through History

The hitchhiker is a 1960s dance craze that involves sticking out your thumb and throwing your hands over your shoulders as if you’re trying to hitch a ride. The dance was popularized by Marvin Gaye’s 1962 single “Hitch Hike,” especially after he and a team of backup dancers performed the move during several televised performances of the song.

The chicken dance and the iconic polka song that accompanies it were both created by Swiss musician Werner Thomas in the 1950s. It was originally called “the duck dance,” but might have acquired its modern name after a man in a chicken costume demonstrated the dance at a 1981 Oktoberfest celebration in Oklahoma. The chicken dance and its polka soundtrack remain a staple at weddings to this day.

The mashed potato was a dance craze of the early 1960s that resembled the twist with an added backward leg kick. Many performers recorded songs with “Mashed Potato” in the title to capitalize on the dance’s popularity, including James Brown, who recorded a song simply called “Mashed Potatoes,” and Dee Dee Sharp, who scored a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962 with “Mashed Potato Time.”

Moshing, an aggressive dance style that frequently involves punching, kicking, and shoving during loud, extreme musical performances, can trace its origin to Washington, D.C.’s hardcore punk scene of the 1980s. Hardcore was a particularly aggressive form of punk rock that emphasized playing at breakneck tempos, often with shouted lyrics — in other words, the perfect soundtrack for a mosh pit.

In the early 1970s, a Bronx DJ known as DJ Kool Herc became one of the leading figures in break dancing when he started switching between records on two different turntables midsong to prolong a track’s beat-heavy “break,” giving people more time to dance. This innovation not only influenced break dancing, but also provided an early blueprint for hip-hop as a musical genre.

The robot, which involves moving your limbs in a stiff, synchronized manner reminiscent of a mechanical being, became a dance craze in part thanks to the Jackson 5, who performed the move in numerous televised performances of their 1974 hit “Love Machine.” The group’s version of the dance launched a fad, and the robot has been a dance-floor staple ever since.

The Lindy Hop is thought to have been named after Charles Lindbergh, who made his famous transatlantic flight in 1927, around the time that the dance was invented. A partner dance involving rhythmic footwork set to swing music, the Lindy Hop was a bona fide sensation during America’s swing era.

The Charleston originated in New York City jazz clubs during the 1920s. The dance, which involves rhythmically stepping forward and back while twisting your feet in time to the music, quickly achieved regional popularity and soon became a national — and then international — dance craze among young jazz fans of the Roaring ’20s. It remains a defining cultural touchstone of the era.

The hustle is a style of dance that emerged from New York City disco clubs in the 1970s. There are many different styles of the hustle, most of which were pioneered by African American and Latino dancers who merged cutting-edge dance moves with traditional dances such as salsa and mambo. As disco’s popularity grew, the hustle became a mainstream international dance sensation.

The 1978 single “Y.M.C.A.” was the biggest hit by the band the Village People. The song originally became popular as a gay anthem, but it achieved universal fame thanks to its ubiquitous (and easy-to-perform) dance, which involves using your arms to form the letters “Y.M.C.A.” above your head.

Though “The Time Warp,” a song from the cult classic film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” originated as a tongue-in-cheek parody of dance crazes from the past, the song and its accompanying dance became sensations in their own right. The time warp is now a common sight at weddings, Halloween parties, and, of course, midnight screenings of “Rocky Horror.” It was even performed by the cast of “Glee” in 2010.

Chubby Checker’s recording of “The Twist” (originally written by Hank Ballard) kicked off a certified rock ’n’ roll dance craze. Checker’s recording of the song topped the Billboard charts in 1960 and again in 1962, making it the only song to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 two separate times. The staying power of the hit helped ensure that young people were dancing the twist throughout the 1960s and beyond.

“The Loco-Motion,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, features lyrics that teach listeners how to do the titular dance. The dance had real staying power as three separate recordings of the song topped the U.S. charts. Little Eva took the song to No. 1 in 1962; Grand Funk Railroad topped the charts with it again in 1974; and Kylie Minogue’s recording was a No. 3 hit in 1988.

Though the moonwalk has origins in mime performance dating back to at least the 1930s, it became a true dance craze when Michael Jackson performed the move at a televised tribute to Motown Records in 1983. The moonwalk, in which the dancer slides backward while appearing to walk forward, became one of Jackson’s signature dance moves and still inspires thousands of imitators today.

Though early dances resembling the hokey pokey date back to 19th-century England, the version that we know and love originated in 1949 with American songwriters Charles Mack, Taft Baker, and Larry Laprise, who penned the music and lyrics that are still performed today. People have been putting their right foot in and shaking it all about ever since.