Poppin' dance hip-hop style

In the 1970s, the pioneer popping group the Electric Boogaloos (earlier known as the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers) greatly contributed to the spread of popping, partly because of their appearance on the television program Soul Train. Their founder Sam Solomon (a.k.a. Boogaloo Sam) created a set of movements that evolved into the styles known today as popping and boogaloo after being inspired by one of the pioneer locking groups known as The Lockers as well as a fad dance popular in the 1960s known as the jerk. While dancing, Sam would say the word "pop" every time he flexed his muscles, eventually leading to the dance being called popping.

The Electric Boogaloos encourage the term Funk styles to identify the dance moves that came out of the west coast during the funk era. The primary funk styles are popping, electric boogaloo, and locking. The funk styles were integrated into hip hop dance once the culture reached the west coast of the United States. They are now included in several hip hop dance competitions. Some state that popping itself existed in some forms in the late 1960s in Oakland, California before the Electric Boogaloos were formed and that the style cannot be traced to a specific person or group. This is generally accepted regarding the various related styles such as animation, (ro)botting, and strobing, which the Electric Boogaloos themselves acknowledge.

Terminology

As stated earlier, popping has become an umbrella term for a group of closely related styles and techniques that have often been combined or danced together with popping, some of which are seldom seen outside of popping contexts.[2] However, the use of popping as an umbrella term has been criticized on the grounds that its many related styles must be clearly separated so that those who specialize in more specific styles aren't classified as poppers (ex: a waver, a tutter, a strober).[1]

It is often assumed that popping is a style of breakdance. This is due in large part to the movies Breakin' and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. In these movies all styles of dance represented, (breaking and the funk styles: popping, locking, and electric boogaloo) were put under the "breakdance" lable causing a naming confusion. This caused the media to associate funk styles with hip hop music and assume that popping and electric boogaloo were the same as breaking. The difference between the two is that breaking originated in the Bronx, New York and is danced on the floor while popping and electric boogaloo came out of Fresno, CA and are danced standing up.

Another term, pop-locking, gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s in some circles around Los Angeles as a general slang term for popping and its integrated styles. The term is controversial because some believe it generates connotative confusion by incorporating the word locking which is the name of another distinct funk style that is separate from popping.

Characteristics

Popping is centered around the technique of popping (or hitting), which means to quickly contract and relax muscles to create a jerking effect (a pop or hit) in the body. Popping can be concentrated to specific body parts creating variants such as arm pops, leg pops, chest pops and neck pops. They also can vary in explosiveness. Stronger pops normally involve popping both the lower and upper body simultaneously.

Normally pops, or hits, are performed at regular intervals timed to the beat of the music, causing the dance to appear very rhythmic in nature. A common technique of transitioning between poses is the dime stop, heavily utilized in robot dancing, which basically means to end a movement with an abrupt halt (thus "stopping on a dime"), after which a pop normally occurs.

Poses in popping make heavy use of angles, mime style movements and facial expressions. The lower body has many ways to move around from basic walking and stepping to the more complex and gravity defying styles of floating and electric boogaloo. Movements and techniques used in popping are generally focused on sharp contrasts, being either robotic and rigid or very loose and flowing.

As opposed to breaking and its floor-oriented moves, popping is almost always performed standing up, except in rare cases when the dancer goes down on the knees or even lies down for a short while to perform a special move.

Music

Having its roots in the late 1970s funk music era, popping is commonly danced to funk and disco. During the 1980s, many poppers also utilized “electro” and other “new wave” styles to choreograph their popping routines. Popular artists utilized by poppers included Kraftwerk, Twighlight 22, Egyptian Lover, and World Class Wrecking Crew. More mainstream Rap was also employed by poppers during the 1980s, including Kurtis Blow, Whodini, and Run DMC. Today, it is also common to see popping danced to more current music genres such as modern hip hop music (often instrumental hip hop) and various forms of electronica.

Songs that are generally favored have a straight and steady beat at around 90-120 beats per minute, a 4/4 time signature and a strong emphasis on the back beat, normally by a snare drum or a drum machine. The pops performed by the popper normally occur on every beat or on the distinct back beats. The popper can also choose to follow the music more freely such as by timing the pops to the rhythm of a melody or other rhythmic elements.