THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

454-Baauer-Harlem Shake.

2013-Number 3 single.

Best Bit-At 0.50. Having observed people dance the actions to this song, I can vouch that after watching those who have had 10 pints of lager do the same, in the exact same manner.

‘Baauer’ was born Harry Bauer Rodrigues, on April 30th, 1989, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, he is a music producer who specialises in ‘Electronic Dance Music,’ ‘Trap,’ ‘Hip-Hop,’ and ‘Grime.’ His discography includes two studio Albums, ‘Aa’ (pronounced ‘double a’) in 2016, and ‘Planet’s Mad,’ in 2020, he has also released two extended plays, (EP’s) 28 singles as the lead artist, and a further two on which he has appeared as the featured artist, all between 2011-2024. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, his only charting single to date is ‘Harlem Shake,’ which peaked at Number 1 for five weeks in 2013, while in the UK, ‘Harlem Shake’ is also his only charting single to date. Baauer has also done a number of official remixes for other artists, including The Prodigy, ‘Mindfields,’ (2012) No Doubt, ‘Settle Down,’ (2012) and the Gorillaz, ‘Saturn Barz,’ (2017.)

‘Harlem Shake’ started out as a free digital download from the ‘Mad Decent’ records imprint label ‘Jeffree’s’ when first issued in May 2012. Several months later the Japanese born comedian George Miller, who is better known by his stage name ‘Joji’ recorded a video of himself dancing to the song along with his friends, and posted it on ‘You Tube.’ The video became a sensation with many people posting their own outrageous dance routines, filmed in unusual settings, and often wearing comical attire. Video’s would normally last for around 30 seconds, and were watched by several thousands each day, eventually racking up millions of views. With all the publicity the song received, and the recently established new rules about adding a songs streaming history to it’s chart performance, it aided in propelling the track to Number 1 on Billboard for five weeks in 2013.

Baauer wanted ‘Harlem Shake’ to instantly grab the listeners attention so he added several strange sounds, including the noise of a growling lion. The song also has two notable samples, the line ‘Then do the Harlem Shake’ is taken from a 2001 ‘Hip-Hop’ track called ‘Miller Time,’ by the American Rap group ‘Plastic Little.’ The song begins with a sample of a voice shouting ‘con los terroristas,’ which is a Spanish phrase which translates to ‘with the terrorists’ in English. Although listeners assumed it was a female voice, the sample was actually taken from a remix of the 2006 ‘Reggaeton’ single ‘Maldades,’ by the Puerto Rican ‘Reggaeton’ artist Héctor Delgado, who often used the line as a refrain on his other songs. In 2010, the recorded phrase was used by Philadelphia DJ’s Skinny Friedman, and DJ Apt One, on a remix of Gregor Salto’s dance track “Con Alegría.’ Baauer said he found the vocal sample from an unidentified source on the Internet. The American journalist James C. McKinley wrote about the phenomenal success of the ‘Harlem Shake, ‘The tale of how an obscure dance track containing possible copyright violations rose to the top of pop charts illustrates not only the free-for-all nature of underground dance music but also the power of an Internet fad to create a sudden hit outside the major-label system.’

‘Harlem Shake’ was the third single released by Baauer, and first issued in May 2012, the song was written and produced by Baauer, and due to the samples used he was legally obliged to add the names of Héctor Delgado, Jayson Musson, and Kurt Hunte to the list of the songs writers. ‘Harlem Shake’ can be filed under the musical genre of ‘Trap,’ which is a sub-genre of ‘Hip-Hop’ music originally pioneered by the Atlanta Rappers T.I., Jeezy, and Gucci Mane, in the early 1990’s. The genre gets its name from the Atlanta slang term ‘trap house,’ which is a house used exclusively to sell drugs. ‘Trap’ music is known for its simple, rhythmic, minimalistic productions that uses synthesised drums, and is characterised by complex hi-hat patterns, snare drums, and bass drums, some tuned with a long decay to emit a bass frequency, and originally produced from the ‘Roland TR-808’ drum machine. The lyrical content in ‘Trap’ music often focuses on drug use, and urban violence.

The ‘Harlem Shake’ dance has nothing to do with, but was probably inspired by a dance created in 1981 in Harlem by one of it’s residents called ‘Al B.’ The dance was initially called ‘The Albee,’ and was associated with the predominately African-American neighbourhood of Harlem, in New York City. The dance consists of jerking your arms, and shoulders in time to the music, a good example of the dance can be seen in the 2001 video by the American Rapper ‘G Dep,’ for his song ‘Let’s Get It.’

‘Con Los terroristas.’