Here’s Why Everyone Was Doing The Same Dance During BENEE’s Laneway Set
Even the security guards got involved.
If you’d popped along to see New Zealand singer BENEE at any of her Laneway sets over the last week, you might have noticed something strange going on.
During the chorus of her single ‘Glitter’, you would have observed bunches of teens grabbing their phones to film themselves dancing the same dance — a few wrist flicks back and forth, some hip swaying, nothing too serious. What made it noticeable was that everyone seemed to be doing it.
The answer, my boomer friend, is TikTok. BENEE’s ‘Glitter’ has been a staple of the app for a few months now — whether to accompany the dance, or just to soundtrack any random shit users come up with. For your reference, here’s what the dance looks like:
So naturally, it was only a matter of time until TikTok users began uniting at her gigs to film themselves dancing along, which they did in full force over the last two weekends.
Even this joyful security guard got in on the action.
‘Glitter’ landed at #19 in this year’s Hottest 100, while her track ‘Evil Spider’ came in at number 51; there’s no doubt that her popularity on TikTok greatly helped her overall streaming numbers.
It’s yet another example of the creeping influence the app is beginning to have on the music industry — from dance challenges designed to send tracks to #1, to artists being signed off the back of one successful TikTok track, to producers being employed by users to make songs specifically for the app. It’s a brave new world, and we better start learning to dance.