The inforgraphic reports that there have been 10.4 million Harlem Shake-related tweets, versus just 310,000 Gangnam Style-related tweets on Twitter between July 12th and August 12th of 2012. I think the main reason for that is Harlem Shake, from the start, was a group video that was less about a song or a dance than a kind of movement; Gangnam Style was a song that had a music video, which contained a dance. To offer my point, look at these videos:
Harlem Shake Compliation:
Gangnum Style:
See the difference? To be fair, Gangnum Style has been replicated…
But not to the extent that the Harlem Shake has been. And that’s because the Harlem Shake is part of a pop-culture trend of group videos done for posting on YouTube. They could be done on a subway car, which was a recent micro-trend, or at a party. The Harlem Shake, from the start, implies group participation – Gangnam Style doesn’t even though it has spawned group videos.
With that, here’s the infographic:
