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Moshing

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For other uses, see Mosh (disambiguation).
Audience members at a concert moshing in front of the stage

Moshing refers to the act in which audience members at live music performances push and/or slam into each other for the purpose of entertainment. It is most commonly associated with concerts featuring more aggressive musical genres, such as hardcore punk, heavy metal and dubstep.

Moshing primarily takes place at live shows, though it can be done to recorded music.[1] In the 2000s, many variations of moshing exist, such as "thrashing,"[2] or the noticeably more extreme "Wall of Death" (wherein concert-goers are directed away from the center of the standing area by a member of the band until a large, rectangular area is cleared, and, upon the band beginning the next song; the two sides perpendicular to the stage sprint at each other and collide in the middle), and are typically done in an area in front of the stage which is referred to as the mosh pit or simply pit.

While moshing is seen as a form of positive feedback or reflection of enjoyment from live audiences,[1][3] it has also drawn some controversy over its dangerous nature – injuries are common and deaths have been reported. However, it is generally agreed that moshers are not trying to harm one another[1] and follow an unwritten "moshing etiquette,"[2][4][5] or pit hospitality, which promotes safety through behaviours such as immediately helping fallen audience members back to their feet to prevent them from being trampled on. Commonly the circumstances that lead to this act at a concert are only a few people starting it and creating a snowball effect in the crowd.

History

Origins of the term

The term "mosh" came into use in the early eighties American hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. Vocalist H.R. (Paul Hudson) of the band Bad Brains, regarded as a band that "put moshing on the map,"[6] used the term "mash" in lyrics and show stage banter to both incite and describe the aggressive and often violent dancing of the scene. To "mash it up" was to go wild with the frenzy of the music. Due to his affected Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word, fans heard this as mosh instead.[7] Early on, the dance was frequently spelled mash in fanzines and seven-inches, but pronounced mosh, as in the 1982 song "Total Mash" by the D.C.-based hardcore group Scream. By the mid-eighties, the term was appearing in print with its current spelling. Through the connectedness of hardcore, crossover, and thrash in the early years of these genres, the word "mosh" and the dance it described spread across the spectrum of these musics. By the time East coast thrash metal band Anthrax used the term in their song Caught in a Mosh,[8] it was already a mainstay of hardcore and thrash scenes. Through the mainstream success of bands like Anthrax and the later success of Nirvana and The Melvins, whose sounds and culture were directly rooted in hardcore and punk, the term came into the popular vernacular.

Origins of the dance

A precursor to moshing, called "slam dancing", can be traced back to 1970s punk rock shows[2] in the form of "the pogo" and was later developed into moshing by the hardcore punk subculture of the early 1980s.[5][9] While many use the terms slam dancing and moshing interchangeably, distinctions can be made in that slam dancing is typically more frantic, with body movements such as arm-swinging, while moshing is slower and more exaggerated.[1]

Crowdsurfing over a mosh pit.

Moshing is thought to have originated in Orange County, California, during the first wave of American hardcore in the early eighties at the Cuckoos Nest.[10] Early moshing can be seen in the film Urban Struggle. Violence and physicality characterized aspects of the movement and were manifesting on the dancefloors of shows. Slam dancing began as an audience response to the bands of the L.A. scene such as Black Flag, Fear and The Circle Jerks, whose more rhythmic and heavy form of punk rock was being called "hardcore".

Slam dancing made its way to the Midwest in 1984 at the stylist nightclub Mean Mr. Mustards in Columbus, Ohio. John Fern and Michael Palmer brought slam dancing to the forefront with their ingenious manifestation of rhythmic jumping coupled with a paramount slam into one another as the sound of metal music resonated throughout the popular nightspot. The precursor to moshing caught on quickly and remains in effect in the Columbus nightclub circuit.

Another form of moshing sometimes called hardcore dancing originated on the east coast, which strays away from "traditional" moshing, in which members of the mosh pit stand in a circle made by other fans, and they perform moves such as the two-step, "windmill", and spin kicks.

To match the intensity and aggressive nature of this new music, fans would move frantically and engage in stage diving. Beyond audience and band members slamming into one another and leaping from stages into the crowd, slam dancing was defined by "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms around and hitting everyone within your reach. "Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History. This aspect of slam dancing was termed the "Huntington Beach Strut" (or "HB Strut"), after the city in Orange County where it originated. Author Steven Blush writes of the HB Strut:

According to lore, Mike Marine, a former U.S. Marine and star of The Decline of Western Civilization, performed the first slam dance in 1979. Marine created a vicious version of punk dancing. He'd smash the fucking face of anyone who would get near him—especially some Hippie, who'd get pulverized.

Marine and others in the Huntington Beach and Long Beach areas invented this violent dance and soon exported it to the San Francisco and Bay Area scene, where pogoing was still the prevalent form of dance. From there, it spread to the East Coast scenes through national acts such as Bad Brains and other D.C. area natives such as Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye, who witnessed the HB Strut while traveling.[11]

Because the early American hardcore scene gave way to and coexisted with the burgeoning crossover thrash scene, it too became defined in part by slam dancing.

Crossover into mainstream music

By the end of the 1980s, the initial wave of American hardcore punk had passed and split into other subgenres. The Seattle-based grunge movement was among the many styles of music that directly evolved from hardcore. In the early 1990s, bands such as The Melvins, Mudhoney and Nirvana gained mainstream popularity, bringing with them many manners of American hardcore culture.

Through the mainstream success of these acts, the word mosh entered the popular American vocabulary and the dance spread to many other types of music. According to They Might Be Giants' John Linnell, it reached a point where "it didn’t matter what kind of music you were playing or what kind of band you were; everybody moshed to everything. It was just kind of the enforced rule of going to concerts."[12]

Controversy and anti-moshing stances

File:No moshing.jpg
Some concert venues do not allow moshing. This notice at a Pearl Jam concert prohibits moshing and crowd surfing in the venue.

Among the first musicians to publicly take issue with moshing was longtime punk singer and songwriter Ian MacKaye, founder of Dischord Records, frontman for such seminal bands as Minor Threat, and early promoter of the straight edge lifestyle. Beginning in the late 1980s, during his time with Fugazi, MacKaye became well known for his opposition to "violent dancing" at shows (despite having gone on record to have done so during Fear's Halloween 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live).

In the 1990s, bands like The Smashing Pumpkins also took a stance against moshing, following some especially tragic incidents. At a 1996 Pumpkins show in Dublin, Ireland, 17-year-old Bernadette O'Brien was crushed by moshing crowd members and later died in the hospital, despite warnings from the band that people were getting hurt.[13] Singer Billy Corgan was heard at another time on stage saying on behalf of his band:[13]

I just want to say one thing to you, you young, college lughead-types. I've been watchin' people like you sluggin' around other people for seven years. And you know what? It's the same shit. I wish you'd understand that in an environment like this, and in a setting like this, it's fairly inappropriate and unfair to the rest of the people around you. I, and we, publicly take a stand against moshing!

More recently, on September 24, 2007, another fan died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The man, aged 20, was dragged out of the mosh pit, unconscious, to be pronounced dead at St. Pauls' Hospital after first-aid specialists attempted to help him.[14][15][16]

In another incident, Jessica Michalik died of asphyxiation after being crushed in a mosh pit during the 2001 Australian Big Day Out music festival. The coroner's findings into her death criticized the crowd control measures in use at the time, and also criticized Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst for "alarming and inflammatory" comments during the rescue effort.[17]

At The Drive-In also began to speak out against slam dancing at their shows, and their frontman Cedric began to become famous for his anti-mosh rant at the Big Day Out 2001 incident in which he bleated at the crowd as if they were sheep.[18]

Other bands have expressed varying degrees of disapproval regarding mosh pits. Mike Portnoy, founder and ex-drummer of Dream Theater, described mosh pits in an interview published on his website, pits as a "problem":[19]

I think our audience have become a little bit more attentive and less of that type of [mosh] mentality [...] I understand you want to release that energy... [but] once people start doing that during "Through Her Eyes" it gets ridiculous [...] So this time around we're consciously aiming at theaters that people can actually sit down and enjoy the show and be comfortable [...] without having to worry about their legs falling off or being kicked in the face by a Mosh Pit. So [that] will probably eliminate that problem anyway.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Tsitsos, William (1999) Rules of Rebellion: Slamdancing, Moshing, and the American Alternative Scene Popular Music, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 397-414
  2. ^ a b c Nussbacher, Mike (2004) A Survivor’s Guide To The Mosh Pit. [dead link] The Martlet.
  3. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (May 9, 1996). "Hard-Core Threat to Health: Moshing at Rock Concerts". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ UpVenue's Moshpit Etiquette
  5. ^ a b Sacahroff, Reaz (1996) Music: Pit Etiquette. Tucson Weekly.
  6. ^ "Bad Brains biography". From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Rolling Stone. 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  7. ^ "Bad Brains - History". peacedogman.com. 2002. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  8. ^ Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, by Ian Christie
  9. ^ Irvine, Martha (1996) Moshing Exciting but dangerous. Associated Press. at rockmed.org
  10. ^ http://jerryroachpresents.com
  11. ^ Rachman, Paul (2006). American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986.
  12. ^ http://gothamist.com/2008/01/22/john_linnell_th.php The Gothamist, Interview with John Linnell of They Might Be Giants
  13. ^ a b Unknown (May 19, 1996). "Fan Crushed at Smashing Pumpkins Show". MTV.com. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  14. ^ "Man dies in Smashing Pumpkins mosh pit". yahoo.ca. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  15. ^ "Man Dies After 'Crowd-Surfing' At SMASHING PUMPKINS Show". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  16. ^ "B.C. man dies after crowd-surfing at rock show". cbc.ca. 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-27.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  17. ^ Weir, Ian (2002-11-08). "Findings and Recommendations by the Coronial Inquest into the Death of Jessica Michalik" (PDF). Venue and Event Management Services Pty Ltd. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  18. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi2PjcXO7Zc
  19. ^ John Kotzian (11 January 2002). "An Interview with Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy" (PDF). mikeportnoy.com.

Video footage of moshing

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