Crank that what?!

So the other day Glen was telling me and a group of people about his experience in a club. He stated that the "Crank that Soulja Boy" song came on and the Brits that were at the club had no idea how to do the dance. If I recall correctly, he had to teach them how to do the dance we all seem to know so well.

This got me thinking... Why did this dance spread like wildfire for us Americans (even my mom knows it!) but not for the Europeans? I do not believe that the main difference is in the focus on music videos as a source of media, but more in interpersonal communications. I personally, and I hope some of you agree, learned about the amazing poetic movements of the one and only Soulja Boy from a friend. She informed me of the incredibly fun, yet repetitive dance while in a line to enter a bar/club type atmosphere. This initial mention is what peaked my curiosity to investigate. Naturally, I went to the most resourceful media source on the internet: YouTube. There I learned the amazing dance sensation and went on to spread the word to others, showing them my magnificent skills. You might be thinking: Wow! This sounds an awful lot like what we've been learning in class. In my opinion, you would be exactly right and interpersonal contacts led the way!

So the million dollar question is why did this stupendous sensation not catch on in the UK? My only hypothesis would be that England is more of a pub society than a club society, obviously hurting the dance scene. I guess you could also note that there seems to be a lower presence of what one could deem the "hip-hop community" here. This community would be the innovators and early adopters. However, since this community seems to be lacking or at least a lot less than in the US, the fad might have not caught on.

Is Soulja Boy just not big enough to catch the UK attention? Or does the 'problem' lie more in the absence of certain audiences?

Another thing to note is that the music video itself gives the impression that this is a nation-wide sensation that everyone is talking about. It shows the video on a number of different media. This video was made before this song made it big. Was it so successful because of these 'realistic' implications of popularity?

Here's the link if you've been living under a rock the last year or so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Q8Yw_2cY0 (it's the clean version)