It looks like the 40 Acres can’t get enough of the Harlem Shake. Today, a local filmmaker set up at the University of Texas to film the third Harlem Shake video set on campus.
In case the meme’s passed you by, here’s the scoop: Harlem Shake is an instrumental track from American DJ and producer Baauer. Featuring what Pitchfork Media calls a “menacing, world-smashing bassline that would cause even the Cloverfield monster to shudder in his gills,” the track provides the ideal soundtrack for viral videos. Know Your Meme has a comprehensive timeline detailing the dance’s proliferation.
Web-savvy Austin caught on pretty early: two videos filmed at UT-Austin (including one raucous clip filmed in the normally much more sedate Perry-Castañeda Library) already number hundreds of thousands of views. (View both of the videos below.)
The man who set up today’s shoot, Myles Hamm says he wants “to turn this into a professional video with a lot of different camera angles, giving a lot of different people more camera time than typically would be seen in a large crowd Harlem Shake video.”
The meme’s traveled well beyond college campuses. In Austin, it’s reached numerous tech offices, with Facebook’s Austin office, Rackspace, and more. Simply searching YouTube for Austin videos yields over 400 results.
In all, over 40,000 Harlem Shake videos have been uploaded to YouTube, amassing a combined 175 million views.
“It’s just another funny, quirky internet thing that just blows up and everybody likes it,” Hamm says.
Here’s the original UT Harlem Shake video, filmed on the campus’ south mall:
Here’s the Harlem Shake going down in the Perry-Castañeda Library:
And here’s a clip of today’s shoot, filmed by KUT’s Filipa Rodrigues:
