Monday Music Club: Songs That Make You Wanna Do That Weird Move You Always Do

Everyone's got those songs that they connect to a certain dance move. It's like a logic puzzle: every time you hear Song X, you have to do Move Y. Maybe it's a little finger waggle to a certain line or maybe it's an all-out-get-up-offa-that-thing-and-shake-your-body dance to the chorus (see Chris's choices #1 and #2). Maybe you do the move because the song explicitly tells you to, maybe it's in the music video, or maybe it's just a quirky thing your friends made up that has now infected your brain(see Mei's choices, #4 , #3, and #2). Whatever it is, we know you have one. Check out our songs and the accompanying descriptions. If you want to see them in person, follow us around with a boom-box. The dance moves will come...





Mei's Choices

1. M.I.A. – Galang: Wussup London calling? Yeeeah it’s the M.I.A.-knock-kneed-80’s-spandex-crazy-alien dance. I’ve seen her do this dance in person a bunch of times in ever-increasingly insane outfits and you can now see it for yourself in the video. I have to do this dance every time I hear this song or every time I wear 80’s spandex. Visual proof here of me and Annie doing the M.I.A. dance while alien Gina looks on at Bay2Breakers ’08.


2. Modest Mouse – Float On : I owe both my love for this song and the corresponding dance to two of my best friends, Annie and Olivia, who returned from Coachella music festival senior year of college with a special dance move. It’s a little hard to explain, but basically involves jumping around with your wrists at right angles and hands pointing inwards as if you’re rhythmically trying to dry your nail polish. Yeah…you probably have to see it to understand. Anyway, every time I hear this song, the dance move must be done, even if I am alone in my bedroom. That’s just how it goes.

3. Janet Jackson– If : Welcome to my first ever CD purchase. This song and the associated music video are pretty…explicit. I’m surprised they even let it on MTV, but they obviously did because the dance moves are ingrained in my head. Well, not all of them (thankfully my 11-year old self wasn’t busting out the simulated sex acts), but most definitely the part at 3:03 of the song where they move across the floor doing a complicated windmilling arm-head-feet combination that’s like trying to pat your belly and rub your head at the same time. I'll show you sometime, it's awesome.

4. Terror Squad – Lean Back : Life Rule #2349852: When Fat Joe tells you to do something, you DO IT. My friend Rach and I also have a funny associated dance move to Remy Ma’s verse. You know how we walk around the metal detectors….

5. Jay-Z featuring Ja-Rule and Amil – Can I Get A...: I knew Chris and I were kindred spirits when he made a reference to this song in his first-ever staff Go Game and I knew the answer from the song lyrics without even needing to find the clue. The dance move? Just...bounce.

Chris's Choices

1. Coolio - Sumpin' New (1234): Just in case you aren't sure of how to count, I like to hold my fingers up and help Coolio sing 1..2..3..4. I also have a little hip dip when he says "gotta go to get up to get down." That phrase is so true - does that make Coolio an artist, a prophet or a philosopher?

2. Sugar Hill Gang - Apache: Yeah, I did just do this. I like to go back to my roots for Monday Music Club. No, not my ancestral Irish roots or my angsty alternative rawk roots, but rather my Catholic boys high school roots. Needless to say, we all did the hand-up-lasso-jump-whilst-turning-in-a-circle maneuver quite well. It's also a popular meme on YTMND and that's OK by me.

3. Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle: Who would have seen Christina emerging from the Britney-Jessica-Christina debate as the least crazy and filthy? Not me. This song still makes me do a little I Dream Of Jeannie.

4. Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It): Yes, there is a video out there of me, Andrew and Ian attempting to replicate this dance on a street corner in Austin, TX. No, I'm not going to show it to you.

Mei – I was the lucky videographer of this drunken event at SXSW. I’ll just make the statement that there is nothing more entertaining than three men in orange jumpsuits trying to shake their booties like Sasha Fierce. HILARIOUS.

5. Beastie Boys - Intergalactic: The kid in this video (all of 12 years old) has obviously seen my Beastie Boys Intergalactic robot dance and TOTALLY copied off of me. That being said, he does a far better job than I ever did. PLANETARY!

BONUS VIDEO!!

MGMT - Kids: Mei and I have noticed a fascinating phenomenon here in England (both London and Liverpool) with this song. When this tune comes on in the pub the ENTIRE place stops and sings 'do do do do dodododo doooooo.' Sometimes people will alternate poking their index fingers in the air on each 'do.' A bit of that can be seen here.

So, all of you reading this: you got any songs that make you do that weird move you always do? Tell us about it! We wanna know. And then we want you to come over and do it. We’ll show you ours if you show us yours...