moshing

The tradition & historical record

Moshing (also known as slam dancing or simply slamming) is a style of dancing in which participants push or slam into each other. Taking place in an area called the mosh pit (often simply the pit), it is typically performed to aggressive styles of live music such as punk rock and heavy metal. The dance style originated in the southern California hardcore punk scene, particularly Huntington Beach and Long Beach around 1978. Through the 1980s it spread to the hardcore scenes of Washington, D.C., Boston and New York where it developed local variants. In New York, the crossover between the city's hardcore scene and its metal scene led to moshing incorporating itself into metal beginning around 1985. In the 1990s, the success of grunge music led to moshing entering mainstream understanding and soon being incorporated into genres like electronic dance music and hip hop. Due to its violence, moshing has been subject to controversy, with a number of concert venues banning the practice, and some musicians being arrested for encouraging it and concertgoers for participating. ²

The name "mosh" originates from the word "mash". While performing their song "Banned in D.C." in either 1979 or 1980, H.R., vocalist of Washington D.C. hardcore band the Bad Brains, shouted "mash it—mash down Babylon!" Because of his Jamaican accent, some audience members heard this as "mosh it—mosh down Babylon". Beginning around 1983, metalheads began to refer to the slower sections of hardcore songs as "mosh parts", while hardcore musicians had called them "skank parts". Once Stormtroopers of Death released their debut album Speak English or Die in 1985, which included the track "Milano Mosh", the term began being applied to the style of dance. The term was then further popularised by Anthrax's 1987 song "Caught in a Mosh". ²

The direct predecessor to moshing was the pogo, a style of dance done in the 1970s English punk rock scene, in which crowds members would jump up and down while holding their arms beside them. According to British rockumentary The Filth and the Fury, it was invented by Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in 1976. As a prominent punk rock scene in Southern California began to form in the late 1970s and early 1980s with early hardcore punk groups like Fear and Black Flag, moshing as it is understood today began to develop, originally termed "slam dancing". Participants in slam dancing at this time modified the pogo by bringing additional physical contact to those around them by pushing and running, as well introducing the idea of a recognised area where it takes place called a "pit". According to Steven Blush's book American Hardcore: A Tribal History (2001), there is a common belief amongst those involved in this scene that the dance was invented by former US marine Mike Marine in 1978. His specific style, involving "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms and hitting everyone within reach", would go on to be termed "the Huntington Beach Strut". The Orange County Register writer Tom Berg credited, Costa Mesa venue, the Cuckoo's Nest (1976–1981) as the "birthplace of slam dancing". Examples of this early moshing were featured in the documentaries Another State of Mind, Urban Struggle, the Decline of Western Civilization, and American Hardcore. Fear's 1981 musical performance on Saturday Night Live also helped to expose moshing to a much wider audience. By 1981, slam dancing had become the predominant style of crowd interaction in the southern California scene, as Huntington Beach and Long Beach became the scene's heart. ²

Moshing entered mainstream consciousness with the rise of grunge in the early 1990s. Grunge becoming the dominant force in rock music, brought with it aspects of genres like hardcore, punk and ska, and in turn, pop culture became aware of the mosh pit. This was exacerbated by the success of Lollapalooza, which began in 1991 as a touring festival. In his book Festivals: A Music Lover's Guide to the Festivals You Need To Know, writer Oliver Keens stated that "Lollapalooza's greatest impact was to expose Middle America to the joys of stage-diving and moshing...You can see Lollapalooza's legacy in the way mosh pits have become an integral part of youth culture; beyond rock and metal". By 1992, the practice had become so common that concertgoers began to mosh to non-aggressive rock bands like the Cranberries. Moshing slowly entered hip hop during live performances by the Beastie Boys, who began as a hardcore punk band before adopting the hip hop style they became known for. During Public Enemy and Ice-T's European tour in the late 1980s, the artists witnessed moshing during their performances, which was still not commonplace during hip hop concerts. The 1991 collaboration song Bring the Noise by thrash metal band Anthrax and hip hop group Public Enemy led to a number of mixed genre tours, which brought metal's moshing to the attention of hip hop fans. This was solidified as a part of hip hop by Onyx's 1993 single "Slam", a song which alluded to slam dancing and had a music video featuring moshing. Following the video's release, pits became increasingly common during performances by hip hop artists including Busta Rhymes, M.O.P. ²

The Huntington Beach strut or simply the HB Strut is the original style of slam dancing which was popular the Southern California hardcore in the late 1970s and 1980s. It involves "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms and hitting everyone within reach". The Boston thrash or punching penguins is Boston's more violent development upon the Huntington Beach strut, which incorporates punching below the neck. A pig pile is a style moshing popular amongst the Boston hardcore scene in the 1980s. It involved one person being pushed to the ground and others beginning to pile on top of them. Wrecking is a style of moshing that is prevalent in the psychobilly scene. It involves standing in one spot with arms flailing in order to make contact with those around. The practice was originated by fans of the Meteors and named in reference to the band's fanbase being called the "Wrecking Crew". Meteors drummer Mark Robertson specifically cited wrecking as beginning with Adam and the Ants, when they become involved in the psychobilly scene. A circle pit is a form of moshing in which participants run in a circular motion around the edges of the pit, often leaving an open space in the centre. A wall of death is a form of moshing which sees the audience divide down the middle into two halves either side of the venue, before each side runs towards the other, slamming the two sides together. According to Noisecreep, the consensus is that it was invented by American hardcore punk band Sick of it All. However, the band's vocalist Lou Koller has stated that he merely revived the practice in 1996, as he often saw a similar act performed in the 1980s New York hardcore scene. ²

Researchers from Cornell University studied the emergent behavior of crowds at mosh pits by anal… ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Moshing”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

moshing is dance that is part of heavy music, often featuring certain levels of violence, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹