BODY-POPPING

noun Also written body popping or bodypopping (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) A style of urban street dancing featuring jerky robotic movements, made to music with a disco beat; abbreviated in street slang to popping. Etymology: Formed by compounding: the popping part is probably a reference to the jerkiness of the dance's movements in response to the popping beat of the music, which is reminiscent of the electronic bleeps of a computer monitor. There may also be some influence from West Indian English poppy-show 'an ostentatious display' (itself ultimately related to puppet show). Certainly the idea is to perform mechanical movements like those of a robot or doll, punctuated by a machine-gun rhythm. History and Usage: Body-popping developed on the streets of Los Angeles in the late seventies and became popular in other US cities, especially among teenagers in the Bronx area of New York, by the early eighties. Along with break-dancing, with which it gradually merged to become one of the styles of street dancing contributing to hip hop culture, body-popping proved to be one of the most important dance crazes of the decade. By the middle of the eighties it had spread throughout the English-speaking world, and crews of dancers (both Black and White) had been formed in the UK and elsewhere. The verb (body-) pop and agent noun (body-) popper date from about the same time as body-popping. The Pop is very characteristic of the Electric Boogie. Because of the popping nature of Breakdance music, your Boogie will be fresh if you can Pop with all your moves. It is as if the music were Popping you. Mr Fresh with the Supreme Rockers Breakdancing (1984), p. 68 Kids on the rough, tough streets of the Bronx used to beat each other up until they began to have battles in 'break dancing' and 'body popping'. The Times 2 Feb. 1985, p. 9 'What's the difference between breaking and popping?' 'When they popping, they be waving, you know, doing their hands and stuff like that. When they breaks, they spins on the floor, be going around.' American Speech Spring 1989, p. 32