Japanese Hip Hop - Japanese Hip Hop Dance Scene

Japanese Hip Hop Dance Scene

Dancing is an important aspect of the hip-hop culture. Before hip-hop was popular in Japan, there was soul dancing, which provided a foundation for Japanese acceptance of street dance culture. A big break through time for the dance scene in Japan was after the movies "Flashdance," "Wild Style", and "Beat Street". This was only the beginning of the dance explosion in Japan. The New York hip hop scene also had a large impact on the dance influence in Japan. Lalah Hathaway's "Baby Don't Cry" music video had a large impact on dancers in Japan and started to mold the style into something closer to the NY sophisticated dance style. This attracted many Japanese people to NY to see this style of dancing for themselves. In addition in 1992 the form of street dancing known as "house" emerged from the influence of music videos as well. It took very well to the culture in Japan and is now well known. Wood discusses in his writing "Yellow Negro" the influence that race plays on the club scene and the type of dancing and music played in Japan depends on the racial composition of its guests. The club scene is a very important scene for the Japanese people to be able to express hip hop in a visual way that stretches across all barriers regardless of language.