August 10, 2024

"So you start to see the the trappings of this thing that was created in New York City, in the Bronx in the 1970s start to leave its beginnings a little bit..."

"...and become more of a competition and more of a sport through Red Bull and these other entities that are sponsoring it.... It's actually a bit of a wild story [how breaking went from a Red Bull event to the Olympics]. So nearly three decades ago, this global governing body of dance, international dance sport is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and they wanna bring dance to the Olympics. So they want to have ballroom dancing and they suggest that and they get rebuffed. So they eventually rebrand themselves as World Dance Sport Federation, and they find out that it's not foxtrot or salsa or ballroom that the Olympic thinks could have a shot. It's breaking. Breaking is highly watchable, easily viewable on social media. And it comes along as the Olympics is reevaluating what they're going to use as a sport to try and gain that younger audience. There was a testing period in 2018.... They debuted breaking at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.... There was over 2.5 million social media impressions according to the International Olympic Committee. I mean, it seems like it aligns itself perfectly with the Olympics mission of trying to skewer to a younger audience. And once you see those numbers that pretty much locked up breaking for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris..."

From the new episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "Breaking’s Olympic Debut." 

"Skewer" — sometimes the wrong word is the right word.

20 comments:

imTay said...

Another victim of the "auto-malaprop" feature of Apple devices. Maybe MS does the same thing, IDK.

imTay said...

In sixties science fiction, the trope was that our brains would grow large while our bodies shriveled away from disuse. How is that working out for us?

(Auto-malaprop just substituted "disease" for "disuse")

Ann Althouse said...

"Another victim of the "auto-malaprop" feature of Apple devices."

No, this is spoken word. The transcription says "skewer" but you can hear the voice and it clearly is the person saying "skewer."

Leland said...

If you are trying to skewer a younger audience, why introduce a dance style as old as breaking? Breakdancing now is like what the Charleston was when breaking was fresh. Maybe try Krump or Locking, which at least gets you into this century.

rehajm said...

Yah, the Dirty Vegas video which is as old as music videos tells the story….

Sally327 said...

I think it's amazing, a cheap form of entertainment and self-expression for poor, mostly black and hispanic kids, in NYC back inthe 1970s has become a well established global activity by the year 2024. Sort of like visiting Paris in the 1920 and hearing jazz being played?

traditionalguy said...

I nominate skewer as winner of the Garner Award as the next watch word of the decade.

R C Belaire said...

Another reason not to watch.

Sally327 said...

Also virtue signaling, online shaming and vaping.

Kate said...

I've been watching the Olympics like an obsessed fiend. Breaking I tried for literally seconds. Meh. The skateboarding has the youth energy. Most competitors are teens, they all look cool, and they crash a lot into the concrete.

Bob Boyd said...

Is stick horse dressage in the Olympics yet? If not, why not?
Listen, don't buy into the colonial patriarchy's antiquated idea that only people with horses should be competing in horse riding competitions. Get on your stick horse and raise your fist!

CrankyProfessor said...

Don't joke about e-sports. We have Division III intercollegiate Esports now. Only a matter of time for the Olympic level.

Narr said...

Why not Olympic ballet?

As long as they don't have the Only Real Sport*, I refuse to watch.

*Forty-three Man Squamish. Duh.

john mosby said...

43 man squamish should replace Calvinball as the term for the left’s approach to governance.

JSM

Louie the Looper said...

I think the author meant “screw the young audience.”

FWBuff said...

Hilariously bad breaking performance from the Australian woman has funny memes all over the place. “Raygun” will be the “Eddie the Eagle” of these Olympics.

FWBuff said...

Oops, I should read Althouse’s daily posts from the bottom up instead of the top down. I didn’t realize you already had an entire post about Raygun. She’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Biff said...

Misogyny, obviously:
ESPN: Australian sports exec unhappy over trolling of breaker Raygun
"...criticism of Gunn's performance and appearance was consistent with the sort of misogynistic abuse that women athletes have suffered over the past century as they fought for their space in the sporting world."

Rosalyn C. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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