You know what you never hear anymore? The Locomotion.

Jenn and I were commiserating recently about "Shout", which you hear at like every wedding, and which we both agreed was about three minutes too long.

At the last wedding we were at, they played "Shout", and they also played "Twist" (or "Twist and Shout", I can't remember). But I can't remember the last time I heard the Locomotion. In my youth, it was ubiquitous enough that there was a Crest toothpaste commercial based on it, where they sang "Do the sparkle-motion" or something equally ludicrous. Out of all of the dance crazes, I think the Locomotion has fallen the most quickly off the radar.

For that matter, you hardly see any dance crazes anymore. If you're willing to write off the Macarena as a fluke, I think we've entered an era where successful dance crazes are a thing of the past. I guess people just aren't dancing much anymore, or else our culture is already oversaturated with dance crazes, since they never seem to go away. (Does anyone really know how to do the Alley Cat?)

Or perhaps the dances have just become too complicated for us to remember any more of them. The DJ at this wedding was trying to teach everyone the steps to a new atrocity I believe to be called "The Cha-Cha Slide", but apart from a few small children, nobody had the energy to figure it out. We have enough trouble remembering the Electric Slide.

I would start my own dance craze, but the only dance I've ever popularized is pretty much functionally equivalent to the Twist.