Mosh

Origins and History

Origins

One allots the term of “mosh” to Vinnie Stigma of the group hardcore Agnostic Front, as an acronym of “March Of Skin Heads” (Ravelled, walk of skinheads), but much also allot it to Darryl Jennifer, bass player of the Bad Brains, because of its pronunciation jamaïcaine of the word “mash” in “mash down Babylon”. Many punks of the first wave of the scene speaks rather about pogo (and in America of Trashing ), whereas the term of moshing seems especially to have taken importance when the scenes hardcore and metal started to mix and to influence itself mutually.

History

Mosh Pits appeared in 1981 - at the latest - with a certain number of concert the punk one. This type of dance was then spread in the scene heavy metal, where the Headbang and the slam were then added. In the middle of the Eighties, when groups of Thrash metal like Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax always played in boxes, the mosh pit had already become usual during the concerts of Punk. And with the gigantic festival Woodstock 1999 the moshing had been metamorphosed in true riots. To solve the problems generated by this phenomenon, the concert halls accustomed to receive groups likely to cause of Mosh Pits reinforce their manpower of safety to control the public, in particular the “T-barricades” which separate the Pits in two parts and also move away it from the group.

The video clip of Smells Like Teen Spirit of Nirvana made known the mosh pit with very many people mainstream, in 1991. In the clip The Leaving Song Part II has Fire Inside and the clip of the song Wake The Dead of the group of hardcore Comeback Kid presents a mosh pit of approximately 100 people.

In May 1996, The Smashing Pumpkins plays a concert at the Point Deposit in Dublin. Crowd come to see them is very numerous and in spite of the calls to calm repeated group, which requires of crowd to cease the mosh pit, a 17 year old fan, Bernadette O' Brien is killed - crushed and trampled. The concert finishes quickly, and the concerts of the following evenings envisaged in Belfast are cancelled, by respect for it. Billy Corgan, singer of Smashing Pumpkins will declare later that it had failed to leave the group and the show business for good after the tragedy event.

In France

It should be noted that in France the mosh pit is less current than other forms of dance extreme-hardcore like the pogo or the slam. It developed however well these last years in certain scenes - in particular with the emergence of the movements Screamo and hardcore, without to become extensive of the phenomenon in America.

Description

The dance was always an central element of the environment in the punk concerts. Representing the punk frame of mind, the dances punks do not have at the beginning not rules and consist in stirring up frantically in any direction with the sound of the fast rates/rhythms, while not hesitating on the occasion to hustle its neighbor.

The concerts of hardcore, because of importance of the direction of the words and the rate/rhythm often more vigorous of the music, the whole associated on a scale often reduced with the concerts, saw new forms dance to take form: rate/rhythm of dance jerked, associating movement of arm, leg and head, kicks and punches, not driven out and winches. The dance is made at the rate/rhythm music and the various styles do not allow the same styles of mosh. The dance is done on an empty space in the middle of the crowd of the spectators called " pit". A " pit" can be more or less large, according to the size of the room, the number of dancers and the total importance of the public. The mosh is an individual dance, although certain figures can be made in a collective way.

Some movements

The mosh is not a theorized dance, but one can describe a certain number of movements to the agreed name:

Floorpunch: consist in making pretense strike the ground with its fists while leaning while advancing in the middle of the pit by small jumps or not.
the " circle moshing" is specifically employed for the fast tempos: a group of dancers run or moshent by forming a large circle around the pit, trying to involve members of the not dancing public.
Two-Step is the dance resulting from the hardcore old school . It consists in taking a step of dance where one passes a leg in front of the other, to withdraw the latter to pass by again it in front of and so on being able to be accompanied by a movement of the arms (winch, swinging from left to right etc). It must be rate/rhythm with the music.
wind-millet: it consists in very quickly making a winch with its two arms. It is often at the origin of small incidents because very violent.
Side to Side: it consists in running from left to right while pushing the other spectators to increase the pit before the mosh

Types of Moshing

Moshing is a hold-all term for any dance carried out in a mosh pit or circle pit. However certain movements agree more with certain passages of the music.

Moshing, sometimes called Pogo means various things according to the music for which it is employed.

the Breakcore, a kind of techno hardcore, which badly does not gather a ex-punks and the ex-métalleux one, and thus them mosh pits.
the Grindcore has also its style of dance, often called the “grind” and which is a crossing between the “skanking” (see low) and a slower mosh.
the metal concerts known for their gigantic pogos, are supported by the popularity of the kind and thus the great capacity of reception of the concert halls concerned. Because of the speed of the tempo of metal, the speed of the movements of dance itself increases. This pogo éperdu also known under the name of Speed Mosh is often practiced during the concerts of groups such as Iced Earth and Megadeth. The more quickly the métalleux one goes, the more unverifiable the mosh becomes insane and.
the mosh or pogo of the Punk includes/understands large waves in general where everyone is pushed, throwing the ones against the others, of the slams where one or more people are carried by crowd, and of the pogo pure and hard: to jump all while pushing the ones others (the invention being intribuée with Sid Vicious Sex Pistols). The mosh in the concerts the punk one is in general less violent and theatrical that the moshs and pogo in the concerts of hardcore.

the mosh practiced during the concert of hardcore is much faster. The mosh hardcore is often characterized by movements of arm and feet very fast and violent ones, very badly seen apart from the particular context of the hardcore.

Risks and criticisms

Although the majority of the moshers regard the moshing as something of fun, funny and pleasant, there is always a risk to be slightly wounded, even seriously.

Those which support the moshing admit that there is a physical risk dependant on the dance. But they also support that the pogos and the mosh draw up social reports/ratios like the friendship, and introduce a spirit of friendship, and that finally the serious wounds (sometimes unfortunately fatal) are caused by the slams: a completely different activity.

But those which criticize the moshing show also the pogo to encourage with violence and to relativize these facts. Violence among the public brings inevitably to some wounds. The critics of the moshing explain that one can observe an escalation of violence, a vicious circle which the moshing involves. The media encourage this interpretation.

For much, the mosh pit is a kind of sport extreme. Many really thinks that the mosh pit stimulates and encourages friendship. Violence and the “blows” (carried or not) are directed to those which are them-even in the pit, and not to the others. The escalation of violences often arrive when a person not accustomed to the mosh pits or being held out of the pit is touched. It is necessary to remember that the mosh pit is supposed amusing being.

There is in fact a kind of confusion between truths dangers of the pit and the behavior of the moshers.

There are definitively risks for the moshers or those which approach too close the pit. Many of those which support the mosh pit think that one of the interests of the mosh is its physical side, and that its risks can be compared with those of any extreme sport. Some even suggest that the mosh roof a certain desire to be wounded and physically tested, it is a kind of means to slacken the stress and the pressure.

It was advanced that the moshing would be a kind of modern “rite of passage”, where the young people would put to the test their courage and their force with their friends or of perfect unknown, in a imprédictible situation of violent and frantic dance.

The moshing, in its original intention is a kind of combat between agreeing adults, and apart from the pit there is no combat: often the moshers are friendly between them. There is an escalation of violence when the concept of the mosh is badly understood, whether it is inside or outside the pit.

Precautions

There are all the same precautions, rules of bases concerning the moshing.

clothing and shoes must be adapted to this physical-activity, as well as the mentality of the person… the mosh is not a means of regulating its accounts.
the piercings can be torn off during the mosh. Be sure to remove them before for your own security.
the state of intoxication (= to be drunk) is very strongly disadvised because dangerous for oneself and the others.
If somebody fall, the moshing must stop at least around the fallen person, and the moshers must immediately help this person to be raised. This essential and paramount rule is valid for all the forms of dance hardcore (pogo, slams etc). It is in general very acceptable to draw this person on her feet rather than simply to help it to be raised.
Remove all the peaks, which they are on the jackets, belts, bracelets, collars, and all jewels similar and likely to wound the others seriously.
No sexual touchings.
the punches and of direct feet are in general regarded as a distorsion with the label (=règles) of the moshing, one will prefer the use of the front armlevers and elbows to them to push. This rule does not apply to the moshs hardcores.
the majority of the mosh pits proceed during the most violent part of the song. To throw themselves in crowd and to strike the others after the song or once the mosh is dispersed are very badly seen. The executant is perceived as an idiot who does not know what it makes nor does not include/understand what occurs.
Immobiliser people by clutching their clothing is also very badly seen.
the moshers take for asset that people being held at the edge of the circle formed by the pit voluntarily form a shield to protect those outside the pit and to prevent the moshers from falling by ground. They are thus exposed to the same risks as the moshers. However they should not in no case to return the expelled moshers of the center of the pit inside, because the risk is to make fall the mosher or to see itself pushing/striking in its turn, in general much more extremely…
not to carry glasses, they are more than likely to be burst.
made not with the others what you would not like that one makes you. The mosh pit is a place where the elementary rules of respect must be applied, like everywhere, even if the rules differ slightly from usually.
If you are held at the edge of the pit, be informed that somebody can strike you. If you want to remain with calm, keep your distances with the mosh.
the mosh, is also not made obligatory respect your desire for attending a concert without inevitably receiving blows!
In short, be informed that in certain concerts, the dominant set of themes is the testosterone, and that if the freedom stops where that of the others starts, for certain mosheurs, that is not true.

Contests of dance could be organized in Paris in 2004.

External bonds

Site of Joe Ambrose, author of the culture Moshpit
Imosh.com - Heavy Merchandize Metal since 1986
'' You' Re Not Hardcore '' episode 1
less ridiculous than the others

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