TIA: Many of today’s biggest rappers are known for their rambunctious shows filled
with crowd surfing, stage diving and and crazy mosh pits.
TRAVIS: It’s like you at a show especially my shit you need to be sweating, some type
of steam, raging.
You just gotta live life, man.
TIA: While moshing is part of the appeal for some fans, it's not without its hazards - ranging
from a bloody nose to some broken limbs.
But we wanted to dig deeper and understand what makes people want to mosh?
PAUL: I think the draw of moshing, which is very exciting to look at, especially again,
remember mostly young males, young males are risk takers.
TIA: That’s Paul Wertheimer, a crowd safety expert and CEO of CrowdSafe.
He’s spent the last 20 years researching moshing from inside the pit, and he told us
that there’s more to it than meets the eye.
PAUL: There's crowd surfing, there used to be stage diving by fans,
there's a slam pit, there's all kinds of things going on.
TIA: While moshing has definitely evolved over time, one thing has stayed the same:
for many concertgoers, it’s a kind of emotional release.
PAUL: Mostly young males with a lot of energy...and take out maybe their frustrations
by being really aggressive.
TIA: Though moshing can be violent, it also gives participants a sort of safe space where
that kind of aggression and physical contact is allowed and often encouraged.
PAUL: You share that excitement if everybody likes the music or the artists.
So it's a communal experience.
It's physical, it's consensual, physical contact.
TIA: Despite its massive popularity at rap shows today, the origins of moshing date back
to punk shows of the late 70s and early 80s.
PAUL: It comes from the idea of the slam pits of the '80s, of the punk underground punk
scene, where people would dance around, throw their arms up, throw their legs up, bounce
into people.
MUSICIAN: They’re not out there to hurt each other they’re out there getting their
aggressions out.
I mean they got a lot of pent up angers and hates and frustrations and a lot of things
about the world that piss em off and it’s just a release.
TIA: Early punk, hardcore, and metal bands almost always had some form of moshing, slamdancing
or stagediving at their shows, but back then for true fans, it was considered an artform.
GUEST: Hardcore was about the band and the kids are equal and that’s why slam dancing
was okay, that’s why stage diving was ok because you were really at one with the band.
TIA: By the 1990s, this style of dancing and moshing at shows slowly became more mainstream
thanks to the emergence of grunge.
PAUL: It got really physical, consistently physical with the grunge scene out of Seattle,
because of the mixture of heavy metal music and punk culture.
I mean, remember in 1994 a lot of bands saw moshing at Woodstock '94.
That never saw it before.
TIA: Until this point, moshing had been largely absent from traditional hip-hop shows.
PAUL: Early Ice Cube, Ice-T, back in the days.
Back in the '90s.
Where it was mostly gang members showing up.
You didn't touch anybody.
Especially if you were white.
You didn't touch anybody, period.
TIA: But things changed when rap groups like Onyx started incorporating mosh pits into
their own concerts and music videos.
ONYX: We got the chorus from Nirvana, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." We wanted to have black
people, hip-hop, slam dancing in the gym just like that.
PAUL: Rap has a great following, has for decades among white youth.
Slam dancing could take off if the crowd was mostly like that.
TIA: But now, things are different.
KANYE: We culture!
Rap is the new rock and roll.
We the rockstars.
TIA: Countless hip-hop acts have incorporated moshing into their live acts and music videos.
PAUL: We mosh because artists want to see us active and give back to them the feelings,
the emotion they're trying to communicate with us, with their music.
TIA: But there’s also a dark side.
PAUL: It's hitting other people, it's knocking people over, it depends.
It can be very violent, and it can be bloody, and it can be deadly.
TIA: In late 2017, Travis Scott was sued by a fan who was paralyzed following his show
in New York City.
TRAVIS: They gon catch you don’t be scared, don’t be scared!
TIA: And back in 2014, Tyler, The Creator was arrested for inciting a riot at his show
at SXSW.
TYLER: Run in right now! Fuckin' do it, let's go!
PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!
PAUL: The guy or woman who controls the mic controls the crowd to a large extent.
And if your favorite artists tells you to do something, you're not going to think about
whether this is smart or not.
TIA: For now, it seems moshing, stage diving, and crowd surfing aren’t going anywhere
any time soon, and crowds are still gonna get hype for their favorite artists however
they can.
But Paul still had some advice as a veteran of the pit.
PAUL: It's a lot of fun.
I mean the fact is moshing can be a lot of fun.
You don't feel comfortable in a crowd?
Get out while you can.
Don't feel like you're a weakling.
Just get out and get to a safe place.
TIA: I’m Tia with Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.