MJ Flash Mobs
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 Since his death on June 25, Flash Mobs celebrating the life and music of Michael Jackson have been popping up in cities all over the world. This is clearly not surprising that people are reacting to his death but it is fascinating to see that people are using flash mobs as an outlet to express themselves.
According to Wikipedia the first flash mob was created in Manhattan in 2003 and almost immediately became a popular form of expression. Which ironically is exactly the opposite of their original intention which was to highlight cultural conformity. After that first event in 2003, there have been several notable Flash Mobs over the past 6 years including a Worldwide Pillow Fight in March 2008 in which 25 Cities around the globe participated in and a Silent Disco that caused some chaos on the London Underground in which over 4000 people participated. Clearly it appears that Flash Mobs as a form of expression are here to stay.
Back to the Michael Jackson Tribute. It has been interesting watching the videos pop up on YouTube over the last 6-8 weeks from various cities around the world, where a "spontaneous" mob begins dancing to various Jackson songs for several minutes and then dissipates back into the crowd. These event usually occur in a larger open space within a major Metropolitan City or area. It appears that first one happened in Victoria, BC on Canada Day. Leave it to those Crazy Canucks!
Victoria
Events then followed on in Stockholm, Paris, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Montreal, Seattle and Hollywood (at least those are ones that appeared on YouTube - there may be more unrecorded events).
Stockholm
Seattle
Quite an amazing phenomena really. Maybe somebody will organize a Flash Mob Day across the US for DJ AM? That would quite a fitting tribute to the genius that he was. Just let us know the time and the place and the Buzz will certainly be there!
For The Buzz.....I'm LP
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