People dancing with "Just Dance"
July 6, 2018 11:23 PM   Subscribe

Having fun to "Rasputin" by Boney M

A pair dancing to "Where Have You Been" by Rihanna (pretty sure she's a choreographer)
Same couple, "Roar" by Katy Parry
Same couple again, "Applause" by Lady Gaga

Single, "Applause"
Another pair, "Animals" by Martin Garrix
Committed to "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira, ft. Sumo costume
And in case the song isn't yet stuck in your head, here are two more (w/floating dog head) to "Rasputin"

More at the YouTube gaming channel
posted by Gorgik (39 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is brilliant, and it's also nice to be reminded what a monumentally weird topic for a song it is. It's like an opening number for a Russian disco-history musical.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:58 PM on July 6, 2018 [10 favorites]


Wow - I didn't know this was a thing. I thought it was just my friend being weird. Yay people having fun!
posted by queensissy at 12:45 AM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Some of these are great. Another one for the mix - Katy Perry's Dark Horse

Worth checking out littlesiha's channel. She has a "Just Dance" Twitch stream, does weekend streams for for kids in hospital via Game Changer. She's now an E3 Just Dancer and recently raised $20K for a charity.

(The things you learn sitting beside your kids watching Twitch)
posted by greenhornet at 12:49 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


As long as we're talking 'bout Rasputin, Here's Rasputin adapted for player (fairground) organ.
posted by Quackles at 1:44 AM on July 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


monumentally weird topic for a song

But then upbeat disco songs about baddies were a Boney M thing for a while. Think of ‘Ma Baker’. Then I believe there was a West German Eurovision entry about Genghis Khan. Almost as if the Germans were testing the water for a jaunty tune about some evil guy from their own history.
posted by Segundus at 2:51 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


I want their knees.

I WANT THEM SO BADLY!

(Would also accept their ankles too. Yes, I have both, but they don't work so well, thus you will NEVER see a Samizdata Just Dance video.)
posted by Samizdata at 2:52 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


Rasputin
posted by Leon at 3:19 AM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


“But when his drinking, his lusting and his hunger for power became known to more and more people, the demands to do something about this outrageous man became stronger and stronger”.

Disco lyrics for our time.
posted by rongorongo at 3:29 AM on July 7, 2018 [15 favorites]


I first heard “Rasputin” in a Beijing bar in 2007. It has been my ring tone since 2008. It will probably be my ringtone until I shuffle off this mortal coil. Also, I find it adds levity to meetings when my phone goes off and the first few bars play. Thanks for posting these videos, Gorgik.

If you haven’t seen the original video, it’s a journey.
posted by faineg at 5:01 AM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Rasputin!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:07 AM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


There lives a certain man in Russia, he's a bro
He can ride a horse, he'll always fight toe to toe
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to Moscow rich he was such a lovely dear
He could hack elections like a stealer, using all those he can hire
He made lots of people say "impeach her!", and "she did conspire!"

V-V-V Putin
Lover of the Russian dream
There was a cat that really was wrong
V-V-V Putin
Pouring on the gasoline
It was a shame how he carried on
posted by Gorgik at 5:59 AM on July 7, 2018 [11 favorites]


My favorite part of the original videos is the little hip/head shake that accompanies the clapping in the chorus.
posted by Gorgik at 6:19 AM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


OK so first of all "Rasputin" is just ridiculously catchy.

Second, these folks are cheating because they can totally dance and their joints work.
posted by biscotti at 6:49 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


(Ah, I was waiting for comments about 2018 politics.)

This song always reminds me of my childhood. My grandparents were Bolsheviks who fled the USSR in 1930s (and I still don't have the full story; grandfather and my mother remained firm Stalinists for their entire lives) and settled in upstate New York. There they and around one hundred fellow immigrants/exiles eventually pooled their resources to buy an eccentric rich person's estate, turning it into a hotel which they operated as a kind of co-op. They populated the interior with all kinds of Russian, Eastern European, and Soviet stuff. The manager's office had a giant photo of Tereshkova.

Somehow my grandfather had a gift for getting grants to do US-Soviet cultural exchanges. This included building three giant statues to his favorite poets: Whitman, Pushkin, and Yanka Kupala. He brought in Soviet movies and Soviet folk programs. That's where, as a kid, I first saw really fine Cossack dancing, and learned to do it myself (although not so fine).

What a strange place. Lots of people from Eastern Europe settled in that town, and many had grudges against each other. I remember seeing old folks in the grocery store deliberately crashing carts into others' carts, muttering and swearing in a range of languages. Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews - definitely a friction-rich mix. Some guys from the Caucuses insisted on calling me Mustapha; I have no idea why, but it was cool.

Years later, in college, I heard Boney M's "Rasputin", and got to impress people by doing some Cossack dancing. Well, impress people and knock over furniture.
posted by doctornemo at 6:55 AM on July 7, 2018 [15 favorites]


This is bananas awesome! Makes me want to buy a gaming system just for the dancing games. I'm not even kidding... hmm...
posted by bologna on wry at 7:26 AM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


"Rasputin" is the best dance tune ever. I will fight you, "I Feel Love" people.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:12 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


I love real poutine,
Gravy, fries and cheese - so keen!
KFC can f%#k right off

Try my scratch poutine
You'll say "where've you been!?!"
It's great if you've got weight to put on.
posted by Gorgik at 8:22 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


I've played enough Just Dance that I have to resist jumping around every time one of the songs come on over department store muzak.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:37 AM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


This is brilliant, and it's also nice to be reminded what a monumentally weird topic for a song it is.

Ideas from a Bony M Song Writing Brainstorm:
1. Song about freaky people who go to discos. Maybe with a French sounding title.
2. Disco related song about having a groove thing and shaking it.
3. Something about very large conflagrations - but with the word "disco" in it.
3. A disco number about places that young men can go to have a shower and a meal - youth hostel maybe?
4. A concise exploration of the cultural and political context of a 19th century mystical healer in Tzarist Russia - including a depiction of his acolytes, rise to prominence, and prolonged assassination at the hands of Felix Yusupov. But disco. ✔️
posted by rongorongo at 11:44 AM on July 7, 2018 [20 favorites]


Now I want Leo Moracchioli to do a cover of Rasputin.
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:47 AM on July 7, 2018


and prolonged assassination at the hands of Felix Yusupov. But disco. ✔️

and when I say disco, I don't mean just garden variety boring beats and tricks, I mean the kind of punched up groove that will stand the test of decades -- it will still rule the wedding dance floors well into the second decade of the 21st Century.
posted by philip-random at 11:50 AM on July 7, 2018


I'd never heard of Just Dance. This looks like crazy fun.

And I <3 Rasputin - the song, not the historical figure.
posted by bunderful at 12:05 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


ah, man. I want to have friends to dance around the living room with!
posted by vespabelle at 12:51 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


This looks like so much fun! My downstairs neighbor is going to hate this.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 1:28 PM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


So I first heard of Boney M a few months ago: A funky German pop group whose frontman (Bobby Ferrell) was a person of color who did not do the actual singing on the records, which was actually done by the producer (Frank Farian). Guess what other group Farian founded?
posted by dhens at 4:13 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Oh haha, I'm crazy active on these games and was actually in Just Dance 2017 for like, an hour and a half this afternoon.

I recently got Superstar level on Scream and Shout (Extreme Version) after probably literally 5 weeks of trying. Some of this choreo is freaking HARD, y'all.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 5:17 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Guess what other group Farian founded?

NO FREAKIN WAY!!!!
posted by bunderful at 5:55 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


This reminded me I needed to introduce my baby to Boney M. Great success! Much jumping occurred! Also I learned my husband had never heard of them wtf.

And now I need to go by a Kinect sensor for the Xbox.
posted by carolr at 6:21 PM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oooh this might be what I need right now. But I had a look at the Just Dance website and came away confused. What is the simplest, cheapest way that I might give this a go? I have an iPhone and a TV and a laptop. No gaming console or whatever the kids are calling them.
posted by HotToddy at 8:36 PM on July 7, 2018


Rasputin Just Dance flash mob (in Chile, I think)
posted by Syllepsis at 10:58 PM on July 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


There is an insanely great mountain climbing docudrama called Touching the Void in which climber Joe Simpson breaks his leg and is believed dead. He has to get himself down the mountain before his crew packs up and leaves him behind. At one point he has to pull himself across a boulder field with his badly broken leg. He says he used Boney M's Rasputin to do it. "Ra Ra Rasputin", drag, "Russia's greatest love machine", drag. Boney M saved his life.
posted by kaymac at 7:27 AM on July 8, 2018 [5 favorites]


HotToddy, you need a gaming console. You can do Just Dance with a Kinect, or the newest version lets you play while simply holding your mobile phone with the app installed (it works OKAY for this, but if it's a song where pointing a certain finger, etc. is required, YMMV). But you literally cannot do it without an Xbox (One or 360) or Playstation console, since that reads the game/choreography/music and your achievements therein.

If anyone wants to add me, MeMail me.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:13 AM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thanks Unicorn on the cob. But uggghh too expensive. Surely I must know someone who owns one! Just goes to show you never know what the morrow may bring, because I had no inkling I'd be seized with the burning desire to have an Xbox teach me to dance like a Russian mystic.
posted by HotToddy at 12:50 PM on July 8, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think the Rasputin song is on Just Dance 2 on the original wii, which can probably be had for much cheaper.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 2:25 PM on July 8, 2018


If all you want is some Just Dance games, you can buy a used Wii for $60 and Just Dance 2 for the Wii for $5 at Gamestop.
posted by eye of newt at 11:02 PM on July 8, 2018


Yes, GAME STOP is your friend! Or even WalMart and Movie Trading Company, if there's one nearby. You can probably pick up an older gaming console that works for less than $100 with the Kinect included to start with at your local pawn shop or electronics reseller (I'm seeing plenty of eBay listings with both for $149).

I'm the only hardcore gamer I know who exclusively plays dancing titles on Kinect. Last time I checked my stats, I was #4 in the world globally for Kinect Fitness (which tracks how many calories you burn, but only worked on the 360 and not the One). Alas, they sunsetted the KF app last year, much to my chagrin.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 5:28 PM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


Astonishingly,* they are still publishing Just Dance titles for the original Wii—Just Dance 2018 is available for the original Wii, and it is expected that Just Dance 2019 will be too—so yes, you can get a lot of mileage out of a Wii if Just Dance is what you're interested in. As far as I can tell, every Just Dance game in existence has been released for Wii. Most of the old ones can be picked up cheap.

* For perspective on how weird this is, Just Dance 2018 was the only Wii game released in North America in 2017—and Just Dance 2017 was the only one in 2016.
posted by Syllepsis at 9:18 PM on July 9, 2018 [3 favorites]


Well, time to buy some new just dance wii games.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:32 AM on July 10, 2018


My husband and I tried a sample of Just Dance for the Switch and it was really fun but we didn't buy it because we thought it was expensive. This post is making me reconsider our life choices.
posted by like_neon at 7:31 AM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


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