UNITED STATES-MUSIC: And Now, Macarena-Mania

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Aug 20 1996 (IPS) - You put your right hand on your hip, you stick your left hand in the air, and you jump up. It may not be the world’s most graceful or complex dance, but you should be pleased to know you have just learned the world’s hottest dance craze: the Macarena.

A hit in Spain a year ago, and a fixture on European pop charts since this spring, the Macarena is the pop obsession of the summer in the United States. The catchy dance tune ‘Macarena’ is at the top of the U.S. charts in no fewer than three versions, courtesy of the Spanish groups ‘Los del Rio’ and ‘Los del Mar’.

More importantly, the dance is everywhere. Olympics athletes in Atlanta celebrated their victories by Macarena-ing the night away, while fans did the Macarena in the stadiums.

The New York Yankees, the leading American League baseball team, announced this week that they will play ‘Macarena’ during breaks in the game. Yankees publicists also brag that they intend to set a world record for most people dancing the Macarena … a record, needless to say, set by another baseball team mere weeks ago.

Even the most staid U.S. celebrities, such as talk show hosts Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, have taken to demonstrating the flamenco-tinged hip-hop dance for audiences.

Not bad for a European dance fad sparked by a Spanish song. In fact, the Macarena craze may fuel the first resurgence of dancing to Spanish music in the United States since the country went wild over Cuban mambos in the 1950s.

The Macarena madness began when Los del Rio, a Spanish duo in their fifties, composed a song to Macarena, a beautiful woman who danced at Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera’s 1993 inauguration.

“Dale tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena (Give some joy to your body, Macarena),” they sing, as they spin a tale of a woman dancing happily while she awaits her boyfriend.

But the song, composed by veteran Spanish songwriting team of Monge and Ruiz, is much more jaunty than the tale of a girl pining for her lover in the lyrics. The music in fact combines several different dance styles, from the wailing and clapping beat of the Gypsy-based flamenco music to the chattering keyboards of Ibiza’s disco scene.

Added to those elements is the one factor that seems to have made ‘Macarena’ a huge U.S. hit: English rapping. Although versions of the song by Los del Rio and Los del Mar both have garnered radio play here, the version to score the biggest hit is actually a remix of Los del Rio’s song by a U.S. hip-hop group, the Bayside Boys (available, along with the original, on BMG’s compilation ‘Macarena Mix’).

Significantly, the Bayside Boys version completely twists the original message of chaste yearning completely around. Although Los del Rio’s choruses remain unchanged, the focus of the song now is on a young woman who giggles out a half-song and half-rap: “All of my friends, they call me Macarena/ And the boys all say ‘Que soy buena’/ They want me, can’t have me/ So they all come and dance beside me.”

But the Macarena of this song is not unavailable: she says she can’t stand her boyfriend, and implies she betrayed him when she was left alone. “I mean, what was I supposed to do?” she laughs. “His two friends were so fine!”

The other hip-hop touch to the song is in the background, where voices shout out after every chorus, in homage to rap slang, “I- ight!” — or “alright,” in standard English.

Clearly, the mix of cultures, sounds and styles has played a part in explaining why ‘Macarena’ has proved just as durable a hit in the United States as in Spain, France or Germany. But some critics less than impressed with the fad have pointed to another answer: it is one of the few recent dance fads that requires almost no knowledge of steps or rhythm.

Since Macarena dancers mostly either hop up or shake and wiggle, they are also able to do the dance without moving from one spot — making the fad ideal for crowded sports arenas, where movement is often minimal anyway.

Of course, the main reason the dance is so big is obvious: It’s summertime. What better time is there to put your hands on your hips or in the air and hop, all while listening to a hybrid of rap, flamenco and disco music?