Why are they moving in such a strange way?

“MATTHEW BARNEY (artist): There was something that attracted me to the pit, this kind of a controlled violent system where there are codes, and where people, in spite of the fact that their taking off each others heads, they’re also looking out for one another, which is true of the football field as well. You were punished a little for being there, which was very exciting.”

Hardcore artist Matthew Barney is trying to explain the attraction that comes from hardcore-concerts. It is the violent dancing.

Violent dancing has its origins in the 80’s.

At the beginning it was called slumdancing and was something like a modification of Pogo, the much softer and less dangerous punk-dance.

In those times it consisted of hustling each other, strutting around in a circle, swinging the arms and hitting everyone within reach. Another important part was the stagediving - first getting as close as possible to the band and then jump into the others. But the audience was often split in two parts, those who wanted to have fun and the "hooligans", those who were looking for trouble and just wanted to hit somebody. That's why there were so many injuries like broken bones and cracked skulls.

Nowadays nothing really has changed. There are still those who want to have fun and want to show their newest dance moves and those who attend a concert to “smash someone’s face” and in most of the cases they don't even stop for nobody not even for girls.                                                                                                        

Only the name has changed - it is no longer called slumdancing but moshing.                                              

In the 2000s some different kinds or parts of moshing developed, which all take place in the so-called moshpit, this is the space in front of the stage, the kids constitute something like a circle were they can make their moves.

These moves are for instance the “Wall of Death”, where two groups of people stand in a row adverse each other and when the band gives the sign they run and crash against each other.

Another one is the “Circlepit”, where those standing in the moshpit run around in a big circle.

That's about the history behind this weird kind of dancing.