Alot of people wonder where the roots of "Popping" came from and there are alot of controversial debates that rage on even until now
Since I was not even born at the time this all took place, I cannot say who is right and who is wrong, but I have been doing my share of research and have come to a conclusion on my own from the information I have gathered.
I stumbled accross this topic on Mr.Wiggle's Forum and I thought this was some great information that had been forgotten about and burried in all of the other posts.
This was posted by "Birdman" back in 2002, enjoy!
"Hey,
What's up everybody? my name is BIRDMAN, I'm and up and coming dancer that combines all styles of this great art form that everybody calls "popping" or either "boogalooing". But before I decided to get serious about this art form, I wanted to do some research on the history of popping because of all the controversy.
Well it just so happens I ran into allot of O.G.'s from Oakland and started hanging with them, and I mean these guys are in their late 30's, early 40's, and damn near 50's. And I explained to them about what was going on with this dance so they were curious to find out what was going on. So I showed them tapes, they seen the tape of "Soul Train", I even showed them clips on the computer. But unfortunately these guys aren't really into the technology of computers like I am because they're busy working with their families, and doin' all kinds of other stuff. So all of them wanted me to translate from them to me about their opinion and facts about what really happened. And believe me, I've showed them everything, they've read everything, they've read all the posts, so they definitely without a doubt know the perspective of what's goin' on now, as opposed to what was goin' on when they were dancing. So here we go:
First of all, there are so many subjects to talk about, because this has gotten way out of hand. But that's o.k. Because people really don't know. It is correct the word "boogaloo" has probably been used a hundred times since the beginning of dance. But in the late sixties, early seventies, the brothas in Oakland decided to take that name "boogalooin'" and connect it with the dance that created illusion, as such forms as the robot, slidin', hittin', wigglin', and pointin', and breakin' down, posin', tremblin' and walking, and yes, dancing all over the place while hitting to the beat. And to answer this question, no it wasn't a style that Sam was doin', because Sam had his own style. Not to mention he came ten years later. So if anything, he was doing a spin off of what they were doing. And if anybody knows if somebody originates a dance, then those are the people who dictate from that point on, what the dance should be in general.
At that time, When you said you saw "boogaloo" It didn't mean that he was just doing one style. You would have many styles. You might go somewhere, one guy might come out creepin' and vibratin', one guy might be jump ropin' and skippin', and posin', and hittin' at the same time while dancing, a style that has not been seen to this day. When I watch the boogaloos dance, what they definitely do is incredible, and they have carried this art form on. But the problem is, when everybody comes out, they all dance similar to the leader, known as Poppin' Pete, or Boogaloo Sam. I mean you really can tell this style is made for him. The way he looks, his height, his chemistry with that dance, and bond. Everybody else comes out and kind of does the same style but with their own twist. But it's basically the same style of dancing. With the constant movement, the shoot downs, the rollin' the legs, the same general concept. Where as back in the day, you'd have a boogaloo group with the guy moving like Poppin' Pete, but with his own style, but the rest of the guy’s style would be totally different. Nothing alike. Which I am surprised that they haven't done, especially when I seen the Soul Train tape, with the same leader, in the earlier generation, where everybody had a distinct style.
Why was that concept not kept? Every guy came out with something unique, pretty much all the way. Well, that's the way that all the Oakland groups were getting down from about 1967 up until about 1979. But of course, like any other era of dancing, the styles in Oakland evolved over a period of time.
So that brings us to this: “I was told that groups in Oakland were pretty much dancing off of music on 45, and fast music”. First of all, that’s incorrect. The groups that were doing that were San Francisco, and Richmond groups. And that started happening from about 1978 on after that. But that's not important right now. I get the impression that there were no groups in Oakland dancin' to Funk. Not only were we dancin' to Funk, we started off with Soul. And let me describe to you to the best of my abilities of what we were doing.
About 1967, there was a group called Aces of Soul. They used to wear white gloves, white apple hats, white shoes, black turtle neck sweaters, with the "#1" on the back. And they used to dance off a song by "Rare Earth" called "Gettin' Ready", which I believe might have been also recorded by the Temptations. And they used to dance in the talent shows. It was four of them. They used to announce them, and all the people would go crazy and run up to the stage, screaming like if they were the Beatles. They had a strobe light on. And they would all come out creepin' together. All of the sudden they would just start moving all over the place. And yes it was continuous movement, and they constantly hitting, some were posing, wiggling, and jumping all over the place at the same time. But they all had unique and different styles of doing it that were totally different. Those were some of the original styles of boogalooing. And again, no, it wasn't like how Sam was moving. Because it was the original style. And anything that came from that was a derivative. But of course as time goes on, styles are gonna get more advanced.
Just as a Popping video I've seen of Pete dancing in black and white, and years later where he dances totally different. He even says it himself that every time you see him, from time to time that he gets better and more advanced. One of the things I wanna say is when the brothas was comin' out with boogalooin'', when they were rollin', the whole purpose of boogalooing was to make somebody believe that you were doing something that you weren't doing. And there really wasn't any rules, but at the same time it was an unspoken rule that you knew if you're doing this dance. The whole purpose of it was, to mix some form of hitting, animating, 3d, robot, slidin', dime stopping, meltin', Chinese robot, skippin', shieldin', some form of pantomime, hitting, etc. As long as you combined any of them together, anything goes.
Which is another thing, you could shift gears to any speed, or any style that you wanted at any time, and at that time there was no rules that when you get in a contest that you had to stick to only one style. (Yes I read that article). Back then, if there was 500 dollar boogaloo contest, you could do whatever you wanna do. It was your responsibility to learn every possible style that you could know. Just like when you get into a battle, nobody tells you that before you get into the circle, you must only stick with this one style. First of all, it's restricted, boring, it stops artistic freedom of expression, and it stunts the growth of the dance. When you see breakers gettin' down in the circle, you never see them saying "before you get in the circle, you only can do this style" They get out there and do whatever they wanna do. Yes, during the circles, every once in a while, you'll see someone getting into a head spin battle, uprock battle, but after that, it goes back to normal. So even when breakers get into contests, they have the freedom to do whatever they wanna do. So if poppers start doing the same thing, and are restricted to one style, not only is it gonna be boring, it's gonna kill the art form and it won't go to the next level like breaking did. In some way, the guy I saw named "Crazy Legs" on some interviews seemed like he was trying to restrict breakin' too much with the original style that he does. But I won't go into that because I'm not a breaker.
So back to the boogalooing. You had another group called One Plus One, in 1969 that used to dance off of "Walk on" by Isaac Hayes. And they had a whole style to it. You had another group in 1971 called the "Soul Steppers". Obviously, you could tell by the first name of the group, what they probably danced off of. They danced off of "Unfinished Business" by Donald Byrd of the Blackbirds. And they all moved extremely fast. I've seen a tape of Poppin' Pete and his group on the "Late Show" in 1979. It looked like Don Kirschner's "Night Show" dancing off of "Hot Number". That style they were doing (not the moves) but the style, the rhythm, and the hittin', Oakland was doing that from 1971-1974.
But imagine with a little difference in moves. The reason why people probably don't have this information is because, at the time, there was no medium for this art form to be seen. (Except this one little show called "The Soul is" show, or the "Jay Payton" show), and I don't think that show was syndicated past Oakland. So basically, Oakland got "Lost in the Sauce". By the time they quit dancing, people forgot about those eras.
About the robotical styles, well they were always robot styles from the beginning. But as you know, there's many types of robot styles as you guys as well know yourself. For instance, you got the robot style that they did on "Soul Train". I believe somebody said "Charles the Robot", and "Tangerine", then you had Michael Jackson's robot off of "Dancin' Machine", and "Slim"'s robot from the Lockers and then you had "Demeta Joe/Private Benjamin"'s robot. Well same thing over here. You had various robots in Oakland. From the beginning, to the end. Some robots were done by itself, others were mixed with boogalooin', because when a person boogalooed, He didn't have to stay to one foundation.
He or she could shift gears at any moment. That's what made it fun. But as the late seventies rolled around, 1974-76, people started moving like animated clay figures. Like Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, Stoppin' like Statues, melting, vibratin', and advanced roboting at the same time. And this is where more of the dimestopping elements got more advanced. And this is how it went until it stopped at about 1979-80. I truly believe this might have been the point, whoever said they saw Oakland just getting stiff on the dime came in at. Well, this is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You guys said you wanted to hear from some O.G.'s in the bay area; well here it is, in black and white.
"
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