Overview

Twerking—the hip-thrusting, booty-shaking dance with New Orleans bounce music roots—exploded into mainstream consciousness 2011-2013 through YouTube viral videos and Miley Cyrus’s controversial 2013 VMA performance, sparking massive cultural appropriation debates while cementing the move in global dance vocabulary.

Origins & Cultural Roots

New Orleans bounce (1980s-1990s):
Twerking originated in New Orleans’s Black bounce music culture:

• DJ Jubilee: “Do the Jubilee All” (1993) with twerk-like instructions
• Bounce music: Fast-tempo hip-hop (100-110 BPM), call-and-response structure
• Second lines, clubs: Community dance tradition, predominantly Black spaces

The dance was culturally specific—rooted in New Orleans’s African American musical traditions, Caribbean influences (dancehall whining), and Southern hip-hop.

YouTube Viral Era (2011-2013)

Twerk Team:
YouTube personalities (notably creators like Lexy Panterra, though preceded by regional dancers) posted twerking tutorial and performance videos that went massively viral:

• Views: Hundreds of millions across channels
• Mainstream curiosity: Non-bounce music audiences discovering the dance
• Controversy: YouTube moderation debates (explicit content vs. cultural expression)

The videos introduced twerking to global audiences divorced from its cultural origins.

Miley Cyrus & Cultural Appropriation

2013 MTV VMAs (August 25, 2013):
Miley Cyrus’s performance with Robin Thicke—featuring exaggerated twerking, foam finger, and racially problematic staging—became the moment twerking entered mainstream discourse:

Immediate reactions:

• Viral explosion: Everyone talking about twerking overnight
• Cultural appropriation fury: Black women criticized white appropriation of their dance tradition without credit
• Hypersexualization: Media fixating on Miley’s body, not the dance’s cultural context
• Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”: Song’s rape culture controversy compounding the mess

The performance exemplified how white pop stars could take Black cultural forms, strip context, profit massively while original creators remained marginalized.

Dictionary & Mainstream Acceptance

Oxford English Dictionary (2013):
Added “twerk” as an official entry, dating origins to 1993 (acknowledging New Orleans roots but crediting mainstream recognition to 2013 Miley moment).

The legitimization felt bittersweet—recognition came via cultural appropriation, not honoring originators.

New Orleans Bounce Artists

Bounce artists who’d been twerking for decades:

• Big Freedia: “Queen of Bounce,” gained mainstream attention post-Miley (reality show, collaborations)
• DJ Jubilee, Partners-N-Crime, Cheeky Blakk: Regional legends finally getting national recognition
• Sissy Bounce: LGBTQ+ bounce subgenre emphasizing gender fluidity, twerking as queer expression

The Miley controversy brought some visibility to bounce originators—but also frustration at delayed, appropriation-driven recognition.

Feminist & Cultural Debates

Twerking sparked intense discourse:

Empowerment arguments:

• Women owning sexuality, body positivity
• Reclaiming “inappropriate” dance as liberation
• Agency over hypersexualized bodies

Exploitation critiques:

• Male gaze objectification
• Reducing women to body parts
• Cultural theft from Black women

Intersectional analysis:

• Black women twerking = criticized as “ghetto”
• White women twerking = celebrated as “edgy,” “sex-positive”
• Double standard revealing racism in respectability politics

Fitness & Commercialization

By mid-2010s, twerking became:

• Fitness classes: “Twerko

ut,” booty-sculpting workouts

• Instagram culture: #TwerkTeam hashtags, influencer content
• Music videos: Expected element in hip-hop/pop videos
• Mainstream acceptance: From scandalous to normalized

The commodification divorced twerking from its cultural roots—fitness studios teaching bounce culture without acknowledging New Orleans.

Global Spread

Twerking went worldwide:

• African diaspora: Mapouka (Côte d’Ivoire), Kuduro (Angola) connections highlighted
• Latin America: Reggaeton perreo, Brazilian funk (similar hip movements)
• Global clubs: Universal dance vocabulary in hip-hop/EDM spaces

The globalization both celebrated and erased regional specificity.

Legacy

Twerking’s journey—New Orleans underground → YouTube viral → Miley appropriation → mainstream acceptance—exemplifies:

• Cultural appropriation cycles: Black creation → white monetization → delayed recognition
• Platform dynamics: YouTube enabling both cultural spread and context erasure
• Sexuality politics: Women’s bodies policed differently by race
• Dance commodification: Community expression becoming fitness product

The dance persists (2023-present), but its cultural meaning has been permanently altered—from New Orleans bounce culture marker to globalized “sexy dance,” with all the complexity that transformation entails.

Sources

• The New York Times “Twerking: A Cultural History” (August 2013)
• The Guardian “Big Freedia and the Mainstreaming of Bounce” (2014)
• NPR “Miley Cyrus, Twerking, and Cultural Appropriation” (August 2013)