The Vogue culture, a gay/trans/mostly black dance culture popularized in the stream-able film “Paris is Burning,” and plagiarized by Madonna, never actually disappeared when it left the public eye in the early 90′s, yet now it seems to be having a new moment, and what some might call a resurgence. A few years back, I discovered YouTube channels showing drag queens battling (dancing) to blown out versions of Masters at Work’s “Ha Dance,” and along with the detroit jit, kuduro, footwork, daggering, etc. I realized the multitude of amazing dance sub-cultures beyond dancehall and hip hop.
Today, “Vogueing” is cool again, for better or for worse (better is the Fade to Mind label, worse would be a Lady Gaga ripoff), and its ambassador is MikeQ, who’s Vogue night in the Hell’s Kitchen of Midtown Manhattan is becoming a bit legendary. Exciting outsider dance music is increasingly scarce in the world of EDM (as they call it now) and scenes like this can feel like a respite from the bottle service frat parties that popularize the genre… I will chill on the societal analysis. Here are some examples new and old of vogue culture for you to enjoy… or at least investigate.
Here is the first link I clicked for this, and it is pretty much amazing. Link around.