Reading, Writing, and Reflecting

The current viral sensation sweeping the web is the fun wedding entrance dance into a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.    Titled J&K Wedding Entrance Dance, within a week, it has 7 million views, visits for the wedding party to the Today Show and Good Morning America; and even a recreation of the dance on the Today Show.

Truly, a demonstration of the power of the Internet which is being felt today and into the future in some of the following ways:

• First off, the impact to Chris Brown has been quite profound.   His song, Forever, from 2008, which the dance has been choreographed to, has jumped up as high as # 6 on Itunes Top 100 chart.   This video explains every bit of that increase.

• Chris Brown more recently has been known infamously for physically and violently assaulting his girlfriend at the time, pop star Rihanna.   While this feel good video won’t make people forget that act completely , the fact that his music is being celebrated by most likely new fans as evidenced by the Itunes jump is doing more for rehabilitating his image than any 2 minute apology video could (which he also recently released).

• The truly global nature of Youtube has created awareness of this dance all across the world, to young people of all religions.  Regularly, you will see fun, choreographed dances in wedding receptions at banquet halls but rarely inside a church, temple, etc. during the wedding.   In Hindu weddings, it is quite common for the groom and his family to be dancing (called a baraat) in a procession to the wedding hall or temple to be greeted by the bride’s family, but the dancing always stops before entering the temple (example below).   I foresee now, you will see ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis etc. possibly around the world being asked if the bride and groom can enter into the wedding dancing.   I’m sure we’ll see some weddings soon where the ministers themselves may be dancing into position.

• The groundbreaking book by Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, talked about mavens, connectors, and salesmen.  Connectors were defined as people who “link us up with the world … people with a special gift for bringing the world together.”   In this day and age of social media and Internet marketing, all content, whether it be blogs, written articles, music, videos, is first targeted to these connectors, or influencers, who are able to quickly and credibly spread the word.  Marketers think they know who these connectors or influencers are, but for Chris Brown, a group of young St. Paul, Minnesotans have turned out to be the most valuable influencers and connectors for him during a down time.  Nobody could have foreseen that.

One of the reasons why I love the Internet—the swift and transforming impact that it can create is quite amazing: a group of young Minnesotans are on the Today Show, Chris Brown’s image begins to rehabilitate through pure luck, priests and ministers start to prepare responses on whether their constituents can dance into their place of worship.    I wonder how the groomsmen or bridesmaids from this wedding will top this when they get married in the future.

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