10 Songs That Inspired Dance Crazes

Soulja Boy’s self-produced "Crank That" is now deemed a classic song which inspired the Souja Boy dance craze of the late 2000s. In September 2007, it became a number one hit after being released online by the artist staying at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for 7 weeks. The song’s success was aided by the popular music video in which starts with two young boys singing and dancing in a records executives office. The music video shot in Atlanta is a central part of the release and features the classic Soulja boy dance which proved itself to be a fun dance for fans to learn.

Another key to this song's success was Soulja Boy’s internet savvy in promoting the track and creating a blueprint that artists still follow today. Soulja Boy used MySpace, Soundclick and YouTube to promote the track whilst also uploading the song under the names of popular songs on illegal downloading services such as Limewire.

In this case, the song was released for fans to get excited by the dance and try it themselves. Following the release, Soulja Boy released an instructional dance video allowing fans to correctly crank it to the popular tune.