Music Blogs

I imagine it's a slow Tuesday afternoon at the Best Buy. This fortysomething dude is there shopping for a deal on a plasma screen TV. He kind of looks like Johnny Fever from WKRP in Cincinnati--T-shirt, jeans, sunglasses, thinning hair. The in-store audio kicks in with an old R&B song he hasn't heard in a while. "Going To A Go Go" by Smokey & The Miracles. It sounds so good that Johnny starts to move a little. He pops a hip. Spins on his heel. Then, checking to see that no one's watching, he gets really funky.

Doing the Hitchhike. The Jerk. The Jagger chicken strut. Just flat out getting down. And he's got rhythm. Maybe not sixth Miracle material, but old Cholly Atkins would've been proud.

Someone walks by, so Johnny cools it. Switching to air bass, he pretends to be interested in something on an unattended checkout station. When the coast is clear, he bounces back with a vengeance, jumping side to side and shaking his rump.

Then just as Smokey sings, "C'mon people, don't you wanna go?" Johnny gets busted. A female store employee appears on the scene. You can just imagine her nervous voice. "Excuse me, sir, can I help you?" The clip ends. One minute, twenty-six seconds of pure joy.

Every era has its defining dance moments--Elvis hip-shaking, Travolta disco-strutting, Jacko moonwalking. Now, thanks to a security cam in an electronics store, we may have ours.

The Best Buy Guy has been a runaway phenomenon on the web for the past year. The dude's moves have been viewed a million times on video sharing sites, from YouTube to Channel 101 (if you haven't seen it, go here). His ratings are always close to five stars, with comments like "OMG lol," "Now tell me white guys can't dance!" and my fave, "Happy people that refuse self-consciousness RAWK!" There've even been Best Buy Guy imitators, and Best Buy Guy remixes to songs by Blur, Young MC and Marva Whitney.

So okay, maybe he isn't an era-defining dancer like James Brown or Prince, but the Best Buy Guy's got heart and soul. He's feeling the music. And that's what we need more of right now. Have you noticed what's happened to dancing in modern pop and R&B? I'm thinking of all that Beyonce-Justin hip-hop humping and way-too-serious posing. I guess it's meant to be sexy and provocative. But to me, it looks calculated. Choreographed to death. No fun. What's more, it's nothing that me or you could ever hope to do when we were tipsy at a wedding reception.

Whatever happened to just letting go and grooving freestyle?

That's why the Best Buy Guy rules. He doesn't care about looking sexy or cool. He's just doing his own thing.

Even if this whole clip was staged--after lonelygirl15, we can't be sure anymore--it's still one of the most honest expressions of unbridled joy I've seen in years. I've watched it probably 50 times, and it still makes me smile.

The Best Buy Guy does more than upend the cliché about white men's dancing skills. In his 90 seconds of fame, he reminds us: Let your freak flag fly. Have some fun. Dance in the aisles.

As Smokey sang, "C'mon people, don't you wanna go?"

For daily MOJOness, visit www.mojo4music.com