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Moshing
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==Etymology== The name "mosh" originates from the word "mash". While performing their song "Banned in D.C." in either 1979 or 1980, [[H.R. (musician)|H.R.]], vocalist of Washington D.C. hardcore band the [[Bad Brains]], shouted "mash it - mash down Babylon!" Because of his Jamaican accent, some audience members heard this as "mosh it - mosh down Babylon".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tremblay |first1=Maxwell |last2=Duncombe |first2=Stephen |title=White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race |date=July 18, 2011 |publisher=Verso |page=211 |quote=Then there was the song "Banned in D.C." β at the end of which the Brains would switch the gears of their revolutionary sound, causing the whole house to drastically change their slam tempo. Well, it was at some point in either late 1979 or early 1980 that H.R. of the Bad Brains yelled a Rasta/reggae inspired "mash it-mash down Babylon!" Add a little Jamaican accent to the mix and the untrained ear hears "mosh it-mosh down Babylon."}}</ref> Beginning around 1983, metalheads began to refer to the slower sections of hardcore songs as "mosh parts", while hardcore musicians had called them "[[Skank (dance)|skank]] parts". Once [[Stormtroopers of Death]] released their debut album ''[[Speak English or Die]]'' in 1985, which included the track "Milano Mosh", the term began being applied to the style of dance.<ref name="Ambrose, 2010">{{cite book |last1=Ambrose |first1=Joe |title=The Violent World Of Moshpit Culture |date=2010 |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |quote="Then," says Martin, "the metal clowns started calling them 'mosh pits', the slow parts where everybody would dance harder in hardcore songs. When I was playing in Agnostic Front and I would write a slow part or whatever, those guys would be like, Oh, that's a good skank part. And then the metal people started calling them mosh parts." The word emerged into common New York parlance around '83/'84.<br>Alternatively the term may have been coined by Anthrax or SOD (Stormtroopers Of Death), an Anthrax affiliated project whose 'Milano Mosh' was an influential track. New York rock publicist Trevor Silmser recalls: "What made the word popular was in '85 this group SOD put out a record and had a song called 'Milano Mosh' and that was a pretty big crossover record, basically getting tons of metal kids into hardcore." Billy Milano from SOD says that although there was a certain period during which people stopped calling it slamming and started calling it moshing, it was SOD and not Anthrax that actually started it.<br>Scott Ian of Anthrax, who also plays in SOD with Milano, gives the credit to the more commercial of his two bands: "The first time I saw moshing at a metal show was when Anthrax played the old Ritz in early '85 and a pit opened up. So yeah I can definitely say, as far as I know, we definitely brought it out into the world of heavy metal. Sadly I would have to take some responsibility for that."}}</ref> The term was then further popularised by [[Anthrax (American band)|Anthrax]]'s 1987 song "[[Among the Living|Caught in a Mosh]]".<ref>Christie, Ian, ''Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal''</ref>
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