Editing Moshing (section)

===Origins and early developments (1970s–1980s)===
[[File:moshpit2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Crowd surfing]] over a mosh pit]]
The direct predecessor to moshing was the [[Pogo (dance)|pogo]], a style of dance done in the 1970s English [[punk rock]] scene, in which crowds members would jump up and down while holding their arms beside them.<ref name="Ragusa 2021">{{cite web |last1=Ragusa |first1=Paolo |title=Moshing: The Art and Consequences of One of the Most Celebrated Concert Dance Forms |url=https://consequence.net/2021/08/moshing-history-essay/ |website=[[Consequence (publication)|Consequence]] |date=19 August 2021 |access-date=11 July 2023}}</ref> According to [[The Filth and the Fury]], it was invented by [[Sex Pistols]] bassist [[Sid Vicious]] in 1976.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2000/06/17/festival-holds-filth-a-secret-senselessness/|title=Festival Holds 'Filth', A Secret, Senselessness|date=June 17, 2000|first=Jay|last=Boyar|work=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|author2=Moore, Roger }}</ref>

As a prominent punk rock scene in [[Southern California]] began to form in the late 1970s and early 1980s with early [[hardcore punk]] groups like [[Fear (band)|Fear]] and [[Black Flag (band)|Black Flag]], moshing as it is understood today began to develop, originally termed "slam dancing".<ref name="Ragusa 2021" /> Participants in slam dancing at this time modified the pogo by bringing additional physical contact to those around them by pushing and running, as well introducing the idea of a recognised area where it takes place called a "pit".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tsitsos |first1=William |title=Rules of Rebellion: Slamdancing, Moshing, and the American Alternative Scene |journal=Popular Music |date=October 1999 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=405–406 |doi=10.1017/S0261143000008941 |s2cid=159966036 |quote=Slamdancing is a style of dance which originated in the United States in the punk rock subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is a modification of the early punk 'pogo' dance. Slamdancing brought increased body contact to the original pogo...<br> The pit is not an explicitly marked off area, but pits usually form in front of the stage where a band is playing. Occasionally (usually at shows in larger venues), more than one pit will break out in various parts of the crowd. Although 'the pit' refers to an area, a pit only exists if people are dancing in it...<br> Slamdancing involves fast movement. Often, this movement takes the form of everyone in the pit running counter-clockwise, occasionally slamming into each other. The dance involves some arm-swinging, but it is usually just one arm (most often the right one) in motion. When dancers are running counter-clockwise, the swinging of the right arm serves a double function. On the one hand, it allows dancers to slam into people and then quickly push them away, and on the other, it helps dancers gain momentum while running in a counter-clockwise circle. Sometimes, however, slamdancers do not run in a circle, but rather move in a more 'run-and-collide' fashion, simply throwing themselves into the part of the pit where the most people are gathered, slamming into each other}}</ref> According to [[Steven Blush]]'s book ''[[American Hardcore: A Tribal History]]'' (2001), there is a common belief amongst those involved in this scene that the dance was invented by former US marine Mike Marine in 1978. His specific style, involving "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms and hitting everyone within reach", would go on to be termed "the Huntington Beach Strut".<ref name="Blush, 2001, p.31">{{cite book |last1=Blush |first1=Steven |author-link=Steven Blush |title=[[American Hardcore: A Tribal History]] |date=October 2001 |publisher=[[Feral House]] |page=31 |quote=Slamdancing arose in Southern California towns like Huntington Beach and Long Beach. According to lore, Mike Marine (former US Marine and star of the film ''The Decline Of Western Civilization'') performed the first slamdance in 1978. Mike created a vicious version of punk dancing, smashing the face of anyone who’d get near him — especially some fucking hippie, who’d get pulverized. Kids called it "The Huntington Beach Strut" or "The HB Strut" — strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms and hitting everyone within reach. Slamdancing proved significant because it separated the kids from the "posers."}}</ref> ''[[The Orange County Register]]'' writer Tom Berg credited, [[Costa Mesa, California|Costa Mesa]] venue, the [[Cuckoo's Nest (nightclub)|Cuckoo's Nest]] (1976–1981) as the "birthplace of slam dancing".<ref name="Berg2019">{{cite news |author1=Tom Berg |title=O.C. punk club to go Hollywood |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2009/02/10/oc-punk-club-to-go-hollywood/ |access-date=14 April 2020 |work=Orange County Register |date=10 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216135601/https://www.ocregister.com/2009/02/10/oc-punk-club-to-go-hollywood/ |archive-date=16 December 2019}}</ref> Examples of this early moshing were featured in the documentaries ''[[Another State of Mind (film)|Another State of Mind]]'', ''Urban Struggle'', ''[[the Decline of Western Civilization]]'', and ''[[American Hardcore (film)|American Hardcore]]''. Fear's 1981 musical performance on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' also helped to expose moshing to a much wider audience.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Grow |first=Kry |date=September 10, 2015 |title=Inside John Belushi's Long Lost Punk Song With Fear |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/inside-john-belushis-long-lost-punk-song-with-fear-73830/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |publisher=[[Penske Media Corporation]] |access-date=May 20, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=McCloskey |first=Tim |date=October 30, 2015 |title=The Life and Times of Philly Hardcore Pioneer Lee Ving |url=https://www.phillymag.com/things-to-do/2015/10/30/lee-ving-philadelphia-hard-core/ |magazine=[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]] |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |publisher=[[Metrocorp]] |access-date=May 20, 2020 }}</ref>

By 1981, slam dancing had become the predominant style of crowd interaction in the southern California scene, as [[Huntington Beach]] and [[Long Beach]] became the scene's heart.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blush |first1=Steven |author-link=Steven Blush |title=[[American Hardcore: A Tribal History]] |date=October 2001 |publisher=[[Feral House]] |page=31 |quote='''Lee Ving (Fear)''': Right around the time of our first album, around 1981, it changed from the pogo bullshit into the real slam stuff. Pogoing was just jumping up and down. It was less interactive, more benign. The focus changed from Hollywood toward the beaches, and the idea of speed and the slam pit had its birth. We started playing as fast as you could fucking think and the crowd would go as berserk, pounding the shit out of each other in the pit. It was good sportsmanship and all about working up a good sweat}}</ref> Washington, D.C. band [[the Teen Idles]] toured California in August 1980, where they were first exposed to slam dancing. Upon returning home, they introduced the practice to the [[Washington, D.C., hardcore]] scene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rettman |first1=Tony |title=Straight Edge A Clear-Headed Hardcore Punk History |quote=They came back from the West Cost with this thing they got from Huntington Beach. Ian MacKaye and Henry Rollins definitely filtered that through their own ideas, but wearing bandanas around your boots and the slam dancing came from the Teen Idles going out to L.A. [sic] There's no question.}}</ref> That particular scene took a more chaotic approach to slam dancing and saw an increase in [[stage diving]], whereas in the [[Boston hardcore]] scene slam dancing became violent and incorporated punching below the neck, developing a style called the "Boston thrash" or "punching penguins". Another development in the Boston scene was "pig piles" in which one person was pushed to the ground and others would begin to pile on top of them. This originated during a [[D.O.A. (band)|D.O.A.]] set, which was initiated by [[SSD (band)|SSD]] guitarist Al Barile.<ref name="Blush, 2001, p.249">{{cite book |last1=Blush |first1=Steven |author-link=Steven Blush |title=[[American Hardcore: A Tribal History]] |date=October 2001 |publisher=[[Feral House]] |page=249 |quote=Kids in the pit jumped on each other in “pig-piles.” This unique local pastime, like the scene itself, often turned into a scary mess. At some point they’d throw some kid onstage and pigpile him right there. There’d be as many as twenty kids — stacked up so high they’d touch the lights — crushing those on the bottom.<br>'''Al Barile''': It’s a Boston thing. I think I was the first person to push someone down and start the pile. This D.O.A. show at The Underground was the first pigpile I remember. It got so crazy the drummer trashed his kit and jumped on top of the pile...<br>'''"Straight Edge" Hank Peirce''' (Boston scene): Boston was much more violent than slamming I’d seen anywhere else. We described it as "punching penguins." It had a name — "The Boston Thrash." New York had that big circle-storm thing. DC wasn’t as organized — more chaotic with more diving. LA was the king of running in circles with no sense of rhythm to it. When you watched The Decline Of Western Civilization you said, "That's slamdancing!" But Boston really changed things.<br>The dancefloor action could turn savage but it was never about hits above the shoulders or blatant shots to the face. There were plenty of bloody or broken noses, but after knocking someone down, you’d bend over and pick them up.}}</ref> The [[New York hardcore]] scene of the mid-1980s, modified this early slam dancing into an additional, more violent style. In their distinction, participants may stay in one position on their own or collide with others, while executing a more exaggerated version of the arm and leg swinging of California slam dancing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tsitsos |first1=William |title=Rules of Rebellion: Slamdancing, Moshing, and the American Alternative Scene |journal=Popular Music |date=October 1999 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=405–406, 410 |doi=10.1017/S0261143000008941 |s2cid=159966036 |quote=Much like slamdancing was a modification of the pogo, moshing emerged in the mid-1980s as a variation on slamdancing...<br> In contrast to slamdancing, moshing lacks the elements, such as circular pit motion, which promote unity in the pit. The development of moshing in New York City in the 1980s even saw the partial breakdown of the convention of picking up fallen dancers, as pit violence increased. New York City straight edge shows became legendary for their brutality...<br>Moshers keep their bodies more bent over and compacted, and they swing either both arms or just one (usually the right) arm around across the body in a move that one of my interviewees called 'the death swing'. This swinging of the arm(s) in moshing is far more theatrical and exaggerated than in slamdancing. If a mosher swings only one arm, the non-swinging arm is kept ready to provide some guard against collisions with other moshers. The dancers often stand in a stationary position while performing these moves, but sometimes they run into other people inside and on the edge of the pit. To do so, dancers generally just move to where there are other dancers clustered and colliding with each other and join in the collision. This run-and-collide style of moshing can be distinguished from the style of slamdancing which also involves running and colliding by the more exaggerated body movements in moshing. Moshers do not move in counter-clockwise group motion...<br>Compared with slamming, the fundamental body movements of moshing, such as the more violent swinging of the arms, the more violent body contact, and the lack of group motion place even greater emphasis on individual territoriality over community. Whereas the bodily motion of swinging arms and high-stepping legs has remained the traditional motion of slamdancing since it first emerged, moshing has seen the introduction of new moves such as jumping karate kicks.}}</ref>

As fans of [[heavy metal music]] began to attend New York hardcore performances, they developed their own style of dancing based on New York hardcore's style of slam dancing. It was this group, particularly [[Scott Ian]] and [[Billy Milano]] who popularised the word "moshing".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blush |first1=Steven |author-link=Steven Blush |title=[[American Hardcore: A Tribal History]] |date=October 2001 |publisher=[[Feral House]] |page=300 |quote=''Mike Schnapp'' (NYHC scene): In 1985, I started hearing a new word: Moshing. It was a Metal word from Billy Milano and Scott Ian of S.O.D., and was a new term for a similar thing I knew as slamdancing in the Punk world. Some of the Metal kids showing up at the Hardcore shows didn’t understand the nuances of the scene. They saw kids banging into each other and just joined in. So some of the Hardcore crew didn’t like the Metal crowd at "their" shows. You took your life in your hands if you were one of the lone longhairs at a CBGB’s matinee. That’s when things got rough, and the violence really messed things up. People lost focus. It used to be about the bands and the music. It started one way and ended another"}}</ref> Ian and Milano's band [[Stormtroopers of Death]] released their debut album ''[[Speak English or Die]]'' in 1985, which included the track "Milano Mosh". This led to the term being applied to the style of dance. The same year, moshing began to incorporate itself into live performances by heavy metal bands, with one early example being during [[Anthrax (American band)|Anthrax]]'s 1985 set at [[The Ritz (rock club)|the Ritz]].<ref name="Ambrose, 2010" />