Long time etchy blog readers will recall that when I lived in Japan I managed to infiltrate one of the more bizarre subcultures, the "Para Para" dance scene... For those who don't know, Para Para was a Japanese dance craze popular in the first part of the 2000's.... by the time I moved to Japan at the end of '04 it was already well on the wane, but I managed to find people who were still quite into it. I attended a lot of their
parties, which were a LOT of
fun, even as the scene slowly morphed into following newer electro 'trance' music more than focusing on the Para Para dancing.
As I haven't attended any events in a number of years although we did manage to find some
here and
there, I figured the Para Para scene must have completely died out by now (the original practitioners would all be well into their 30s by now, which in Japan means you're probably married with kids... and hopefully not still frequenting dance clubs!)
So I was surprised to find this video on YouTube tonight. Not only is a brand new Para Para video, but its from a Hong Kong based group! (so maybe Para Para is dead in Japan but staying alive here?) This being alivenotdead.com, of course I have to share!
I like that they tried to localize it a bit with the various local backdrops. I also like that they didn't even bother to try to dress in any sort of similar pattern... you have guys in suits along w/ knit cap t-shirt guy. :-P
Anyway, give them an A for effort... but still missing something from the hey day!
I wonder what every happened to Koriki?