Adrenaline rush, music expression, wild attitude and the moshpit starts… How was the idea of moshing created and lived through music history?
1st of all: how did the term “mosh” come to be?
In the early eighties, hardcore punk band BAD BRAINS’s vocalist Paul Hudson used the term mash to describe the violent aggressive dancing at his concerts, but due to his Jamaican accent it was heard“ mosh”… In the mid eighties, thrash metal which was a hybrid of hardcore punk and heavy metal was progressing and gaining more popularity, the American thrash metal band ANTHRAX used the term again in the name of the track “caught in a mosh” so the punk / thrash scenes underwent a kind of union after several conflicts throughout music history …
The concept of “moshing”: Moshing also known as slamming which refers to aggressive dancing. In other terms, it is when a live performance audience expresses the musical energy by pushing or slamming into each other. Over the years, music knew a lot of variation so moshing also knew a kind of variation consequently…
Example: the name of the act changed according to the music style thrashing, hardcore dancing , wall of death, pitting, slamming, etc, every style expressed its moshing act in its own way under its own name!
Is moshing safe or not? Well when it comes to safety nothing guarantees that a person won’t die while crossing the street! Similarly for moshing, it has several positive stands competing with other negative ones or lets just name them accidents, because it’s worth mentioning that “moshers” stick to a kind of “moshing protocol” which morally binds moshers not to have the intention of hurting anyone else in the moshpit. So we can obviously say that moshing/slamming into each other isn’t the best example of civilization or safety … but in case of any injury it is never done on purpose, because those people accused by society of “violence” and “mental sickness” won’t let anyone fall or get hurt on purpose by anyone else. Total respect and musical appreciation is held and expressed between them. Let’s just say “accidents happens”.
Also, some international musicians don’t look at moshing as their favorite way to honor their music, which is why many bands forbid moshing and stand clearly against them such as Dream Theater. In an interview M. Portnoy said: “I think our audience have become a little bit more attentive and less of that type of mosh mentality …I understand you want to release that energy… but once people start doing that during “Through Her Eyes” it gets ridiculous …So this time around we’re consciously aiming at theaters that people can actually sit down and enjoy the show and be comfortable …without having to worry about their legs falling off or being kicked in the face by a Mosh Pit. So that will probably eliminate that problem anyway. ”On the other side lets just admit it: those moshers can’t express war, anarchy, chaos, social problems and many others lyrical themes and musical objectives just by “dancing”.
So for those who dislike moshing, just deal with it by imagining moshers as “dancers” of a different kind.
