Who Invented the Headbang and the Pogo?
Headbang, which is one of the dance types of Heavy Metal music, is also known as Headbanging while it is done with violent head shaking.
It first appeared with Led Zeppelin during their US tour in 1969, and the band shook their heads to the rhythm, laying the foundation for the metaller's dance known as the headbanger.
Pogo, on the other hand, is a hard dance type that is very common in metal concerts, which emerged after the Headbang. This dance, which is performed with the effect of music, is mostly seen with pushing and jumping from top to bottom, and it also causes injuries.
Being an aggressive dance, it has adopted a unique style and formed the basic style of the dance with fighting-type movements such as kicking and pushing with the arms. While it was first said to have been performed at a London concert by Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, who died at a very young age, in 1976, Pogo has long been discussed as a genre away from punk culture.
Since Sid Vicious was an important icon for punk culture and at that time he performed this dance with a device called the Pogo Stick, pogo was associated with punk culture, but soon spread as a rock-metal movement. Pogo, which was still performed by hardcore punk until 1980 and started when a person poked and jumped on him, is a type of dance that suddenly grows and encompasses a huge audience.
Sid Vicious, on the other hand, jumped on the stage using the Pogo Stick and made a jumping form called the pogo stick by riding on this device with his feet. The Pogo Stick, which is an exercise tool generally used by athletes and seen in street sports (such as skating), is still used in concerts where heavy pogo will be held. While it is known that Pogo spread in this way, it was seen more in rock culture (punk culture did it with a jumping device at first), and today it has surpassed the Pogo Stick in this hard-fight form.
Finally, while the Pogo is criticized for its harshness, there is an even more harsh type of Moshing, which is almost the same as the pogo and is made by cuddling/ lying on the lap. While sometimes the musician jumping from the stage onto the audience is included in this, it has also been reported to cause several deaths in historical terms.