Q. Was breaking always competitive?
A. It’s always had a competitive tinge. There wasn’t scoring, but it was certainly competitive. You would have these breaking crews who would square off with each other. They would try to outdo each other in these acrobatic feats.
Q. Why was it included in this year’s Games?
A. Breaking is intensely athletic and acrobatic. If you watch a great breakdancer, you’re going to see them do stuff with their body that you didn’t think was possible. I don’t think anyone was complaining that breakdancing wasn’t in the Olympics … but it’s kind of like the Oscars, where it’s an event put together by a bunch of people who are old and uncool and desperately trying to get the coveted viewership of younger, cooler people.
Q. Do you think their bid for young people’s attention worked?
A. If the Olympics operate on the belief that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, then yeah, it totally worked. If there are millions of people watching those clips, making fun of them, making memes out of them, that still brings visibility to the Games. Media companies are very aware that viral moments are incredibly valuable, whether those things are going viral because it’s Simone Biles doing these incredible feats of gymnastics or if it’s someone like Raygun.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
