THE TERM POPLOCKING IS IT A VALID TERM ? 

DOES IT REALLY MATTER By Greg Campbellock Jr. Pope

One day one of my students had approached me with a question. He Seem a little reluctant to ask the question. It has always been my way Of teaching others that NO QUESTION is a stupid question. His question to me was: What’s the difference between “Locking” and “POP -LOCKING”? Now…. This is one of those words I truly have to catch myself in the control Department. It’s one of those words that I’ve had to tolerate over the Years.

Just like that bad tasting medicine my mother use to give me When I was just a child. I went on to explain that they are both (2) Separate dances and should be respected in there own category. Popping is a down - ward motion of the joints into what’s call a “hit”. This was explained to me by the Creator himself….Boogaloo Sam. Locking….You are taking a Fast and Vital Movement of the body And Stopping at a given point. This is called: Locking. For example: A door……Once it is in a Locked position it’s stuck until it has been release to move or to open. This is the case with LOCKING…the dance. Popping for what I have been taught by the other Master Poppers,Sam,Pete,Suga Pop, Dane, Taco,and Shrimp. That a “HIT” is a Flow of moves that is translated like a TICK of a CLOCK. I mean even though I’ve made through Television appearances with these guys doing these moves. I’m still not good at it. But because of my Locking skills I understand what that means.

Locking is so full of energy that it is not possible to do accurately as the WORD …….POP - LOCKING indicates. But based on the fact that this was once the name the ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS use to identify themselves as Electric Boogaloo Lockers. Others took it upon themselves to confuse the name. Does it really matter? Yes…. Many have made sacrifices to forward the name and Culture of Locking and Popping and it should be corrected out of RESPECT. By: Greg Campbellock Jr. LOCKERLEGENDS: Thanks Greg for that insite into the differences between the dances GREG: your very welcome I’m sure you want to read Skeeter’s views on the subject (below).. it should really go in dept on the history of the term

IS THE TERM POPLOCKING VALID

“THE GOOD” “THE BAD” & “THE UGLY”

By James “Skeeter Rabbit” Higgins & Lockerlegends 

For several years there has been controversy over the term POPLOCKING. Is it a valid term? Does it disrespect both Art forms Locking and Popping? How did this term come about? These and other questions regarding the term has been the topic of many heated discussions on message boards .. We at Lockerlegend have discussed this with many pioneers who existed before the term was created. And have found that depending on when and why you became exposed to the Art forms of Locking and of Popping, May affect how you perceive the term.

We agree that NOW as the COMMERCIAL market has dictated that the credit, marketing and history of these great dances be distributed separately it claims to do disservice to both and it also serves to confuse the public,, But was it always like that ? We believe not! There was a time in the early 1970s when the major street dance subculture to equate with was LOCKING and EVERYTHING began to evolve from that, Other developing street moves desired to have a connection with Locking. We believe that for both those that was and wasn’t there it is very easy to see that Popping and boogalooing had its evolutionary ROOTS from Locking, Roboting.and also several street dance moves which formed in The northern California cities of Oakland , Richmond and San Francisco. The first PROFESSIONAL group to display this proved it to be a fact, by dressing like, and naming themselves after the one inspiration that existed, The LOCKERS and the Locking movement. They called themselves “The Electronic Boogaloo LOCKERS” But their performance was filled with steps like quick hard roboting, gliding,tutting. It was filld with gestures and mimelike moves. So it was only natural that since they considered themselves “Locker style daancers, that the term adapted by MANY was the combination of the two art forms,” POPLOCKING”.

At that time many of the old school Poppers, from the innercity hoods and streets were proud to be associated with the continued evolution of locking and often used the term themseves. This began to confuse new commers with a new evolution of Locking instead of a distict , new separate Art form .Don Campbell the creator of the Locking dance style, once discribed locking as quick pausing or freezing movements, by that account Popping could have been considered a evolution of Locking, But distiguishing between the type of freezes came into play years later. as individuals tryed to distinguish the differences between the two styles. That is why we TODAY we cannot use the theory that any dance with the elements of freezes be considered locking. The innovator of Boogalooing and the founder of the Electric Boogaloos, Sam Soloman (“Boogaloo Sam”) Tells the story of when the name was changed and the term ” LOCKERS” was dropped from their name”, he explains that it was at the insisted suggestion of then manager and promoter Jeff Kutash, Was Kutash smart enough to realize that the term Locking and Locking itself had already been marketed and what he had was an opportunity to be the first to market and entirely different Art form ? And was it at that point that a campaign to discredit the Term PopLocking began. and is that the point that some decided that it also needed to be separated into TWO words with two seperate identities? At some point the two dances became totally confused , with the popularity of Popping, Many people began to refer to the Original Dance of LOCKING as PopLocking. Many of the dancers of the Original artform of Locking became frustrated with the confusion and also joined in the campaign to seperate the Term PopLocking.

Well the two art forms will be forever linked through that history although they now do have two separate identities and two seperate dances. But there is also purist who still exist who have used the term Poplocking for decades, to discribe the original artform now known under the general term of Popping, and we believe they have every right , just as we have the right to determine if what we do is Locking or Cambellocking. Locking and Popping EACH went on to have two different marketing strategies,and for Comercial and marketing purposes, both needed its own foundation. Because these art forms are both big marketing Items with great capitalistic potential we are now clarifying differences and not similarities So Locking cannot be popping and Popping cannot be Locking. and The profitors now want the term PopLocking to not be Valid…To explain this each pioneer or teacher has to explain the technical differences (see the Greg Campbellock Jr. page and his views). WE AGREE… They each need their own place in history… but that does not mean that the term that once existed is no longer accurate. It only means that the two artforms should be clarified .But we must always give a clear view of the history to not confuse the thousands that have known this term to have once been validated and accepted by the entity that makes the rules for streetdancers , THE STREETS THEMSELVES.. then they can now understand why it does disservice to Both Art forms

This Editorial is a collaberation between James ”SkeeterRabbit” Higgins, Tony GoGo and Peekaboo Frenke