#breakin'

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

breakin' |1984|

[cosmicretreat]

Movie of the Day: Breakin'

Critics dismissed this movie as a stiff, amateurish cash-in on a fad when it was released on May 4, 1984. They're wrong. It's a fantastic nod to dance in cinema, a combination of those old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland "let's put on a show and save the farm" flicks and a Fred Astaire movie where the story stops for some of the best dancing you've ever seen in your life. Even Roger Ebert, who hated the movie, conceded that the dance sequences had "astonishing grace and power." Even the comedy sequences, which are often rooted in ridiculing classism and social manners, remind me of Laurel & Hardy movies.

In the center of it all is a great performance by Chicago's own Adolfo "Shabba Doo" Quinones, one of the great American choreographers. He redefines screen dancing in this movie; breakdancing had become a thing in the 70s and was on the wane for a while until it hit the mainstream. Shabba Doo was one of the members of the Original Lockers alongside Don "Campbellock" Campbell, Fred "Rerun" Berry, and Toni Basil, where he helped to innovate locking. This film is a testament to just how freaking good he was.

Also here is Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, who has also done body work as creatures in several films and tv shows (he was the Urkel-Bot). Chambers is the guy who taught Michael Jackson the Moonwalk. Honestly, the plot's a little generic, but watching Chambers dance... who cares? You're seeing some world class dancing preserved on film. No one ever talks about how boring Top Hat is, because the reason people love Top Hat is the beautiful sets and the incredible dancing.

Retrospectively, of course, there's the time capsule aspect of it. But the fad it rode, breakdancing, was also the vehicle that helped to catapult hip hop into the mainstream, too.

Which brings me to...

Album of the Day: Breakin': Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Shabba Doo also felt that this movie changed the course of rap music by giving it mainstream attention, and it's hard to argue with that. When Breakin' was released, it opened at number one (beating Sixteen Candles) and became Canon Film Group's most profitable film as a distributor. (This was released after MGM broke off their deal to distribute Canon Films over a dispute involving possible X-rated content in Bolero.) And the soundtrack sold millions of copies and helped suburban kids like me who took breakdancing classes at the local park district become more interested in this new kind of music that our parents hated.

Video: "Reckless" by Chris "The Glove" Taylor and David Storrs. Taylor was a DJ in a Los Angeles club who had never produced a record before, but told the producers of the film he had, then stayed up all night producing "Reckless," finishing by 2am. The rapper is Tracy Lauren Marrow, better known as Ice-T, who briefly appears in the film as well. This is the first recording featuring rap vocals by Ice-T.

Eminem said "Reckless" was the first hip hop record he ever heard and what inspired him to rap.

[deepdreamnights]

The rarest film in the trilogy.

Prompt and a detailed process under the fold.

Multiple midjourney prompts and gens, composited, overpainted, and photomanipulated. Then combined with graphic design elements.

While these are end-point gens, this can give you an idea of how I go about making something "finished." Each of these is the result of extensive prompt-testing, followed by outpainting with prompt changes throughout the process.

Once I have my raw material, I can move on to the next step, the composite:

an then it was off to photoshop to build the rest of the poster, using the original Italian poster as the model:

Main Prompts:

three breakdancing werewolves, dance scene, discotheque background, wearing 80s dance fashion, highly detailed painting, airbrushed details, handstand, art for movie poster

a female werewolf in a leotard, tights, and leg warmers, flashdance outfit, dances in a disco, 80s dance fashion, highly detailed painting, airbrushed details, handstand, art for movie poster

Plus several others, and variants.

This was for a dumb pun.

[schlock-luster-video]

On April 21, 2015, Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo were released as a double-feature DVD by Shout Factory.

[460media]

Vintage style, an ongoing series (View-Master 3D reels, US, plastic, ink, photographic film, dye, and fiberboard, 1984)

[shaythelittlefay]

[movieposters1]

[retropopcult]

"Ain't Nobody" is a song by American funk band Rufus and American singer Chaka Khan.  It was released in 1983 as one of four studio tracks included on their live album Stompin' at the Savoy.  The single quickly gathered popularity, reaching #1 on the US Billboard R&B chart and #22 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Rufus keyboardist David "Hawk" Wolinski wrote the song around a repeating synthesizer loop backed by a Linn LM-1 drum computer.  Once the track was recorded, Warner Bros. executives wanted to issue another song as the album's first single, but Wolinski threatened to give the single to Michael Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones for Jackson's album Thriller if the song was not the lead-off single. The label relented.

A year later, “Ain’t Nobody” was showcased in a scene for the 1984 film Breakin' and included on the soundtrack.  The single climbed back up the charts and hit #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Top 50.