TWERK BY BASEMENT JAXX: THE TRACK THAT USED THE WORD LONG BEFORE THE WORLD DID
WHEN BASEMENT JAXX DROPPED "TWERK" back in 1999, most casual listeners probably glossed over the title without a second thought. Today, though, the word carries a LOT more cultural weight. Thanks to viral dance videos, Miley Cyrus's infamous 2013 VMA performance, and a decade of social-media choreography, "twerking" has become one of the most recognizable dance terms on the planet.
So here's the question: Did Basement Jaxx's track have anything to do with the "twerk" we know today?
The short answer is yes—but the fuller picture is even more interesting.
Before the Mainstream: "Twerk" in the 1990s
The term twerk didn't appear out of nowhere in the 2010s. It was already thriving in Black Southern club culture, especially in New Orleans' bounce music scene. By the early and mid-1990s, local artists were using "twerk," "twrk," and similar spellings to describe a high-energy, rhythmic style of booty-shaking that matched the frenetic pace of bounce beats.
This wasn't a passing fad—it was a deeply rooted, community-driven dance language that lived long before the global spotlight ever hit it.
Enter Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx, known for blending UK house with global club influences, were always tuned in to underground sounds. Their 1999 track "Twerk" reflects that awareness. The song leans into the same loose family of club styles—Miami bass, booty house, and U.S. Southern dance culture—that embraced the term long before it was mainstream.
In other words, Basement Jaxx weren't inventing the meaning. They were tapping into a word that already existed in the wider club universe: "twerk" as in shake, move, grind, bounce—basically the same core idea we recognize today.
So Why Didn't It Blow Up Then?
In 1999, "twerk" simply wasn't on the global radar. It was well-known regionally and within certain dance scenes but hadn't yet crossed into pop vocabulary. Basement Jaxx's track never sparked a worldwide craze—not because the word was new, but because mainstream audiences weren't paying attention to that corner of club culture yet.
The explosion happened over a decade later, when viral dance videos and pop celebrities propelled the move (and the word) into global consciousness. Suddenly, "twerk" was unavoidable—and many people assumed it was brand new.
The Full Circle Moment
Revisiting "Twerk" today feels almost prophetic. It shows how interconnected global dance music has always been, and how long it can take for underground culture to be "discovered" by the mainstream.
Basement Jaxx's "Twerk" wasn't ahead of its time—it was simply plugged into a world that the rest of the world hadn't caught up to yet. —A. Jidnam, Groove Gimmandi
HEN BASEMENT JAXX DROPPED "TWERK" back in 1999, most casual listeners probably glossed over the title without a second thought. Today, though, the word carries a LOT more cultural weight. Thanks to viral dance videos, Miley Cyrus's infamous 2013 VMA performance, and a decade of social-media choreography, "twerking" has become one of the most recognizable dance terms on the planet.
So here's the question: Did Basement Jaxx's track have anything to do with the "twerk" we know today?
n 1999, "twerk" simply wasn't on the global radar. It was well-known regionally and within certain dance scenes but hadn't yet crossed into pop vocabulary. Basement Jaxx's track never sparked a worldwide craze—not because the word was new, but because mainstream audiences weren't paying attention to that corner of club culture yet.