Mosh

Moshing

Audience members moshing in front of the stage at a concert
Genre	Live punk rock and heavy metal
Inventor	Fans of hardcore punk
Origin	Early 1980s, California and Washington, D.C., United States

Moshing or slamdancing is a style of dance in which participants push or slam into each other, typically performed to "aggressive" live music. It originated in the hardcore punk scenes of California and Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, thereafter spreading from hardcore to other forms of punk rock as well as thrash metal and grunge, which exposed it to the mainstream later in the decade. Since then, moshing has occasionally been performed to energetic music within a wide variety of genres, including alternative rock, EDM and hip hop, while remaining a staple at punk and heavy metal shows. Though moshing is primarily done to live music, it can also be done to recorded music.

Variations of moshing exist, and can be done alone as well as in groups. Moshing usually happens in an area called the "pit" (sometimes called a "mosh pit") near the stage. It is intended to be energetic and full of body contact. Variations on the traditional mosh include "pogoing", "circle pits" (where the participants bump and jostle each other as they move in a circle) and the more extreme "wall of death". Some moshers swing their arms back and forth and move their legs in a rhythmic fashion. Moshing is typically done in an area in the center of the crowd, generally closer to the stage.

While moshing is seen as a form of positive fan feedback or expression of enjoyment, it has also drawn criticism over dangerous excesses occurring in offshoots. Injuries have been reported in mosh pits, and a few deaths have occurred in "Wall of Death" moshing, an offshoot that developed when fans at thrash metal shows adopted punk-style slamdancing.

The term mosh came into use in the early 1980s American hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. Early on, the dance was frequently spelled mash in fanzines and record liner notes, but pronounced mosh, as in the 1982 song "Total Mash" by the D.C.-based hardcore band Scream. H.R. of the band Bad Brains, regarded as a band that "put moshing on the map," used the term mash in lyrics and in concert stage banter to both incite and to describe the aggressive and often violent dancing of the scene. To "mash it up" was to go wild with the frenzy of the music. Due to his Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word, fans heard this as mosh instead.