h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great article, but are you saying moshing is almost always performed to Heavy Metal music - or that when Heavy Metal music is played, moshing almost always happens?

I think you mean the latter, but if the former is the case then you're definitely mistaken.

The pogo - and this has been documented by a variety of sources - was invented in 1976 by John Richie, back when he was a fan of the Sex Pistols before he changed his name to Sid Vicious and joined the band (ostensibly as the bass player).

It was because he didn't particularly like a group of Pistols fans from South-East London known as The Bromley Contingent (most of whom went on to form either Siouxsie and the Banshees or Generation X) and started dancing that way as a socially acceptable form of minor violence. It caught on, and the rest is history.

I should also add that in its traditional context, pogoing is a group rather than individual activity, involving bouncing off the people around you (how lightly or violently is down to how well you know them, how nice you feel like being to them, and how you reckon things would pan out if it came down to fisticuffs) rather than merely jumping up and down on your own.

i used to mosh to pop bands such as westlife and other fools like them to make the point of how dreary they are and how they deserve to be shot.

we also moshed to dance music untill we got thrown out the club

try it, moshing is excellent for imposing yur musical tastes upon others

I love moshing, its so much fun!!!!!! I've never been to a concert but I do it all the time anyway There are millions of types of music you can mosh to not just Heavy metal! I'm into emo and punk, you could even mosh to Busted if you want! Its not supposed to have set boundries so don't say that. The dress thing is a bit off to.

I once showed a bunch of Dance-listeners how to Mosh. However, this quickly ended when one of them was caught unprepared and went flying across the table.

I always thought moshing and head banging were entirely differnce, Moshing being the group of people running at each other, colliding and flailing arms and legs. Hilarious to watch is piggy back moshing. And I've just started typing like yoda but can't be bothered to rewrite it.

Nooooo! Flailing the arms is all wrong! You're supposed to keep your fellow-dancers in one piece Just shoulders is more than enough.

I live in a violent area.
Shoulders do more damage, someone got a split lip once when they used shoulders more than anything.

You'd get a split lip quicker if you get a fist in your face

Good point.