APAP Calendar

BLOGGERS NEEDED!

Interested in sharing your opinions about progressive politics? Want to highlight the great work of local community groups and individuals? Then join our blog team. Send us an email and we can sign you up. apafp AT apaforprogress DOT org.

(Asian) America's Best Dance Crew and the Asian American Vote

Yea, I know... I'm the education blogger. What the heck am I doing writing about MTV's America's Best Dance Crew? Because honestly I think there's no better phenonomen out there to talk about the Asian American vote, and to learn about the power of the Asian American vote. Plus, the show is mad dope... and really should just be renamed Asian America's Best Dance Crew! Tomorrow night is the live finale, when either Beat Freaks or Quest Crew will be crowned champions, and FINALLY America's voters got it right. The two hands down best crews are in the finale. If you watched season 1, you know that Jabbawockeez deserved and won that year. But, you also know that Kaba Modern should have been in the finale, but voters didn't get them into the finale. Instead, Status Quo out of Boston was voted into the finals. HUH? I mean, I got love for the crew from Boston, but they really didn't deserve to be in the finals. And so, Kaba was kicked out.  For me, season 1 represented a year when Asian Americans did not vote, and the wrong crew was sent to the finals. Now, in season 2 both crews in the finals were mostly made up of Asian American members too. Again the crew that deserved the title won - Super Cr3w. However, Fanny Pak didn't make it to the finals. Instead, Soul Real Crew was in the finals - an all Asian crew out of Houston. While I got love for Soul Real, they just were no where as creative and tight as Fanny Pak, which did have an Asian member.  For me, season 2 represented a year when Asian Americans perhaps got a lil zealous and voted en masse for the crew that didn't belong in the finals. Maybe they were making up for the year before? Anyway... I'm really interested in seeing how the vote goes tomorrow night in season 3. Beat Freaks, which has one Asian American member, has repped all season long bringing some AMAZINGLY mind-blowing routines to the stage. Did you see the floating ball thing? The bats? OMG! I was so proud they represented for us ladies! But in the last episode... ehhh, not sure if they brought it all out like they did all season long. As for Quest Crew, they are an all-Asian American crew and all men. They were consistently great all season, but they didn't blow my mind all season long. But they totally killed it in the last episode. Hot diggity! I'm wondering if it will come down to the women's vote vs. the Asian American vote. Who will Asian American women vote for? I'm cool with either crew winning. Both of them deserve the title.  Who are you voting for? **Note: I have no data on the demographics of the vote. All this is just based on hunches.
Your rating: None Average: 2.3 (3 votes)

thaswassup (not verified) on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 11:42
It is my personal theory that the producers steal the show and pick the finalists. Voting is just a way to convince viewers that they have power in the decision-making process. This is why I don't vote... on the show, that is. Interesting blog, though.
spamfriedrice (not verified) on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 12:05
ahhh yes... that is a very viable explanation for season 1 and 2. perhaps in season 1, mtv was not ready for the awesomeness of Asian American dance crews and made sure that it wasn't 2 asian american crews in the finals. but how do you explain season 2? making up for season 1?
ladyconscious (not verified) on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 09:10
Been a fan of ABDC since the first season. This season has been really interesting because I could tell from the first show who the final two were going to be. I've been having such a hard time deciding who to vote for. Beat Freaks has been my fave all season but the Quest crew absolutely blew BF away on the last show. This is stupid but I've been voting for both. I completely agree with the sentiments on the producers (which explains the drama with last season). I'll be most definitely tuning in tonight!
oliveoil (not verified) on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 21:24
I haven't watched the finale yet so I don't know who won but I wanted to throw in a few cents. I very rarely comment on blogs but I admit that sometimes when I am bored I replay ABDC clips on MTV.com and have been entertained not only by the dancing but by the comments of other viewers. It's not phenomenal that there are Asian American crews rocking ABDC but it's interesting to see how fresh it is to mainstream media. I was rewatching the Illusions episode because I am in LOVE with the BF performance and scrolled down to some of the comments while the judges make some bs critiques... ANYWAY it was hilarious for me to see how many comments were all of a sudden declaring a new found love for asian american males. I'll quote one commenter, Kelly: "quest crew is so refreshing and amazing to watch.......I haven't been into asian guys only because i feel like in America they are still breaking the sterotype and arn't exposed....Im glad what happend to the hispanic community is now starting to take place for asian americans the fact that they are AMERICAN and they don't need to do kung-fu to make it on the big screen!!! Your starting to see more normal roles from asian americans in hollywood too which i love since i now all of a sudden am attracted to them!!!!!!!!!" I guess thanks to Quest Crew for giving this girl enough different representations of Asian American males to be attracted to them now? I don't really subscribe to the voting theories you put up there but yay for blogging about ABDC because it does say some interesting things about APA and "American" culture.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
 
  • Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options