Origins and early developments (1970s–1980s) over a mosh pit The direct predecessor to moshing was the
pogo, a style of dance done in the 1970s English
punk rock scene, in which crowds members would jump up and down while holding their arms beside them. According to British rockumentary
The Filth and the Fury, it was invented by
Sex Pistols bassist
Sid Vicious in 1976. As a prominent punk rock scene in
Southern California began to form in the late 1970s and early 1980s with early
hardcore punk groups like
Fear and
Black Flag, moshing as it is understood today began to develop, originally termed "slam dancing". According to
Steven Blush's book
American Hardcore: A Tribal History (2001), there is a common belief amongst those involved in this scene that the dance was invented by former US marine Mike Marine in 1978. His specific style, involving "strutting around in a circle, swinging your arms and hitting everyone within reach", would go on to be termed "the Huntington Beach Strut".
The Orange County Register writer Tom Berg credited,
Costa Mesa venue, the
Cuckoo's Nest (1976–1981) as the "birthplace of slam dancing". Examples of this early moshing were featured in the documentaries
Another State of Mind,
Urban Struggle,
the Decline of Western Civilization, and
American Hardcore. Fear's 1981 musical performance on
Saturday Night Live also helped to expose moshing to a much wider audience. By 1981, slam dancing had become the predominant style of crowd interaction in the southern California scene, as
Huntington Beach and
Long Beach became the scene's heart. Washington, D.C., band
the Teen Idles toured California in August 1980, where they were first exposed to slam dancing. Upon returning home, they introduced the practice to the
Washington, D.C. hardcore scene. That particular scene took a more chaotic approach to slam dancing and saw an increase in
stage diving, whereas in the
Boston hardcore scene slam dancing became violent and incorporated punching below the neck, developing a style called the "Boston thrash" or "punching penguins". Another development in the Boston scene was "pig piles" in which one person was pushed to the ground and others would begin to pile on top of them. This originated during a
D.O.A. set, which was initiated by
SSD guitarist Al Barile. The
New York hardcore scene of the mid-1980s, modified this early slam dancing into an additional, more violent style. In their distinction, participants may stay in one position on their own or collide with others, while executing a more exaggerated version of the arm and leg swinging of California slam dancing. As fans of
heavy metal music began to attend New York hardcore performances, they developed their own style of dancing based on New York hardcore's style of slam dancing. It was this group, particularly
Scott Ian and
Billy Milano who popularised the word "moshing". Ian and Milano's band
Stormtroopers of Death released their debut album
Speak English or Die in 1985, which included the track "Milano Mosh". This led to the term being applied to the style of dance. The same year, moshing began to incorporate itself into live performances by heavy metal bands, with one early example being during
Anthrax's 1985 set at
the Ritz. This was exacerbated by the success of
Lollapalooza, which began in 1991 as a touring festival. In his book ''Festivals: A Music Lover's Guide to the Festivals You Need To Know'', writer Oliver Keens stated that "Lollapalooza's greatest impact was to expose Middle America to the joys of stage-diving and moshing...You can see Lollapalooza's legacy in the way mosh pits have become an integral part of youth culture; beyond rock and metal". By 1992, the practice had become so common that concertgoers began to mosh to non-aggressive rock bands like
the Cranberries. Moshing slowly entered
hip hop during live performances by the
Beastie Boys, who began as a hardcore punk band before adopting the hip hop style they became known for. The 1991 collaboration song
Bring the Noise by thrash metal band Anthrax and hip hop group Public Enemy led to a number of mixed genre tours, which brought metal's moshing to the attention of hip hop fans. This was solidified as a part of hip hop by
Onyx's 1993 single "
Slam", a song which alluded to slam dancing and had a music video featuring moshing. Following the video's release, pits became increasingly common during performances by hip hop artists including
Busta Rhymes,
M.O.P. and the
Wu-Tang Clan. Moshing has been present during
electronic dance music performance since at least 1996, with
the Prodigy's performance at
Endfest. By 1999, moshing had become commonplace during
techno performances, especially
hardcore techno. At late 1990s parties such as New York's H-Bomb, Milwaukee's Afternoon Delight and Los Angeles' Twilight, attendees inverted the intellectualism and
PLUR credo which permeated electronic music genres, like
intelligent dance music, earlier in the decade, by incorporating crowd participation acts similar to those found at hardcore punk, metal and goth performances. In the 2010s, the success of
Skrillex and his "DJ as rock star" attitude brought moshing into mainstream dance music. The 2010s saw the rise of a number of hip hop artists who used an "anarchic energy", which some critics at the time compared to that of punk. These artists, notably
A$AP Mob,
Odd Future and
Danny Brown, revived moshing in mainstream hip hop, which led to pits becoming a staple of performances in the genre. The first person to use the term "rage" in the context of hip-hop is said to be
Kid Cudi, with his "
Mr. Rager" alter ego, which influenced
Travis Scott who later adopted the term "rage" and made it an important part of his own
aesthetic. Scott was arrested in 2015 and 2017 for inciting riots after encouraging these actions, with the latter event leading to an attendee being partially paralyzed. However, the most infamous example of this at his concerts was the 2021
Astroworld Festival crowd crush, which left 25 hospitalized and 10 dead.
Trippie Redd and
Playboi Carti used the name in their 2021 song "
Miss the Rage", referencing how Trippie Redd longed for during
COVID-19 lockdowns. It inspired the name of the
trap music subgenre
rage. == Variations ==