How "The Power" Literally Rocked the House

Turbo B and Penny Ford, featured performers on "The Power"

On July 5, 2011, the 39-story "Techno-Mart" mall in Seoul, South Korea shook for ten minutes, causing a two-day evacuation and an investigation. The cause of the tremors? Seismic experts concluded that "The Power," a dance hit by the band Snap!, simply rocked too hard.

Tae Bo Power - It's Gettin' Kinda Hectic

When the shaking occurred, it was felt only in the upper floors of the Techno-Mart. An investigation revealed that several dozen people had been doing an intense Tae Bo workout on the 12th floor. On that day, the Tae Bo instructor put on "The Power" and urged the class to do their workout "twice as hard." All that rhythmic stomping set up mechanical resonance within the building, causing it to vibrate. The Techno-Mart happened to have a resonance frequency matching that of "The Power's" kickin' beat. Here's a bit more explanation by professor Chung Lan of Dankook University:

“It just happens to be that the vibration set up by the “taebo” [sic] exercises coincided with the resonance frequency unique to the building,” the professor said. When an external vibration hits the resonance frequency of a certain object, the vibration is amplified and causes excess shaking even from slight movement.

And lest we forget, here's "The Power":

Rhythm is a Dancer

It's important to emphasize that the Techno-Mart's shaking was caused not so much by the weight of the stompers, but by their rhythm (ahem, "Rhythm is a Dancer" is also a song by Snap!). Investigators demonstrated that "The Power" was the song with the building-busting beat by staging a second dance session, while tremor detectors were installed throughout the building. Yes, Korean scientists recruited a new set of "middle-aged people" who performed Tae Bo to "The Power" for the sake of public safety. Here's a snippet from Koea JoongAng Daily:

Jeong Ran, a professor at Dankook University, said, “The total weight of the people who are expected to participate in the demonstration will be about 850 kilograms (1,873 pounds). But, actually, weight is not that important. Rhythm and music causes tremors. The demonstrators are now practicing how to dance to the beat of the music.”

The original group of Tae Bo enthusiasts refused to come forward, for fear of negative media attention. Apparently the Tae Bo instructor also disappeared, and to make things worse, the incident occurred during his first day on the job.

The supreme irony of this is that Billy Blanks, creator of the Tae Bo workout system, released a video called Tae Bo Power later in 2011. The video featured a section on attaining "Billy's Power Abs" and encouraged users to "feel the POWER." It did not, however, cry "I've got the power!"

Zumba Can Also Rock Super-Hard

An oddly similar incident occurred in February 2011 in Australia, although instead of Tae Bo, the exercise was Zumba -- a mix of dance and aerobics. In Canberra, an Education Department building shook violently after a 12th floor dance class got its groove on. According to a story in The Age (emphasis added):

Tests confirmed exercise classes were causing the building to shake. While all buildings are designed to move in response to factors such as wind, the high impact movements of Zumba caused a build-up of "harmonic vibrations", despite the floor on which the exercise class was held exceeding Australian standards for gymnasiums, officials said. As a result, Zumba classes were stopped in the building because of safety fears.

Snap! Bonus Trivia

You may have wondered about the brief Russian snippet in the beginning of the music video for "The Power." It appears to be a man talking about the Sputnik satellites, but indeed is about the release of a personal computing device for the visually impaired. (In Russian, the term "sputnik" is not specific to the iconic Russian satellites -- it means, roughly, "fellow traveler.") Wikipedia explains the opening clip:

The song opens with the somewhat enigmatic line in Russian: “???????????? ????? Transceptor Technology ?????????? ? ???????????? ??????????? «???????????? ???????»” (meaning “The American company Transceptor Technology has started production of the ‘Personal Companion’ computer”). “Personal Companion” was a computer-like device for the blind and visually impaired. Released in 1990, it was controlled by voice and could, among other functions, automatically download articles from USA Today by a built-in modem. It was made by Transceptor Technologies of Ann Arbor, Michigan.