About

Thom Yorke Dance Remixes are a series of dubbed videos featuring the music video footage of Radiohead's 2011 single "Lotus Flower" set to the background music of various genres. Similar to other dance dub videos like the Charleston Dance and The Single Ladies Dance, "Lotus Flower" remixes are typically paired with well-known contemporary pop songs.

Origin

On February 18th, 2011, Radiohead released their 8th studio album The King of Limbs along with their official music video for the single "Lotus Flower." Directed by Garth Jennings and choreographed by Royal Ballet's Wayne McGregor, the black and white music video features an unusual dance performance by the lead singer Thom Yorke.

Upon its release, the music video for "Lotus Flower" was generally met by positive reaction from the fans and music bloggers, many of whom commented on Thom Yorke's melancholic dance scene.

Spread

Throughout the third week of February, the release of Radiohead's "Lotus Flower" music video was covered by a wide range of music news sites and pop culture blogs, from Pitchfork^[9], Rolling Stone^[8] and MTV^[5] to Washington Post^[7], Huffington Post^[6] and Los Angeles Times.^[3] On February 18th, a mash-up music video of "Lotus Flower" set to Beyonce's 2011 single "All The Single Ladies" was uploaded by YouTuber grinningdoubt:

The "Single Ladies" edition of Thom Yorke dance remix was well-received by YouTube community, leading to a number of duplicate re-uploads on the same day. Several variations on the theme emerged in the following days, mostly featuring upbeat dance songs by pop stars like Willow Smith, Girl Talk and Soulja Boy.^[1] In addition to the mash-ups and remix videos, "Lotus Flower" music video inspired dance tributes by the fans.

Notable Mash-ups

Derivatives

Notable Fanart

As the mash-up phenomenon continued on YouTube, the footage of Thom Yorke's dance was also used as the source material of humourous animated GIF on Tumblr, which were archived by the single topic blog DancingThom.^[11]

Search Interest

Google search queries for "Lotus Flower" peaked upon its release in February and saw a resurgence in September after Radiohead appeared on Saturday Night Live for a live performance of the song. The gradual increase in volume of queries after October 2011 can be attributed to the release of another rap song titled "Lotus Flower Bomb" by Wale.

External References