The history of twerking is somewhat murky in that its true origin is very difficult to ascertain. However, that didn’t stop VH1 from putting together an excellent examination that you can read here.

This year though, undoubtedly, has been a banner year for the dance. And by all indications it does not appear to be losing popularity any time soon.

But there is no success without failure. While twerking has gained more traction with popular society than it ever has before, this popularity has also brought with it some heavy negativity.

VISIBILITY

Good: Celebrities
Nothing lends legitimacy to a dance craze like celebrity participation. Miley Cyrus, unfortunately, was the most recent one to bring to the forefront. But since then Rihanna, Ashanti, Iggy Azalea and a host of other celebrities have done it you can’t go a week without seeing some other celebrity twerking video somewhere. Rihanna has even put up multiple twerking videos on Vine:

Bad: VMAs
MTV paired Miley Cyrus with Robin Thicke for the 2013 Video Music Awards and in front of a large television audience Miley did as much of her modest twerking as she could. It was like watching a bastardized version of every house party we ever attended thrown up on a world stage for humor, not admiration. The twerk will survive, but probably not again after another incident like that. Ugh.