Apparel Sale :: Techtonik Dance Inspires TCK Clothing Line

The video is in French, but it will give you a general concept of what I'm talking about.  I had an American friend take a look at it, and she says to her, the looks and dance are a very reminiscent mix of 80's Hip Hop + Madonna + Menudo, and admittedly, she doesn't quite see the appeal.  Anyway, teenagers do these dances in public places and the movement has been going on for quite some time.

"For seven years we've been organizing nights called Tecktonik Killer where we play the harder sounds of northern Europe (Belgium, The Netherlands) and the softer sounds of the south (Italy, Spain)," the artistic director for the Metropolis, Cyril Blanc, told AFP on September 19, 2007.  He continued by saying, "little by little, the clubbers who came invented a choreography." That's how the dance came to be.

The real reason we here at Fashion-Fox are so interested in it is how this managed to spread from a night club in the Parisian suburbs to Belgium, Morocco, and Algeria.  User-generated sites like YouTube have been key to the craze - you see others do it, you imitate their style, you buy the tight-fitting clothes, get out with friends and fil "le fight," with your cell phone, upload it to YouTube, and voilà!  It's very interesting to me to see the French speaking youths in North Africa copying what they see French teenagers do here…….although I'm not sure that we French people should actually be proud of this as it's not exactly  a great cultural victory for France.

But, the other interesting point, is that the videos have been a very important influence in regards to the way young French people are dressing when they are participating in the dance.  In appearance, the flourescent colors, armbands and skin-tight t-shirts are a clear tribute to the 80's rave scene. And in the videos you also see them donning slim jeans, official Tecktonik T-shirts, and hair with so much gel that even a hurricane wouldn't move a strand. 

Believe it or not, the two men behind Tecktonik have actually made the name a brand, and theoretically, they cash in on it every time the name is used, like when a Tecktonik-themed party is organized at a club.  They have also created the official clothing line that the kids have to wear, called TCK.  As you can see, the look lands somewhere between glam rock and punk. Pair these clothes with the strong electronic beats and the break-dancing, hip hop-techno, arm flailing and quick foot movements that remind me of 80's moves straight out of the states, and you've got Tecktonik, the most popular dance in our land.