Bump

What is Bump?

The bump is a couple dance that appeared in the United States in the 1970s, the decade when disco, a beat-driven style of dance music, filled American floors. Two people dance as a pair, generally a man and a woman, and knock a hip against the partner's hip on the song's beat, the steady pulse a listener might tap a foot to. The action gave the dance its everyday name, the hip bump; some also knew it as the disco couple dance. Beyond the bump itself, the partners simply move with the music.

Where does Bump come from?

The bump took shape in the United States in the 1970s, the disco decade. A survey of popular dance and a study of Chicago soul music both record it. Its standing as an ancestor is a matter of report rather than proof: many writers have treated it as the root that grinding grew from, a partner style danced with bodies pressed close, which has drawn criticism for being too suggestive. That link is repeated often enough that the two dances are now usually mentioned together.

How is Bump danced?

The dance needs two people and one clear idea. Partners stand near enough that a hip can reach the other's hip, then, in time with the song, they bump hips together. The beat, the steady pulse running beneath a tune, tells them when. Generally the pair is a man and a woman, though the descriptions speak of two partners rather than laying down a strict rule. Between bumps the dancers keep time with the music; the meeting of hips is the signature moment. No further steps are described.

The music of Bump

No instrument or band belongs to the bump. The dance is fitted to whatever song is playing, with each bump timed to the song's beat, the regular pulse a listener feels under the melody. Its other name, the disco couple dance, points to its musical home: the disco sound of the 1970s, made for dancing rather than sitting still. Reference works on soul and on popular dance both mention it, which fits a craze that lived on dance floors and followed the radio.

When and where Bump is danced

The bump belongs to the dance floor rather than the stage. It was a popular dance, meaning one done for pleasure at gatherings, and it went by disco couple dance because it filled that role in the 1970s: two people, generally a man and a woman, taking a song as their cue. No special training or ceremony surrounds it. You pick it up by watching and doing, and the only requirements are a partner and a record with a clear beat.

What Bump means

Most of what is said about the bump's meaning concerns its offspring. Grinding, in which partners press their bodies close and move in an openly sexual way, has been called controversial, and the bump is often named as the dance grinding came out of. That connection gives a mild 1970s craze an afterlife in debates about what counts as decent dancing. The word itself also travelled: reference works collecting Black American speech list it, evidence that the term lived in ordinary conversation and not only on the floor.

Questions people ask about Bump

Good reading and sources

• Bump (dance) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data
• Videos of Bump on YouTubeSearch results, not chosen by Ghungroo