Entry · catalog no. 0705
boogaloo
/ /ˈbuɡəluː/ /BOO-guh-loo
noun · Chicago / Spanish Harlem · 1960s
✓ Verified
1.
A freestyle soul dance of the mid-1960s — no set steps, all loose limbs and rolled shoulders — and the strain of music named for it. Later, on the West Coast, the name attached to a distinct funk-style of popping.
“Whole basement was doing the boogaloo before the record even hit the chorus.”
Origin & Attribution
The word descends from the boogie / boogie-woogie family of Black music terms. The dance surfaced among Black teenagers in mid-1960s Chicago — who said it had traveled from Spanish Harlem — and the Chicago duo Tom & Jerrio cut 'Boo-Ga-Loo' in 1965, a million-seller that loosed a wave of boogaloo records. In New York, Black American and Puerto Rican musicians fused it into Latin boogaloo. A Black and Latino word jointly; recent attempts by extremist groups to hijack the name have nothing to do with its origin.
1965
Tom & Jerrio's 'Boo-Ga-Loo' sells a million and names the craze
1966
Latin boogaloo takes off in New York
1970s
West Coast funk styles carry the name into popping
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Chicago / Spanish Harlem · 1960s
Spoken by
Black teenagers in Chicago and New York; soul and Latin musicians
$BOOGALThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded61 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
74/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1965
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@chitown
Chicago, IL
@detlex
Detroit, MI
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Tom & Jerrio, 'Boo-Ga-Loo' — 1965
song · verified
■
+ Cite a sourceNPR Code Switch, 'Who Owns Boogaloo?' — 2020
journalism · documented
See also