Entry · catalog no. 9422
locking
/ /ˈlɑkɪŋ/ /LOK-ing
noun · Los Angeles, California · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A street-dance style of fast arm and hand movements broken by sharp, held pauses, danced to funk.
“She came up locking to James Brown records.”
2.
To freeze abruptly in a pose during a dance move, then release.
“He locked on the downbeat and the whole crowd yelled.”
Origin & Attribution
Created by Don Campbell, a Black Los Angeles dancer, around 1970 after he stumbled on a freeze while trying a move; the style was first called Campbellocking. Campbell and the Lockers, Soul Train dancers, carried it onto national television in the 1970s. Locking is one of the founding West Coast funk styles alongside popping.
1970
Don Campbell develops Campbellocking in Los Angeles
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The West
Los Angeles, California · 1970s
Spoken by
Black Los Angeles dancers, street-dance community
$LOCKINThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady56 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
70/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1970
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
@bayarea
Oakland, CA
@ladi
Los Angeles, CA
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Citations & Sources
■
Campbellock.dance, 'The Campbellock Timeline'
web
■
Red Bull, 'Street Dance History: Locking Pioneers'
web
■
+ Cite a sourceMercury News obituary, 'Don Campbell, 69: Hip-hop dance innovator', 2020
web
See also