Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of five part pancocojams series of posts that explore the values that are expressed in particular foot stomping cheers.
This post provides my editorial comments about and showcases four examples of foot stomping cheers that refer to physical attractiveness.
Click the "values foot stomping cheers" tag for more posts in this pancocojams series.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All content remains with their owners.
Thanks to all those who contributed examples that are included in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-overview-of-foot-stomping-cheers.html for Part I of a three part pancocojams series on foot stomping cheers.
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for Part I of a five part alphabetical listing of foot stomping cheers.
[added August 29, 2017] Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/values-expressed-in-foot-stomping_24.html of this series for a few videos that show performance movements that are similar to foot stomping cheers.
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GENERAL OVERVIEW ABOUT FOOT STOMPING CHEERS [slightly revised 8/25/2917]
Foot stomping cheers are recreational compositions that originated with African Americans girls pretending to be cheerleaders in front of pretend audiences. These foot stomping cheers were (are?) usually performed by girls, particularly by working class African American girls ages around 5-12 years. The earliest demographic information about these types of cheers that I've found so far is the late 1970s (Washington D.C. and Atlantic City, New Jersey).
"Foot stomping cheers" are also called "cheers" or "steps".
Foot stomping cheer compositions have a distinctive call & response textual structure that I've termed "group/consecutive soloists". That term emphasizes the fact that these cheers traditionally begin with the group voice, and then the soloist's voice, and these cheers always immediately begin again from the beginning, repeating multiple times until every member of the group has had an equal length turn as the soloist. These chanted words are accompanied by a metronome type synchronized choreographed routine that is made up of bass sounding foot stomps alternating with (individual) hand claps (or sometimes body pats). The word "metronome" is purposely used because the cheer's movement routine is performed without stopping throughout each iteration of the cheer. If someone "messes up the beat" by forgetting a word of the cheer or missing the beat in the movement routine, the cheer must begin again from the beginning.
The values that I've identified in foot stomping cheers and showcased in separate posts in this series are "self-confidence", "physical attractiveness", "sexiness/romantic relationship", "toughness/confrontational language", and dancing/stepping skills. Most of these values are interrelated, but are discussed separately to allow space to showcase selected cheer examples of each value.
As of the date of this publication, I've only found on example of foot stomping cheers that includes profanity other than the mildly profane word "ass". The only two examples of foot stomping cheers that I've found that could be said to refer to race or ethnicity are one example that includes what is commonly known as "the n word" (That example represented that word by the letter "n" followed by randomly selected keyboard symbols) and one example that refers to skin color by the soloist referring to herself as "this light skin chick" (in an example of "Hollywood Swinging").
As of this date, I haven't found any examples of foot stomping cheers that refer politics (including mention of any President's name), religion, race/ethnicity, skin color, national names or other geographical places except for city or neighborhood references, or historical events. Furthermore, few (pre-2000) examples of foot stomping cheers refer to sports (such as basketball or football, including any sports related activity such as making a basket or scoring a touchdown).
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Part II: THE VALUE OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS AS EXPRESSED IN FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
Most foot stomping cheers that mention physical attractiveness also mention "sexiness", and I've found many more examples of cheers that refer to sexiness than "physical attractiveness". I've divided these categories just to allow for the presentation of more selected examples. In most of these "physically attractive" cheers, the girl states that she is "fine" (She "looks good".)
As I noted above, as of the date of this publication, I haven't found any of these African American originated cheers that refer to skin color, or other physical features besides generally "looking good". I also haven't found any references to hair texture in these cheers. In fact, the only reference to "hair" that I've found in foot stomping cheers is one in which a girl threatens to pull out another girls "tracks" (weave) (cheer name "Gators" in Part II of pancocojams's alphabetized foot stomping cheers collection.
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FOUR FOOT STOMPING CHEERS THAT REFER TO PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
(These cheers are given in alphabetical order).
These examples aren't meant to be all of the examples of in this categories that I've collected or found as of this date.
EXAMPLE #1: AH RAH RAH AH BOOM TANG
Group: Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang, baby
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1:My name is Tazi
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist # 1:They call me Taz
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1: And when they see me
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1: They say “Ah Rah Rah
You look good, baby.”
Soloist #2:My name is Jennifer
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist # 2:They call me Jenay
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #2: And when they see me
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #2: They say “Ah Rah Rah
Twist it, baby.”
(Repeat entire cheer with new soloist until everyone has had a turn).
-T.M.P. (African American female, from her memories of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1980s)
-snip--
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EXAMPLE #2: ANGELS GO SWINGING
Group: Angels go swinging
angels go swinging!
angels go swinging,
Angels go Swinging!
Solo: My name is Katy
I'm number 1
my reputation has just begun
so if you see me just step aside
'cause me and my man
don't take no jive
Group: Uh, you thank (think) you bad
Solo: Bad enough to make you mad
Group, Uh, you thank you cool
Solo: Cool enough to go to high school
Group: Uh, you thank you fine
Solo: Fine enough to MO,
fine enough to Macho (not really sure what this line means or if we were even saying it right)
fine enough to hula hoop,
fine enough to kick yo' duke
Everyone: say what, say what
say what say what say what
-Joi;( Birmingham, Alabama; 1990s), cocojams.com
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"cocojams.com" was the name my no longer active cultural website. People visiting that site (including a large number of visitors who appeared to be children, pre-teens, and teenagars) contributed rhyme and cheer examples on an easy to fill out website form.
This contributor shared that "Angels" is the name of their sports teams at this Catholic school that is predominately African American in attendance.
"Fine" here is African American Vernacular English word that means "looking good" (physically attractive)
The word "thank" may not be a typo. Instead, it might be a purposefully spelled (present tense) intensifier of the word "think" which means “Really think”.
I'm no sure what "Mo" means.
***According to https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/macho, "macho" means "Masculine in an overly assertive or aggressive way."
‘the big macho tough guy’
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This Spanish word may be most widely known in the USA by the referent "macho man". In the context of this foot stomping cheer, fine enough to "macho" may mean "physically attractive (or sexy) enough to attract macho men.
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EXAMPLE #3
CHECK
Soloist: My name is Shelly
Others: Check
Soloist: They call me Shell
Others: Check
My horoscope is Aquarius
Others: Aquarius
Soloist: If you don't like
Others: Check
Soloist: Without a dial*
Others: Check
Soloist: Just call my number
and check me out.
Others: Check her out
Soloist: Cause I am fine.
My number is 222-888
Others: Check
Soloist: That fellow is mine
Cause I know how to skate
Others: Well alright
Well alright
-Shelly H. (African American female, Cleveland, Ohio, mid 1980s), transcribed by Azizi Powell, May 2007
Repeat cheer from the beginning with the next soloist. That soloist says her name & nickname, and gives her astrological sun sign ("horoscope") and her phone number. In the " I like to ___" line, that soloist indicates what she is good at doing ("sing", "dance", "draw"). This pattern continues with the next soloist until everyone has had one turn as the soloist.
"Check" here means something like "Ok" or "That's Right".
"If you don't like without a dial" probably means "If you don't like it without a doubt"
"Mine" and "fine" were elongated and sung-"my -i-i-n" ;"fi-i-i-n"
The phone number was changed to protect privacy (although this was an old phone number from the contributor's childhood).
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EXAMPLE #4:
MY NAME IS ___
SOLO: My name is Naomi on the Phone with my Daisy Dukes on
if you see me on the street boy you better speak to me.
GROUP:Oo she think she bad
SOLO: At least i use a wash rag
GROUP: Oo she think she cool
SOLO: Soap and water will do
GROUP:Oo she think she fine
SOLO: Fine Fine #9 take yo man anytime, he took me out he brought me back he besta have my cadillac. he brought you 1 he brought me 2, married me and divorced you.
he taught me Karate and taught me Kung Fu. mess wit me
and i'll do it on you
GROUP:Bang Bang choo choo train
wind her up she'll do her thang
SOLO: I can't
GROUP:Why not
SOLO: I said I can't
GROUP:WHY NOT?
SOLO: I said my back is aching and my bra's too tight. my
booty's shakin from the left to the right
GROUP:Left Right Left Right yo mama is a ugly sight
-Naomi; 1/17/2007, cocojams.com
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This concludes Part 2 of this multi-part pancocojams series on Values Expressed In Foot Stomping Cheers".
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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