“…because everybody watches the same videos online, everybody ends up looking very similar. The differences between individual b-boys, between crews, between cities/states/countries/continents, have largely disappeared. It used to be that you could tell what city a b-boy was from by the way he danced. Not anymore. But I’ve been saying these things for almost a decade, and most people don’t listen, but continue watching the same videos and dancing the same way. It’s what I call the “international style,” or the “Youtube style.” It’s too focused on following the rules of the competition: if a b-boy or crew knows what elements or movements the judges are looking for, then he/they will steer their training in that direction. They’ll train what they think they need to train, as opposed to what they want to train. So the cruel irony is that b-boys who have no intention of ever looking like gymnasts, actually begin to behave like gymnasts. They’re just meeting the judges’ requirements rather than honestly expressing themselves through their artform. And the creativity which was once ubiquitous worldwide gets diluted by ambition. Everybody is amazing, so nobody is amazing. Everybody is “creative” using variations of the same moves, so nobody is really all that creative. And then, when somebody really is creative and innovative and original, he’s actually too different, and not allowed to call himself a b-boy.”