Wave (audience)

The wave (known as the Mexican wave in the anglosphere outside North America) is an example of metachronal rhythm achieved in a packed stadium when successive groups of spectators briefly stand, yell, and raise their arms. Immediately upon stretching to full height, the spectator returns to the usual seated position.

The result is a wave of standing spectators that travels through the crowd, even though individual spectators never move away from their seats. In many large arenas the crowd is seated in a contiguous circuit all the way around the sport field, and so the wave is able to travel continuously around the arena; in discontiguous seating arrangements, the wave can instead reflect back and forth through the crowd. When the gap in seating is narrow, the wave can sometimes pass through it. Usually only one wave crest will be present at any given time in an arena, although simultaneous, counter-rotating waves have been produced.

Origins and variations

1970s–1980s

While there is general disagreement about the precise origin of the wave, most stories of the phenomenon's origin suggest that the wave first started appearing at North American sporting events during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Krazy George Henderson led a wave in October 15, 1981 at a Major League Baseball game in Oakland, California. This wave was broadcast on TV, and George has used a videotape of the event to bolster his claim as the inventor of the wave. On October 31, 1981, a wave was created at a UW football game in Seattle, and the cheer continued to appear during the rest of that year's football season. Although the people who created the first wave in Seattle have acknowledged Krazy George's wave at a baseball stadium, they claimed to have popularized the phenomenon, since Krazy George's wave was a one-time event.

Mexican Wave (song)

"Mexican Wave" is a song by Kerbdog and a single released on 17 March 1997, taken from their second album On the Turn recorded in 1995 by GGGarth at Sound City Studios and A&M Studios in Los Angeles. The single was released on three different CD singles. The B-sides are live recordings of various tracks from On the Turn and Kerbdog, recorded by Paddy MacBreen for RTE 2FM at the Feile Festival at The Point, Dublin on 14 July 1996. The single reached number 49 on the UK Singles Chart.

Track listing of CD1

Track listing of CD2

Track listing of CD3

Promos

There was also a CD DJ promo (KERCJ3)

Chart performance

"Mexican Wave" entered the UK singles charts on 29 March 1997 and peaked after one week.

References