Did Social Media Kill the Dance Floor?
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Consumed by a fear of looking bad on camera, dance floors across the country are filled with young people standing still. It suddenly seems everyone is too scared to let loose and move to the rhythm.
Artists like Tyler, The Creator and Kaytranada have recently called out their crowds for rigid behavior. Sam breaks it all down with Elias Leight, reporter covering the music business for The Wall Street Journal.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here. Thank you so much for checking out my show. This episode, |
| 0:12.4 | Dancing. |
| 0:16.2 | So to start, there's this video of Austin Butler, the movie star, at a Bad Bunny concert. |
| 0:24.3 | You know Bad Bunny. |
| 0:25.3 | You also probably know Austin Butler. |
| 0:27.5 | He was in Dune Part 2. |
| 0:29.4 | He was in that Elvis movie where he played Elvis. |
| 0:33.4 | Anywho, a video, Austin Butler at a bad bunny concert in the crowd. |
| 0:38.6 | The people next to Austin, they are dancing and moving and grooving because bad bunny. |
| 0:49.0 | But Austin Butler is not. |
| 0:53.1 | He is just standing there, arms crossed, slightly swaying side to side, very awkwardly. |
| 1:00.1 | My guest this episode is Elias Light. |
| 1:03.1 | He's a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and he claims that that video of Austin Butler, |
| 1:08.2 | not quite dancing at the Bad Bunny show. |
| 1:11.3 | He claims that's part of a larger trend in which a lot of the kids are not dancing these |
| 1:16.8 | days. |
| 1:17.6 | They are not bringing the energy, and a lot of artists are noticing. |
| 1:21.9 | Y'all are being very demure. |
| 1:29.4 | And I believe you can be louder. |
| 1:36.9 | That's Beyonce, talking to the crowd on one of her Cowboy Carter tour stops last summer. |
| 1:38.9 | She is not alone in this. |
| 1:45.4 | So I got to say, as an elder millennial who came of age during the heyday of little John, |
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