The Wave (mass guesture)
The Wave, often referred to as the "audience wave" or "Mexican wave," is a mass gesture performed by crowds, where participants stand and raise their arms in succession to create a flowing wave effect throughout the audience. Its origins are somewhat unclear, with early instances noted at various sporting events in North America during the early 1980s. This phenomenon is not tied to a specific sport or team; rather, it serves as a communal gesture reminiscent of other crowd activities, like bouncing a beach ball.
While typically seen as a harmless and fun display, the wave has faced criticism for its lack of substance and for occasionally leading to spills or disruptions among spectators. The wave thrives on peer pressure, encouraging widespread participation, and can even involve coordinated variations at certain events, especially in collegiate sports. Gaining momentum in the 1980s, it became a staple at various sporting events, reaching a wider audience during the 1984 Olympics and achieving global recognition during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Despite its popularity, the wave has been analyzed by social scientists as an example of cultural conformity and has seen a decline in prevalence since the late 1980s, although it still appears at sporting events today.
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The Wave (mass guesture)
Mass gesture involving spontaneous coordinated movement by an audience, usually at a sporting event, mimicking the appearance of a large wave
The wave became popular at sporting events across North America and eventually across the world during the 1980’s.
“The wave,” also known as the “audience wave” or “Mexican wave,” involves large numbers of participants standing and raising their arms in succession to create a wave of movement through an assembled crowd. The origins of the wave are unclear, having been traced to various possible sources, including a hockey game in Alberta, Canada, in 1980; an American League baseball playoff game in October, 1981; and a football game at the University of Washington later that month. Having no apparent connection with a single sport or team, the wave was less a cheer than a mass communal gesture akin to the popular act of bouncing a beach ball through the crowd at a concert or sporting event. Although generally considered innocuous, the wave has been criticized for its meaningless nature and for causing food, beverages, and other objects to be thrown or spilled into the participating crowd.
Although sometimes performed by specific groups of spectators, the wave was more often a nonpartisan action in which spectators were compelled by peer pressure to participate. Waves often traveled around a stadium or arena or back and forth across a section of grandstands numerous times before dying out as spontaneously as they had begun when the crowd became weary of them. Variations on the standard wave, including the simultaneous creation of two oppositely rotating waves and successive waves performed at various predetermined speeds, were sometimes performed in settings conducive to preplanning and crowd discipline, such as student sections at collegiate sporting events.
The wave grew rapidly in popularity during the early 1980’s, partly as a result of mass media coverage of sporting events, and it was a standard feature of American and Canadian sporting events by the mid-1980’s. The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, exposed an international audience to the wave, which subsequently achieved global prominence during the 1986 World Cup soccer tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. As a result, the cheer became known in many parts of the world as the “Mexican wave.”
Impact
Although a fixture of sporting events by the end of the 1980’s, the wave was essentially an act devoid of meaning or context, and as such exerted little discernible cultural influence. It became the subject of research by scholars studying crowd psychology and social phenomena and, despite its eventual international popularity, has been cited as an example of cultural conformity in 1980’s America. The wave waned in popularity after the 1980’s but continued to appear sporadically at sporting events into the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Free, Marcus. The Uses of Sport: A Critical Study. London: Routledge, 2004.
Wann, Daniel L. Sport Fans: The Psychology and Social Impact of Spectators. London: Routledge, 2001.