When Did Twerking Go Mainstream? A Look at the History of This Now-Iconic Dance Move

During the 2013 MTV VMAs, Miley Cyrus twerked through her duet with Robin Thicke, becoming the most talked about moment of the night. Though Miley had twerked previously on her social media channels, this performance caught the attention of the mainstream media, being reported on by CNN, Forbes, and Business Insider, just to name a few. This moment went viral — during the performance, it was the top trending topic on Twitter and reached a peak of 306,100 tweets per minute, according to NBC News.