Dance crazes and pop music have skipped hand in hand down the cultural road for many a decade now, shimmying at least as far back as the Twist, the Mashed Potato and the Watusi. And new dances have popped up in every decade since then.
These days, new dance crazes find a fertile ground for viral critical mass on social media. And that’s definitely the case with the hand motions and dance moves for Rosé and Bruno Mars’ absolute smash global hit “APT.” Do a search on any video platform and you’ll find thousands of videos of young people, old people, pets (with human help) and, who knows, maybe even aliens doing this dance.
Those videos have helped propel this savagely infectious earworm collaboration between Rosé and Mars to nearly a billion streams on YouTube alone. Listen at your own risk, really, because this is a tough one to get out of your head once it gets loose.
None.
The chorus of the track—which is what the dance is based upon—is a repetition of Korean word for apartment, “apateu.” That’s innocuous enough without context. But as Rosé explained to Jimmy Fallon in December 2024, “apartment” is actually a Korean drinking game.
The balance of song is silly, gushing flirtation—albeit mildly suggestive: “Kissy face, kissy face/Sent to your phone, but/I’m tryna kiss your lips for real,” Rosé sings with a playful pout. Later she adds, “Don’t you want me like I want you, baby?/Don’t you need me like I need you now?/Sleep tomorrow, but tonight, go crazy.”
The most problematic lyric comes from Bruno Mars, who embraces excess at a spontaneous apartment party: “Turn this apateu into a club/I’m talkin’ drink, dance, smoke, freak, party all night.”
The video for the song features just the two artists performing it together. Rosé wears short-shorts and a midriff-baring top.
As cultural trends go in 2025, this one’s probably not going to have parents clutching their proverbial pears in horror. Mostly, this is a fairly mindless, if flirtatious, song with a chorus that might threaten to take over your mind.
Any young fan of the song and its accompanying dance, however, will likely learn that it’s a reference to a drinking game. Thus, it could potentially make getting drunk at a party seem like a lot of fun.
Like all dance crazes, this one will likely fade to becoming a Wikipedia footnote about as fast as it took root and exploded in popularity the last couple of months. But if you find your kids imitating the song’s momentarily globe-conquering moves, you may want to talk with them about the song’s origin and meaning.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
Our weekly newsletter will keep you in the loop on the biggest things happening in entertainment and technology. Sign up today, and we’ll send you a chapter from the new Plugged In book, Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family, that focuses on how to implement a “screentime reset” in your family!