Pada tahun 1990, pengenalan musik bouncing ke dalam kancah musik New Orleans membawa serta tarian twerking.[5] Pada tahun 1992, penyanyi Panama Renato merekam video klip "El más sensual" (yang paling seksi), sebuah lagu reggae dengan tarian twerking.[16]
Tangga lagu Billboard
Pada tahun 2006, singel "SexyBack", oleh penyanyi pop Amerika Justin Timberlake, ditampilkan Timbaland, dari album studio kedua mantanFuturesex/Lovesounds, featured Timbaland rapping the lyrics "Let me see what you're twerking with / Go ahead, be gone with it, Look at those hips".
Pada tahun 2007, lagu "Pop, Lock & Drop It", oleh rapper Amerika Serikat Huey, menduduki puncak nomer enam pada US Billboard Hot 100.
Single tahun 2012 "Bandz a Make Her Dance" oleh Juicy J mengandung lirik "Start twerking when she hear her song",[23] saat pertanyaan French Montana kemampuan perempuan untuk mengusik untuk twerking oleh bertanya "Apa yang kamu twerkin' dengan?" dalam single tahun 2012 "Pop That" menampilkan rapper Drake, Lil Wayne dan Rick Ross.[24] Lagu yang disebutkan di atas, dengan "Express Yourself" oleh Nicky Da B dan Diplo, "menjadikan twerking gerakan dansa paling populer sejak Dougie".[25] Pada tahun 2014, lagu "Anaconda" oleh Nicki Minaj menduduki puncak nomer 2 pada Billboard Hot 100, membuat banyak kiasan tentang twerking.
Pada November 2018, City Girls meriliskan lagu dinamakan "Twerk" menampilkan rapper Cardi B yang menduduki puncak tangga lagu pada Billboard Hot 100 di nomer 29. Lirik lagu tersebut ("Twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk-twerk with her") cukup menjelaskan bagaimana City Girls ingin menarik perhatian penonton wanita mereka[26] Video musik ini telah ditonton lebih dari 200 juta penonton di YouTube pada Juni 2022.[27]
Pada tahun 2011, Twerk Team, merupakan grup dari penari wanita asal Atlanta yang mengunggah beberapa video mereka yang sedang melakukan twerking YouTube, disebutkan saat lagu "Round of Applause" oleh Waka Flocka Flame menampilkan Drake, dalam lirik "Bounce that ass, shake that ass like the Twerk Team".[28] rapper Australia Iggy Azalea telah memasukkan twerking dalam pertunjukkan langsung live sejak tahun 2011.[29][30] Pada Juli 2012, saat episode Workaholics "The Lord's Force", Anders Holm berkata "Ayo, uh, putar beberapa video twerk atau semacamnya, oke?".[31]
In March 2013, American pop singer Miley Cyrus posted a video on Facebook which featured her performing a twerking routine while wearing a unicorn suit, to the 2011 single "Wop" by J. Dash. The popularity of the video, along with parodies and responses made by fans, influenced the song's re-emergence on the Billboard Hot 100.[32] Miley Cyrus's "Wop" video would go to become viral. By April 9, 2013, copies of the video had amassed over 4 million views on YouTube. Also in March 2013, Mollie King, an English singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of British-Irish girl group The Saturdays, was seen twerking when her bandmate Rochelle Humes uploaded the footage on YouTube.[33] American actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens was also seen twerking in March on American late-night talk show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[34] In September 2013, Hudgens was later seen twerking, this time to the song "Bubble Butt", during her performance at Bootsy Bellows in West Hollywood, with her girl group YLA.[35][36] Hudgens was again seen twerking in a video for Shade 45's radio show Sway in the Morning.[37][38] American actress and singer Ashley Tisdale can also be seen twerking in a video for Shade 45's radio show Sway in the Morning.[39][40]
On July 9, 2013, a video was posted on the Twitter-owned video sharing service Vine entitled "Twerk Team", which featured a group of five women provocatively twerking to "Don't Drop That Thun Thun". The clip was shared by users over 100,000 times, becoming a trend for the community and users created their own responses and parodies featuring the song, collected under the hashtags "#dontdropthat" and "#thunthun". The viral popularity of the Vine clips led to an unexpected increase in sales for the song; prior to the posting of the "Twerk Team" clip, only 4,000 copies of the song had been sold; in the following weeks, sales went up to 34,000, then to over 72,000. By late July, "Don't Drop That Thun Thun" had reached #5 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs chart, and it eventually peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[41]
Both "Wop" and "Don't Drop That Thun Thun" have been cited as examples of how viral and user-created videos can bring renewed interest to songs; Spin writer Jordan Sargent considered "Wop" to be rap music's "Harlem Shake moment", but not a meme to the same extent as it.[41][42] In April 2013, American rapper Danny Brown released the song "Express Yourself", inspired by music producer Diplo's song of the same name. The song, produced by Trampy, features a fast-paced electronic beat and is a composition about the popular dance craze twerking.[43] Brown dedicated the song "to all the ladies that like to turn up and have fun," in which he raps "Toes on the wall and her ass in the air / And she twerk that thing like she ain't have a care".[44][45]
In the music video for Barbadian singer Rihanna's single "Pour It Up", which was released in May 2013, the singer can be seen twerking.[46] In June 2013, American rapper Busta Rhymes released a Jamaican dancehall-inspired single titled "Twerk It", featuring Nicki Minaj, who has been featured on several other "twerking songs", including "Shakin' It 4 Daddy" by Robin Thicke, "Dance (A$$)" by Big Sean and "Clappers" by Wale. Minaj can be seen twerking in all four of the aforementioned songs' respective music videos. Minaj can also be seen twerking in the music videos for American rapper Nelly's single "Get Like Me" and American singer Ciara's single "I'm Out".[47][48] In August 2013, the song "Twerk", by Lil Twist, featuring pop singers Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, was leaked online.[49]
On July 14, 2013, Showtime broadcast Season 1 Episode 3 of the series Ray Donovan, entitled "Twerk", in which actor Jon Voight's character enters a college library and pays a student to give up his computer terminal so that he can watch online videos of women twerking.[50] A YouTube video of the scene has more than 38,000views.[51]
In August 2013, Juicy J announced via Twitter that he would give out a $50,000 scholarship for the girl who can twerk the best. The competition is inspired by the track "Scholarship" on his third album Stay Trippy, which contains the lyric "Keep twerking baby, might earn you a scholarship."[52] In early September 2013, a video titled "Worst Twerk Fail EVER - Girl Catches Fire!", began circulating around online; the video went on to become viral with over 9 million views, and received media coverage. The following week, American comedian and television host Jimmy Kimmel revealed the video was a hoax that he and his team had devised, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[53][54][55] In April 2014, the video won the Webby Award for best viral clip of the year.[56]
Also in September, "Twerk" from the MTV VMA show was named the Top Television Word of the Year (Teleword) of the 2012–2013 TV season by the Global Language Monitor. In October 2013, American actress Beth Behrs, of American television sitcom 2 Broke Girls, was seen twerking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[57][58] Behrs was later seen twerking to the 1992 hit "Baby Got Back", in January 2014, during the 40th annual awards ceremony of the People's Choice Awards, which she hosted alongside her co-star Kat Dennings.[59][60] The fifth episode of the fifth season of the American musical television series Glee, which aired November 13, 2013 and was titled "The End of Twerk", revolved around the twerking phenomenon.[61] The seventh episode of the second season of the American reality television series Bad Girls All-Star Battle, which aired February 25, 2014 and was titled "Twerk It Out", featured the contestants twerking as fast as possible with pedometers on their back.[62]
In August 2013, American recording artist Miley Cyrus, generated controversy following a sexually provocative performance during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, in which Cyrus twerked during a medley of her track "We Can't Stop", "Blurred Lines" and "Give It 2 U" by Robin Thicke.[63] Cyrus also received criticism for "stealing" African American culture, also known as cultural appropriation.[64]
Pada Agustus 2014, rekaman artis Amerika Serikat Taylor Swift, menampilkan twerking pada video musik untuk single "Shake It Off".[65] Hal ini menimbulkan kontroversi dengan rapper Amerika Earl Sweatshirt yang mengatakan bahwa video tersebut "mengabadikan stereotip".[66]
Pada Oktober 2013, Valerie Dixon yang berumur 27 tahun, ditahan di Lake County, Florida, karena dia sedang twerking dan berbicara bahasa kotor di depan bus sekolah. Penangkapan lain di Florida karena memutar-mutar listrik di depan umum termasuk blogger video Caramel Kitten dan dua turis Kanada yang tidak disebutkan namanya.[67]