TikTok is home to the educational, the entertaining, and the horrifying. Spend a few seconds on your FYP and you’ll be flooded with videos detailing the dangers of leaving one’s drink unattended, celebrities eating potentially poisonous fruit, and trends you’ve never heard of that somehow have millions of views seemingly overnight.
It’s not fun to watch people partaking in a trend you don’t understand, but it is a feeling we all find familiar. You’re feeling it right now after coming across videos looping a dance beat while a voice says, very respectable, very mindful, “Emergency. Paging Dr. Beat. Emergency!” Why is this sound all over TikTok, and why does it sound so darn familiar?
What’s the story behind the “Emergency, Paging Dr. Beat” song?
The sound originates from the 1984 song “Dr. Beat” by Miami Sound Machine. Led by Cuban-American legend Gloria Estefan, the dance song was a top 10 hit in several European countries despite peaking at number 17 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart. It became popular once again in 2005 when Scottish DJ Mylo mashed the song with his own respective hit, “Drop the Pressure,” to create the addictive “Dr. Pressure.” While that version also trended, this isn’t the originator of the current trend.
A 2000 remix of the song titled, “Emergency 911,” by Italo Dance trio Prezioso & Marvin began to make the rounds on TikTok as well as a remix of that remix titled “Emergency Budots” by DJ Johnrey Masbate. Masbate uploaded the track in December 2023, but it wouldn’t go viral until Summer 2024, when it began soundtracking outfit videos like this one by Olivia Rodrigo.
Budots, stemming from the Visayan slang word for “slacker,” was born out of Internet cafes in Davao City, Philippines. Sherwin Tuna, better known as DJ Love, is credited with popularizing Budots, which began as a dance before it grew into a musical genre. Many users on TikTok were unfamiliar with Budots until the sound trended. In response, some users have taken it upon themselves to educate the masses on how to properly participate. Now, when you scroll through videos using the viral sound, you’ll see creators participating in two separate trends: the prim, upright OOTD dance-walk favored by fashionistas and influencers, and the exuberant, full-bodied Budots dance celebrated by everyone from nursing school grads to pro dancers.
If you’re tempted to give Budots a go, one piece of advice bears repeating: the lower, the better!