You remember the treadmills. Most people do. Even if you haven't thought about the band in a decade, that image of four guys in thrift-store suits hopping between moving belts is probably burned into your brain. It was low-budget. It was grainy. Honestly, it was a bit of a miracle it worked at all.
When the OK Go running machine video—officially titled "Here It Goes Again"—hit the web in 2006, the concept of "viral" was still in its infancy. YouTube was barely a year old. There were no influencers. There was just a weird, synchronized dance routine on eight treadmills.
But that video didn't just happen. It wasn't a fluke. It was the result of literal physical exhaustion and a DIY spirit that basically paved the way for every TikTok creator working today.
The Physics of Eight Moving Belts
The OK Go running machine setup was deceptively simple but a total nightmare to execute. The band—Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, and Andy Ross—didn't have a massive label budget for this. They didn't have CGI. They had a borrowed rehearsal space and a lot of Ibuprofen.
The choreography was designed by Trish Sie, Damian’s sister. She’s a professional dancer and director who realized that treadmills aren't just exercise equipment—they’re conveyor belts for humans. If you time it right, you can create a loop of movement that looks impossible.
They used eight standard treadmills. Not fancy ones. Just the kind you'd find in a dusty basement or a YMCA.
The trick was the layout. They arranged them in two rows of four, facing each other. This allowed the band members to hop from one to the next in a continuous, interlocking pattern. If one person tripped, the whole take was ruined. And they tripped. A lot.
They did 17 takes in total.
That’s not 17 tries at a dance move. That’s 17 full-speed, start-to-finish performances of the entire song. By the end, they were barely standing. The take you see in the video? That was number 17. They quite literally couldn't do another one. Their legs were jelly.
Why the Grainy Quality Matters
If you watch the video today, it looks... well, it looks like 2006. It’s blurry. The colors are a bit muted.
That wasn't an aesthetic choice. It was a limitation of the hardware. They filmed it on a single stationary camera. No cuts. No zooms. No fancy lighting.
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This is actually why it worked. In an era where music videos were becoming over-produced MTV spectacles, the OK Go running machine video felt real. You could see the sweat. You could see the concentration on their faces. It felt like something you and your friends could do in a garage if you were talented (and bored) enough.
It was the ultimate "user-generated content" before that was even a buzzword.
The Viral Explosion That Broke the Rules
When the video dropped on YouTube, it wasn't just a hit. It was a cultural reset.
At the time, record labels were terrified of the internet. They were still suing people for downloading MP3s. OK Go’s label, EMI, wasn't exactly thrilled about a video they didn't pay for being distributed for free on a site they didn't control.
But the fans didn't care.
The OK Go running machine video racked up millions of views in days. It won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. It basically forced the music industry to realize that YouTube was the new MTV.
Suddenly, every band wanted a "viral" gimmick. But most failed because they tried too hard to make it look professional. They missed the point. The "running machine" worked because it was a high-concept idea executed with low-fi tools.
The Treadmill "Science"
There’s a specific kind of satisfaction in watching the video that comes from the rhythm. The belts were set to a specific speed to match the BPM of the song.
- The song is roughly 128 beats per minute.
- The treadmills had to be calibrated so a single "step" or "slide" spanned the distance between the machines in exactly two or four beats.
- If the speed was off by even 0.1 miles per hour, the dancers would eventually drift out of sync with the music.
It was essentially a mechanical metronome.
What Most People Miss About the "Here It Goes Again" Legacy
People talk about the treadmills, but they forget what happened next. OK Go became "the video band." They did the Rube Goldberg machine. They did the zero-gravity plane. They did the 500-plus printers synchronized to spit out paper.
But the OK Go running machine remains the gold standard because it relied entirely on human coordination.
There's a common misconception that the machines were modified or that there was a "secret" floor beneath them. There wasn't. It was just gravity and timing.
Trish Sie once explained in an interview that the hardest part wasn't the jumping—it was the "dead air" when they weren't on a belt. Transitioning from a moving surface to a stationary one and back again is a recipe for a broken ankle. The fact that they did it in suits and dress shoes is, frankly, insane.
The Financial Impact
Interestingly, the video was so successful it actually caused a rift with their label. EMI eventually disabled the "embed" feature on the YouTube video because they couldn't monetize the ads on third-party sites.
Think about that.
The band had the biggest video in the world, and the label tried to hide it so they could make a few extra cents on ad revenue. OK Go eventually went independent, largely because they realized they understood the digital landscape better than the executives in suits.
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How to Apply the OK Go Logic Today
If you’re a creator, an artist, or just someone trying to get noticed online, the OK Go running machine phenomenon offers a few hard truths that haven't changed in twenty years.
First, limitations are a gift. If they’d had a $1,000,000 budget, they probably would have used green screens and wires. It would have looked like a car commercial, and we would have forgotten it in a week. The fact that they only had eight treadmills and one room forced them to be clever.
Second, synchronization is hypnotic. Humans love patterns. We love seeing things line up perfectly. Whether it’s a treadmill dance or a perfectly timed transition on a Reel, the "puzzle" aspect of the content keeps people watching until the end.
Third, the first 10 seconds are everything. In the video, the music starts, and they immediately begin a synchronized walk. There’s no intro. No "hey guys, welcome back to the channel." Just straight into the hook.
Practical Takeaways for Your Own Projects
- Test the tech first: If you're doing something mechanical, like the OK Go guys did, calibration is more important than the performance. Spend 80% of your time on the setup and 20% on the execution.
- Don't hide the "seams": The shaky camera and the DIY vibe of the treadmill video made it relatable. People root for humans, not for polished corporate entities.
- Physicality wins: In a world of AI-generated art and digital filters, seeing bodies move through real space is refreshing. Use your environment.
- Focus on the loop: The video ends with them jumping off the back. It’s a clean break. But the motion is so repetitive that you almost want to watch it again to see how they did a specific transition.
The OK Go running machine wasn't just a music video. It was a proof of concept for the modern internet. It proved that a good idea, a cheap camera, and a lot of practice could beat a corporate marketing budget every single time. It remains a masterclass in how to capture attention without shouting.
If you’re planning your own "viral" moment, stop looking at filters and start looking at your surroundings. What’s the most boring object in your house? A treadmill? A toaster? A pile of books? Now, how can you use it in a way that defies expectations? That's the OK Go secret.
To truly appreciate the engineering behind it, go back and watch the video on a large screen. Ignore the dancing for a second and just watch the belts. Watch how they use the "gaps" between the machines to reset their footing. It’s a flawless piece of low-tech engineering that still holds up, even in an age of 4K resolution and high-speed internet.
The gear doesn't matter. The idea does.
Next Steps for Deep Diving into OK Go's Creative Process:
- Watch the "Making Of" footage: Search for the behind-the-scenes clips of the treadmill rehearsals. It shows the bruises and the countless falls that didn't make the final cut.
- Analyze the "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg video: Compare the mechanical complexity of their later work to the simplicity of the treadmills to see how their "creative engineering" evolved.
- Read Damian Kulash's essays on copyright: He has written extensively about the battle with EMI and why the "free" distribution of their video was the best thing that ever happened to the band's career.