the 1980s is the decade that just won’t die.
for those of us old enough to remember, the common wisdom at the time was that the synth-driven pop of the ’80s was vastly inferior to the classic rock of the ’70s and ’60s. but the ironic twist some four decades later is that so many contemporary bands from the arctic monkeys to the 1975 have been influenced by ’80s new wave and artists from that decade pull in big crowds all over the planet.
even tiktok has jumped on the bandwagon, with
a slew of videos
on the social-media platform with
kids filming their parents
dancing like they did in the ’80s
.
one guy who knows all about the ’80s revival is ivan doroschuk. the former montrealer, who now calls victoria, b.c., home, is the co-founder, lead singer and chief songwriter of men without hats, a band that formed here in the late ’70s as a punk group and then by the early ’80s became one of canada’s first electro-pop acts. their 1983 hit the safety dance remains one of the decade’s most famous songs and still routinely turns up in commercials, tv shows and movies.
“you listen to the radio now and it’s all so ’80s-influenced,” doroschuk said in a recent phone interview from his hotel room in phoenix.
he was in arizona on tour with the totally tubular festival, a 1980s multi-artist show that will be bringing its vintage electronic tunes to place bell in laval on tuesday, july 23. aside from men without hats, the line-up includes thomas dolby, bow wow wow, wang chung, tom bailey from the thompson twins, modern english, tommy tutone, and eddie munoz from the plimsouls.