safety dance

Men Without Hats – Safety Dance

Safety Dance was one of those one hit wonders that did go quite well in the charts worldwide. Released in 1982, the song is a protest against bouncers stopping dancers pogoing to 1980s New Wave music in clubs when Disco was dying and New Wave was up and coming. If you recall, there was a medieval theme to the music video too. How that fits in to the theme is still a loss to me.

New Wave dancing was different from Disco dancing because it was done individually instead of with partners and involved holding the torso rigid and thrashing about. This could be seen dangerous, especially if pogoers (if that’s a term) bounced into one another – accidentally or otherwise. The bouncers didn’t like pogoing so they would tell pogoers to stop or be kicked out of the club. Thus, the song is a protest and a call for freedom of expression.

Men without hats was a band from Montreal, Canada. But Safety Dance was actually filmed in England with only the band leader Ivan Doroschuk in the video. Enjoy it below:

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