The Safety Dance

Commercial success

Released March 16, 1982 the United States and England in September 1983, the song reached the 3 ^th rank in Billboard Hot 100 chart ³ and 1 ^st place in Cash Box and Billboard Dance Chart . In England, the song also was a great success, reaching the 6 ^th spot. This song came out three times before interest the radios whereas now, she is a world famous title. Their next album, Folk of the 80’s (Part III) , however, does not go beyond the 127 ^th place in the US charts (Billboard 200 ).

Video

The clip of this song is remarkable by the medieval imagery, while it includes anachronistic elements (clothing, motor vehicles, paved roads …). The footage was shot in the village of West Kington, near Bath in Somerset , South England. Ivan Doroschuk is the only member of the group present in the clip. The actor dwarf Mike Edmonds wears a t-shirt with the mention “RHYTHMYOUTH”.

Track listing

12 “max version

1. “The Safety Dance” (Extended Version)
2. “I Got the Message”
3. “Antarctica”

7 “single version

1. “The Safety Dance”
2. “Security”

12 “promotional version

1. “The Safety Dance” (Extended Club Mix)
2. “Antarctica”

Meaning of the song

The composer and lyricist Ivan Doroschuk explained that The Safety Dance is a protest song against the vigilantes who banned the pogo at the new wave concerts in the clubs, while the disco disappeared. The pogo differs from the dance associated with disco by the individuality of the dancer and the violence that can result from it. For an uninformed person, this may seem dangerous or even dangerous (slam being the most dangerous form). The security guards opposed it and separated the dancers, or even sent them away from the club. In this, this song calls for freedom of expression and freedom in general.

It has been said that in the title of the song, one can find a similarity between Safety Dance (literally, ‘safety dance’) and Safe to Dance (‘There is no risk to dance’). Other lyrics in this song include references to the way the vigils see the dancers.

Doroschuk denies two myths about his work. First, it’s not a call to unprotected sex. The lyricist insisted that it was reading too far, in short: distorting his words. Then, this is not an anti-nuclear protest title, despite the image of the nuclear power plant at the end of the video clip. Doroschuk said he saw the Men Without Hats band as a punk band , which became the band for a one hit song ⁴ .

Rankings

Miscellaneous

• In 1996, the song is used in the movie Bio-Dome .
• In 2011, the song was used in an advertising campaign for the Ice Tea drink . The same year, we can also hear it in the movie A Night of Hell with Topher Grace .
• The song was also featured in the television series Glee ^{32 as} well as in Scrubs .

References