Hey everyone, and welcome back to Rewind and React. I'm Adam Eltarhoni. And I'm Rob Fine. Today we have another one shot episode for you. And today we're going to talk about 2014 hit Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon. Rob. Yes. The music video for Shut Up and Dance is a vibrant, playful throwback to the 1980s pop culture. It features a band performing in a setting that looks like a retro dance club, or a prom night filled with neon lights. Outrageous fashion, and cheesy visual effects straight out of a vintage music video. Our frontman. Nicolas Petrucci. Plays a nerdy guy who falls for a dazzling, strong willed woman with electric red hair. She grabs him onto the dance floor, echoing the song's hook, and the two share a goofy, energetic dance. Throughout the video, the bandmates. Appear in exaggerated 80s outfits, complete with Peter's mullets and dramatic slow motion leaps. It's colorful, it's chaotic, it's tongue in cheek. It matches the song's vibe entirely.
yeah, and I will say so. I didn't know the name of this band. I didn't even really know the name of the song, but once I heard, I was like, oh, this is an instantly recognizable song. Apparently this is like a big wedding song. Like when they want to get people on the dance floor. They play this to get people out there. So it's got a lot of good beats and it's very infectious. But I've never seen the video. Have you seen the video before? This discussion? Oh yeah. Yeah. my wife and I love this song and I love that you say it's a big wedding song because every wedding, whenever they ask you like, oh, send in some songs, you know, for our DJ to play, we always do two songs, this one and Timber by Pitbull and Kesha. Both just energetic. Fun, playful, at your own wedding. Just going. I actually requested the song. Oh. Nice. Did they play it? They did. And I remembered as I was requesting it. You did say you're not doing or. I think the DJ said he's not doing a request. You came over and, like, checked what was going on. You're like, yeah, you could play that one. You, I was like, oh, I remember Adam did. Say they weren't doing. Request loops. Oh, man. I'm glad you played it. Yeah, I forgot a lot of things that that one. But yeah, very cool video. Kind of some they're like. Some cool, I guess you might call them teen movie. Trips. Like weekly. Escapism, like these characters abandoned. Like the caution and self awareness or not, self-consciousness. Just like the song suggests. And the nerdy guy, he does not hesitate when he's pulled onto the dance floor. He like, let's go all out and just has fun with it. We get that romantic idealization, like that mystery woman who kind of becomes this dream girl. She's dazzling, she's cool. She's like, out of reach of our main character. But instead of being unattainable, she actively includes him. So it's kind of like a fantasy of that effortless connection that you see in 80s movies. You know, it's humorous, it's self-aware. It's got the intentionally low budget effects, but that's what makes it endearing. I feel like we say that a lot on this podcast. But. It works, right? Stylistically the video plays on these like, 80s cliches. You know, we get, like, the karate moves on the dance floor, the spandex, the mirrored colored sunglasses. It creates this whole environment where silliness is the point. Kind of like Gangnam Style or all the small things. It invites viewers to do the same, just like, forget all judgment and just dance.
yeah, it's very encouraging. And, watching this video for the first time, it is really cool because they lean on all these 80s stuff, the songs, a little synth pop and like pop, you know, poppy and all that stuff. So it's really an homage to 80s, like same music and style, but you have the lead singer and you're right, he's like that goofy, nerdy guy. He has a really good face for that to like his. He has a lot of emotion you can put on his face and the moment it does his head and like duplicity or however they like extend his head, you're like, okay, this is going to be a fun watch. And then they have that like saved by the Bell graphics and they have a lot of neon stuff coming up and a little bit of the pixelated art. A lot of Say Anything references, which I don't even know if I've seen the movie. I know it's a very famous scene. I know it's a very famous movie, but it's crazy how much, longevity that that movie has as references to things. It is crazy, right? Well, it's that iconic, like holding the boombox up. So I've seen the movie. it gets the end of the movie. So it's like, you know, impactful in that sense. But, I think we're really just gained traction is just somebody parodied it somewhere else. I can't tell you who the first person to like, parody say anything with holding the boombox up, but that became so iconic of a scene from the movie that, everybody else, was like, oh yeah, this is how we can like, you know, doing this style throwback to that movie. And it's fun to just holding the boombox, especially in this video where they've got three guys holding an enormous boombox up above their heads. So it's yeah, it's it's a fun throwback, but, I like how they play on it with how large they make that boombox.
Yeah, yeah. And I also I like that they include the other members of the band in the video, like they're the ones holding up the boombox. They're the other ones on the dance floor. They're the one, I assume. And I couldn't figure out. There's a scene where they're getting married and, like, one of the band members is the, the minister or whatever, and he has an elephant mask on, and I didn't really understand that reference. I'm sure there's some kind of inside joke for them, but, I do like when these bands, it's not just like the lead singer you're singing the whole time, but you actually get to see the other people who contributed to the music. Yes, absolutely. you. Mentioned the lead singer, Nicholas. And his face is just feels right for this video. He's got like a, I'm not John Waters. What's the guy who made Breakfast Club? So is John Hughes. He's got, like, a John Hughes vibe to him. Right? Just that that face that he's got, like, his nose. Something about it is like he looks like something directly out of either John Hughes or, Judd Apatow, like, would be like, I need this guy for my, my movie.
Yeah, yeah, he he definitely has a pay for it. I will say again, I'm not a big fan of mullets, but he does have kind of a mullet in this video. And I'm like, I'm this is, not looking good, but otherwise I like the it's a fun video and I like, you know, the dancer is really into it. Lauren Taft plays the dancer in this, and she's really, like, leans into. And she's really having a lot of fun. I like that even in the scene where they're having the marriage ceremony, she's wearing her red chucks. And so it's like everything's leaning into really the funniness and like the enjoyable but ness of this video and the song and they could have gotten probably a lot of different directions, but I really like how they just really leaned into what they love, which is the 80s and all of this 80s graphics and 80 style and dancing. I think they described it as a dance party at a laser tag arena. Haha, I love that. Yeah, I get that vibe from it. And the hair in the makeup team. So they intentionally overdid these, like, styles to mimic those 80s. Looks like the big hair, the electric blue eyeshadow, neon lipstick, the works, you know. And you'd mentioned the director, Josh Forbes. So, yeah, he definitely said he leaned in to doing the bad prom video like an 80s workout VHS tape. And yeah, laser tag dance party, right?
Yeah. I will say one criticism of the video is and it's just because it's a fun video is that they do stop the music and then you start to like, dancing poorly. Which is fine, but you're playing this music video in your house or like, you know, you're getting people to dance. It really breaks up that whole dance party ness of, you know, whatever you're doing, because it does stop the video for that. I do agree. Yeah. I wish there was a version you could do that's like the same video, but it doesn't for for everything. It doesn't have like the in any of the intro or outro dialog and doesn't stop in the middle of the song for any reason. However, as a video, I think it's kind of fun that that happens. ironically, that's my daughter's favorite part of the song is when they stop and he's doing those quirky dances. And, you know, to her, this is one of her favorite songs. Anytime she has a friend come over, they do a little dance party in her room. This is the first song they put on because. Yeah, like you said, it's that. That wedding. Get the guest on the floor song. Yeah, that's so funny. You know, when I suggested this video, I didn't even realize how big of a first or how big of a song it was, but how big of a fan your daughter was of the song? Oh, her. Myself, my wife. Like, we're all, yeah, we all love this song. We actually, before it really got big, I saw Walk the Moon. They opened for some artist. I want to say it was the Ting Tings. Maybe now that couldn't have been them. I can't remember who the who they open for, yeah, they played a few songs and they were like, good. But then this is they're closer. And even though we'd never heard it before, the entire like audience was like into it. By the end of the song, we had that instant catch you and put you in a good mood kind of vibe to it. Yeah, it's definitely a good feeling song.
Also one thing and again, I like the video I was trying to understand and doing research and I couldn't figure out like kind of the, the nuances of the different parts of the video. But this villain, that's the, the glowing guy with the mask on, which turns out to be him. I was trying to understand what was like the purpose of that. Was it like, is it getting in his own way or is he competing with himself? But, I don't know if you've took away anything from that. You know, I think there's a lot of ways you can interpret it. I would, I would wager to say there's no one right way that they expected people to take that. You know, I think you could say he is dancing with this girl. And then the other guy cuts in and he's watching from the sidelines now and then, later, you know, it's where he takes off the mask, like you said it, it's the singer. Maybe that's like him saying, like, that's the guy I need to be one day, right? Or, you know, that's the guy he does become. Yeah. I think there's a lot of ways you could dramatically interpret it, but I'm wagering the biggest. That would be a fun thing to do. It didn't really put a lot of artful thought into that Yeah. They just wanted to have fun. Another thing about this video, again, can I blame YouTube? But, at the end, you know, the band members are looking and I know I see one band member on the left and then another one and they, like, start to make out or like the like, swayed them down. But I don't know who those two people are. I can't see who was in. I assume it's the other two band members, but, I'll never know until YouTube fixes their issue. Fix the in place due to give us the option.
Another interesting thing. And that again, we're hitting that area where people are releasing videos not on YouTube first. And this song or this video first premiered on an internet radio network. Eight tracks. Right? I've never heard of it. I looked it up. It's like a internet radio and social networking website revolved around streaming your playlist so people can create a playlist of at least eight tracks, and they can like, listen to each other stuff and then do things like that. So apparently, they, they went defunct in the end of that of the decade there. And then they came back. But, according to Wikipedia, as of December of 2024, the site has been inactive. So, it's a cool concept, but, I mean, it's tough. Again, when you're competing with Spotify, who has playlists people can make and share with other people and they don't even have to share within, like Spotify. You going to share it with anyone and they can listen to it. So, interesting concept, but and why they decided to go there first before they put it on their Vevo account. Yeah. I'm surprised Vevo still around to. But you know. They must have really good licensing agreements or something going on that really pushes it. Anything else for this one. That's all I got for them.
Well it's time for your favorite game the Trivia Challenge. And today we're going to ask you the difference between Walk the Moon or 32nd to Mars, another space themed band just in the name obviously. So are you ready? Yes. first one, we'll start with a couple easy ones. This band was formed in LA in 1998. Oh, that's got to be 30s to Mars. Yep. My two brothers, Jared Leto and I don't know his brother's name, but I assume it's some other letter. Yeah. Shannon. Yeah. Dan. Okay, perfect. Yeah. This band released a documentary titled artifact about their legal battle with their record label. Artifact. The name just sounds like it has to be Jared Leto. So I'm going to go 30s. Yeah, yeah. You're right. Let's see. I would switch it up a little bit. So how about this band announced in hiatus in 2022 to pursue individual creative projects? 2022 so I don't think. 30s has ever gone on an official hiatus. So you just keep losing members. But really, it's just Jared. So I'm going to say walk the moon rekt. Yeah. You're not going this one out of the park to the moon, as they say. This band name was inspired by a song by the police. Oh, so I'm not that. Familiar with the police. I could see them saying either of these things, but I'm going to go with Walk the Moon for this one. Correct. You have walked the moon? And then how about so this band, this one is a little more like you have to know how many albums each band has, but this band has five studio albums. Let's see. So on this, the more shows this is or, Ooh, yeah, I think that's 30s to Mars. Incorrect. Actually walked in. He has five studio albums. 30s to Mars has six six. Okay, yeah I could I knew they had a new single. Out. With that stuck song, but I wasn't sure if there was an album with it. Yeah, that makes sense. this one might be a little bit easier. this band's debut album, was released in 2002. 2002. 30s. To Mars.
Yeah, you're right. I thought it was, I think it's very interesting that they were formed in 98, but they didn't have their first album until 2002. Yeah. A graphic well, that one you knocked out of the park. So, a lot of good hits there. I think. You know, your 30s to Mars and the Jared Leto. So, Yeah. Congrats, Rob. I really leaned on 30s to Mars more than walk the moon there. That's what I knew about Jared Leto and his band. Do you want to play one more game? Okay. All right. I'm going to give. You seven movies. From the 80s. You need to put these in order on when they came out. And as a hint, they all came out in different years. So there's no gotchas as far as, like a month or anything like that. So the movies are The Breakfast Club. Raiders. Of the Lost Ark. Batman Ate. Who Framed Roger rabbit. Ghostbusters, and Pretty in Pink. I think I'm going to be able to get most of them. So I'm going to go with Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's correct. And then Ghostbusters. No. And then, Pretty in Pink and then E.T. Breakfast Club, Who Framed Roger rabbit, and finally Batman. All right, that's pretty close. It's the one that really threw you off there. Raiders of the Ark in 81 ET and 82. Ghostbusters in. 80. Four. Breakfast Club in 85. Pretty pink. Yeah. Pretty in pink in 86. Who Framed Roger rabbit in 88 and Batman in 89. So yeah, ET 82. That's the only one that you got wrong there. Well, really? Yeah. That's what really threw off there.
so I know Batman is 89 because every time they talk about Batman movies they call it Batman 89 because you have to defend. Oh really? From the Christopher Nolan ones. Yeah. They're like, there's the Batman. There's you know, Batman Begins, but you just call it Batman 89. So I knew where to start there. Raiders I knew was early. I, I didn't know if like Harrison Ford finished Star Wars by the time Raiders came out. So that's why I said 83. I figured maybe they were like the same time, but yeah, yeah, E.T., I, I've only seen like once. And then Roger rabbit I figured was like more late 80s because of the technology. And then I just kind of filled in the gaps from there. Very cool, Yeah, that was great. Yeah. Great video. Shut up and dance. Feel free to, request it at your next, wedding that you attend. And you will be the head of the party. Absolutely. that's all we have for this episode of One Shot. So again, thanks for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and we will, talk to you soon. See you next time. I don't have anything.
