VOL. 1, TRACK 6: RE-FLEX, “THE POLITICS OF DANCING”

Re-Flex’s “The Politics of Dancing” is an extremely danceable song. That being said… I don’t think I’ve ever actually danced to it. Wikipedia is right when they inform me that “The Politics of Dancing” was included in scores of ‘80s compilation albums, and I may have bought every single one of those albums between 1994 (when ‘80s compilations became a thing) and the present day. Although, of course, nobody “buys” albums anymore.

Regardless, what I’m trying to say is that I believe I have passively consumed those compilation albums (in which this track has been featured prominently) without actually being in a position to dance to “The Politics of Dancing!” Perhaps I’ve listened to it, on each and every one of those many hundreds of times it’s played, while I was in the car… or while getting ready for work… or on my headphones, while out for a walk.

Sad, isn’t it? That a glitteringly danceable track like this one could fade into the background like wallpaper, as long as it’s not being heard in a setting that was conducive to dancing? Well, my New Wave amigos, I vow that all that will change TODAY. When I finish wrapping up this entry, I’m going to go downstairs to my makeshift dance studio (lots of mirrors, very New Wave) and immediately put on “The Politics of Dancing” and see what happens.

In the meantime, I’ll rate the music video a 6/10. There are elements of it I love — the roller skaters; the New Wave model with great fashion who appears sporadically; the lead singer when he’s wearing the fake moustache; and the fabulous dancer with the red shoes who has serious moves.

Unfortunately, though, the video for “The Politics of Dancing” makes one serious mistake: an unnecessarily complicated concept and storyline: some sort of wannabe spy movie about making (and/or, frantically trying to prevent the detonation of) bombs hidden variously around London. Then, intermittently, we see young people singing and dancing and skating like nothing’s wrong. PICK A SIDE! Are we trying to make a movie, or are we trying to just have fun?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just old and basic, but I prefer to keep things simple. Then again, having an unnecessarily complicated storyline does tend to be a feature of an entire subgenre of New Wave music videos. I think I would have done better with this one, had the video for “The Politics of Dancing” not started out with a title card full of text giving the viewer “background” on the events in the video.

For real? This is New Wave, people. We don’t want to read! We just want to DANCE.

💘