Rewind the VHS to the 80's, Dude

Yesterday I watched the 2015 movie Turbo Kid, a dystopian action-adventure in the style of genre films of the 1980's. What a blast! Not only were the story, sense of humour, style, pop culture references, and technology totally rad, but the newly scored music soundtrack (by Le Matos) was so totally 80's awesome that it blew me away. And I do not exaggerate. That early electro-synth-techno sound was perfect within the flick, but it also held up incredibly well out of context. I dialed up the soundtrack on YouTube right after the movie, put on my headphones, and spent another hour or so chilling to those cool (or should I say "tubular"?) electro-beats. And then I bought the soundtrack online. Yup, it's a winner.

The 2011 movie Drive did the same thing for me musically.... simply righteous, and worthy of a CD purchase. Newly composed music (by Cliff Martinez, among others) that's moody, occasionally poppy, and heavily synthy - in that same 80's vein. The movie isn't necessarily set in that time period, but it does evoke the tone of films of the era through cinematography, lighting and colour palette... and the clothing styles, especially Ryan Gosling's flashy "scorpion jacket". There's no way you'd get away with that today, but back then....

Big Trouble in Little China...

Movies never look this wacky nowadays

The innovative and distinctive music that grew out of the 80's played a large role in iconic and cult action-adventure movies of the time. Sort of stranger and/or darker fare like The Terminator, Repo Man, The Road Warrior, The Warriors, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, They Live, First Blood, Robocop... stuff like that. Not exactly the "feel-good fun" films like Karate Kid, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Those ones sported soundtracks loaded with radio pop and rock. I'm thinking of moodier musical scores, incidental music, often electronic - not tunes you'd hear on your sister's Walkman. 

Modern film-makers often look to the 80's for inspiration as they craft their cinematic (hopefully) masterpieces. We've had comedy gems like Hot Tub Time Machine, The Wedding Singer, and Rock Star... and for all of them, we've got to thank those crazy 80's. The Last Days of Disco is another one, and even Let the Right One In is strangely yet appropriately set during that decade of decadence. And I must admit, I love the music, both pop/rock and incidental score, in those more mainstream flicks. 

Hey, that guy looks familiar! Nope, that's Snake Plissken.

Escape From New York.

And we mustn't forget the recent (2015) short film Kung Fury, which was produced nearly in parallel with its similarly-ridiculous feature length counterpart Turbo Kid. The two films exude 80's to the hilt, yet the latter is more restrained and respectful of the era... more of a coherent homage than the completely over-the-top Kung Fury. KF is definitely a fun ride, but it's extreme to the extreme, a kitchen sink approach to appeal to the widest possible audience within its short running time. Turbo Kid has time to grow, to gel, to build, to simmer and boil. We learn about, understand, and sympathize with its protagonists.

After talking so much about films and music of that era of the extreme, I feel like I should go watch some episodes of Freaks and Geeks... an example of 80's homage in modern TV shows. 

Gnarly, dude!