By Joe Puccio

Johnny played guitar, Jenny played bass
Name of the band is ‘The Human Race’
Everybody, tell me have you heard?
Pop goes the world

So go the lyrics to “Pop Goes the World,” a whimsical, yet intuitive, commentary on the music industry and the often cursory nature of popular culture.

The song, a chart topper in Austria, Canada, and South Africa, formulated by Ivan Doroschuk, is keenly prophetic – fame is unquestionably fleeting for the vast majority of “Johnnys” and “Jennys” in our society. And it’s a reality that Doroschuk is well aware of, firsthand.

Men Without Hats exploded onto the pop scene in 1982, becoming an MTV staple in the seminal network’s infancy stage, long before the channel traded in comforting mainstays like “Thriller,” “Take On Me,” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” for dispiriting cornerstones such as “Jersey Shore,” “Punk’d,” and “16 and Pregnant.”

Primarily remembered for their signature synthesizer-based hooks and new wave melodies, the group actually started their trajectory in the late 1970s as a punk rock outfit, before discarding an anti-establishment image in favor of a more auditory-friendly sound.

“I really just wanted to reach more people back then,“ Doroschuk, the baritone-rife lead vocalist, reasoned, in a chat with Generation X Wire. “Pop music was such an immense platform and I was trying to get our message across to as many listeners as possible.”

The singer succeeded. “The Safety Dance,” one of the most instantly recognizable tunes of the era, became an unadulterated smash hit, peaking at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart, and remaining a popular anthem to this day, over 40 years after its release.

“It’s certainly crossed generations,“ Doroschuk opined. “It’s kind of embedded itself in pop culture and it allows us to be on the road all these years later. The song is actually bigger than myself and the band and has taken on a life of its own,” he continued. “I feel like I’m a traveling museum curator presenting this musical artifact that brings immense joy to people. It’s an absolute blessing.”

While the track, written by Doroschuk after being ejected from a club for pogo dancing, unmistakably defined a generation with its catchy but defiant freedom of expression motif, it ultimately led to Virgin Records expecting the act to repeat its initial success. Yet the mainstream fame that came so early proved to be unattainable for the Canadian group. “They wanted “Son of The Safety Dance” and “Return to the Land of The Safety Dance” and “Beneath the Planet of The Safety Dance,” Doroschuk laughed. “When you’re a young musician, you don’t really understand the whole industry machine that goes into making a hit song. It’s tough.”

The band achieved moderate prosperity with their sophomore effort, Folk of the 80’s (Part III), but it wasn’t until 1987’s Pop Goes the World and its aforementioned title cut, that the unit was able to regain a slice of the notoriety they experienced five years earlier. “The other message that I was trying to get across in that song was that if we don’t start taking care of Mother Earth, she’s going to blow up,” Doroschuk explained. “And it seems to be an issue that people are even more concerned with today. It’s also used a lot in huge soccer stadiums across South America and Europe now so it’s still relevant.”

While the record began to reveal Men Without Hats’ serious side, The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century was undoubtedly an image changer. The concept album tackled issues such as domestic violence (“Hey Men”), environmentalism (“In the 21st Century”), and commercialism (“Everybody’s Selling Something,” “I’m in Love”). “I think that album might have been a bit too heavy for the record company,” Doroschuk joked. “But it was a great learning experience.”

As the 1990s became flooded with the grunge rock movement, bands like Nirvana caught the ear of Doroschuk, and the result was Sideways, a disc saturated by electric guitar with their trademark synthesizer nowhere to be found. Proving to be a commercial failure and released only in Canada and Japan, the group split up for over a decade, which saw the frontman deliver his first and only solo offering, The Spell, before reforming the act in 2010.

A revitalized Men Without Hats, consisting of Doroschuk, brother Colin (bass), Sho Murray (guitar), Sahara Sloan (keyboards), and Adrian White (drums), is currently in the midst of their highly anticipated “Abducted by the 80’s” summer tour. The trek, which features a rotating who’s who of “totally awesome” performers, including Wang Chung, The Motels, Naked Eyes, and Animotion, began in May, and has triumphantly seen a mixture of original MWH fans, their children, and even their grandchildren in attendance. “It’s a family affair,” Doroschuk enthused.

“These 80s packages are great. Back in the day, there was a lot of competition between bands,” Doroschuk admitted. “Everyone was competing for interviews, radio play, and newspaper coverage, and that can lead to a lot of stress and anxiety. But now it’s really like one big happy family.”

If there’s one certainty when it comes to Doroschuk, it’s that he’s not done having fun just yet. “We just finished recording a couple of new singles, which should be out by late summer or early fall,” he revealed. “They’re going to fit right in with “The Safety Dance” and “Pop Goes the World.” We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, you know? We’re having a blast.”