If Marty McFly went back in time thirty years ago today, what song does he play at the dance to blow everyone's mind?

I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if it's been written already.
great thread idea but I don't agree exactly with the initial description : in "Back to the future", he plays a song that's just about to be released and be a huge innovative hit that will influence many but not necessarily change everything (since Elvis had already released "Hound Dog", for instance).
So 30 years ago, in 82, it would be a song soon to be a huge innovative and influential hit.
I'd say "billie jean" !
(I could a guy calling MJ from McFly's gig saying : "Michael you gotta to come right now and listen to this" while McFly does the moonwalk for the first time !)

i think you have the principle right, but wouldn't it have to be some sorta hip hop like sugar hill gang

McFly does the moonwalk for the first time

on tony basil thread i learned talking heads vid for crosseyed and painless has extended moon walk at 3:34. nobody lost their mind until michael i guess. though.

yeah, a hip hop hit would be also a good answer but "rapper's delight" was like 1979 so it was already old news in 82... maybe RUN DMC's "walk this way" for the hiphop/rock mix. but it wasn't released until 85...
so, to stay with MJ and the funk/rock mix, maybe "beat it" ?

about the moonwalk, yeah, I guess it existed before MJ's motown thing...

ha both of the ppl who saw crosseyed and painless vid in 1980 or 81 thought it was pretty rad im sure, i think one was michael.

Or Grandmaster flash's "the message" in 82.

Wikipedia say the dance routine later named "Moonwalk" is decades old, and it was already called Moonwalk in a 1969 children's show.

did toni basil choreograph that too

yeah, it existed prior to MJ's motown performance, of course, but really, who knew or cared before that !

Jeffrey thingybob of Shalamar did it on TOTP a couple of years previous to MJ's Motown thing.

It was a tap dance routine, and tap dancing was pretty popular, so I'm sure people cared. By the time MJ revived it it probably wasn't used much by dancers anymore, though.

(x-post)

baseball players been wearing one glove since like end of 19th century, but michael does it and BOOM

And golfers, golfers too.

um james brown was doing the moonwalk from the beginning of his career,very nearly.

Jackson took most of his dance inspiration from Brown.

Whereas Jackson Browne was never a dancer...

ahah. yeah, MJ "stole" many dance moves from all over the place, of course (Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, street dance, etc) but the fact that if you show someone doing the moonwalk to 100 persons and ask them who invented it, I'm pretty sure you'll be close to 100% answers for MJ ! (except if you ask 100 dance experts !)

anyway, back to the thread, if McFly covered "Beat it" or "Billie Jean" and made the moonwalk, I guess it would blow 82s people's mind !

Basically, he needs to do "Beat It," having them (ironically) totally on board through the Eddie Van Halen guitar theatrics... then lose everybody by trying to take it into a chopped-and-screwed Skrillex treatment of same. "Your kids are gonna love it."

So, there was a remake project of the film and it was scrapped ?
in the current state of the hollywood film industry it just seems insane that this movie hasn't been remade yet !

Hopefully some properties are too iconic even for Hollywood execs to tamper with... I mean it would only be step or two down from remaking Star Wars.

By the way, I think Blue Monday is the best answer on this thread so far.

I suppose there are a lot of kids out there who have never seen this film. Maybe instead of a remake they should remaster it. in 3D !

One of my housemate's twelve year-old students recommended BTTF to him the other day.

this thread makes me want to watch this again !

more mj dancing inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUlEBhGgEe0

Not sure how we missed doing this one last year, but, whatever: it's 1986, a full decade after this thread first went back in time and found Marty easing the audience in with some good-time hip-hop, then losing them completely with an aggressive turn into crunk stylings. What now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCUPc9zVfyo
(Phuture - Acid Trax)

Made only a year later, but would totally blow the minds of 1986 suburban teenagers.

And then he would alienate them by seguing into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MoFEomFmLU
(Squarepusher - Acid Tape Track)

What a perfect thread

I vote Pump Up The Volume or It Takes Two for 86 - the audience will be familiar with some elements but also blown away

No twists though, guess he should segue into something even wilder

Blue Monday maybe?

coldplay

"two phones"

If it's 86, it's gotta be something with a sampler, right? Like he builds a track in front of an audience of confused teenagers, but with each element he adds, the kids are more and more into it, eventually going totally nuts at a certain point. It takes two is probably a good choice.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," segueing into idk "Pompeii" or something

ya

the obvious answer is he takes out his macbook pro and goes aphex twin on them with a synchronized light show

2 Live Crew "We Want Some Pussy"

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/bttf/images/0/06/Erasedfromexistance.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20070614134919

"you made me realise"

just the "holocaust" section

i change my answer

if johnny b good was a hit the song we choose must also be a hit

so i'm going to say he performs a miley cyrus track and starts twerking in a bikini

sorry michael

Remember: the song he starts with is soon to be a hit, symbolizing a revolutionary new sound, in the period he's visiting. What he transitions into is hip with his generation and totally offensive and inaccessible to his old-timey audience.

Starts with Push it by Salt N Pepa and transitions into I've Seen Footage by Death Grips? Or are those too similar?

there's nothing he can do with a fucking guitar, that's for damn sure. i suggest he introduce his good friend hatsune miku.

i would modify that and say biff is on stage and forces him to dance and sing push it

kind of like how he makes him dance in part 3 by shooting his feet and marty starts to moonwalk

beastie boys - fight for your right

"Then tell me futureboy - who's the President of the United States in 2017?"

well, looking at the biggest hits from 1987 et 1988, I don't see anything that he could play to them shortly before it hits that would be a shock...
but "Pump up the volume" seems a good answer. Or maybe some new jack swing ?

or "Straight outta compton" released in 88.

Voodoo Ray? A bit late maybe, having been released in 89.

Though recorded June 88.