Music has always been a good way to help a film evoke the time period in which it is set. Next month’s comedy Hot Tub Time Machine – in which John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke find themselves in 1986 after a drunken dip in the titular tub – is set to feature some great tunes from the decade that gave us the Brat Pack, Reaganomics and skinny ties.
Entertainment Weekly managed to get the film’s director Steve Pink to spill on some of the tracks that will grace the film’s soundtrack and it reads like a good overview of the middle of the decades pop charts. Here are the artists that Pink
- Salt ‘N Pepa’s “Push It,”
- New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,”
- David Bowie’s “Modern Love,”
- Scritti Politti’s “Perfect Way,”
- Men Without Hats’ “The Safety Dance,”
- “Save It For Later” by the English Beat
Additionally, the film’s red band trailer also featured INXS’s “What You Need” and Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me (Round Like A Record),” though that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be in the finished film. Musicologists, of course, will point out that “Push It” was actually released in March 1987 and “Bizarre Love Triangle,” barely squeeks in to 1986, having been released in November. But does such an anachronism really take the average movie-goer out of a film? Probably not, especially if the movie is as entertaining as Hot Tub Time Machine‘s trailers are promising. We’ll find out March 26th.
