MovieChat Forums > White Boy Rick (2018) Discussion > If the movie takes place in 1984 why doe...

If the movie takes place in 1984 why does the trailer feature a 1977 Donna Summer song?


Kind of like using "Rock Around The Clock" for a trailer about a 60s hippie movie, or "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for a movie about the early 2000s.

Weren't there any appropriate 80s tunes available?

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People still listened to Donna Summer in 1984. Just because it was a 1977 song, doesn't mean that people didn't listen to a song that was only 7 years old.

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I was around in 1984 and 70s Disco was D.E.A.D. In 84 it was all about hair metal, New Wave and guys like Phil Collins, David Bowie and Prince. I didn't hear any Disco at all during the 80s unless it was being used satirically.

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I guess it depended on where you lived. I think in more urban areas, disco was still listened to and danced to.

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Youre explaining life in white suburbia.

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FYI, Donna Summer was still making music and having hits until the mid-'80s. She had one of her biggest hits, "She Works Hard For The Money" in 1983. In fact, she was making music right up until the time she passed away a few years ago. I'm thinking "I Feel Love" was chosen simply because it sounded good for that particular scene.

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This is a pretty dumb question. 300 took place in the bc era and nine inch nails was used in the trailer. You have a problem with this? I mean c'mon man. There are way better questions to ask about than this.

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It's not dumb. If thy are trying so hard to capture an era, they should have picked one of that era's signature songs, not a signature song of a previous era. The mood and mindset of the mid 1980s was nothing at all like the mood and mindset of the later mid-1970s.

300 was a Sword & Sorcery fantasy movie and heavy metal has been associated with Sword & Sorcery fantasy since the early 70s. Totally different case.

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300 was an over dramatized sword and SANDAL retelling of the battle for Thermopolye. There wasn't anything sword and sorcery about it. It wasnt even a fantasy. I honestly dont get why you have an issue with this. It's just the trailer. Were talking about a trailer. Even if the song played in the actual movie it wouldn't be a big deal, but this? The trailer? I'll just say dont watch any bas lurhman movies.

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While they could have picked a cooler song than Donna Summer's, the trailer is just the promo. At any rate, if the song is 7 years previous, it is still relatively current. It would not be out of place in a modern film of today to use a song from 2012 in the trailer.
From your examples, a film maker would have no problem using Rock Around The Clock in a 1962 movie, or Smells Like Teen Spirit in a 1998 movie.

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With how much people seem to adore the olde hits, using a DS song in a movie about Detroit doesn't seem too surprising. She was really big in the Motor City, and I believe She Worked Hard for it, haha.

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Well, she sure was then recent enough (and certainly a durable star now..!) to have been used for that storyline. Besides, great song.

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What kind of hick town do you live in? Shitty guitar music is dead in the rest of the world!
"I Feel Love" is not disco, it's the birth of EDM. It's been playing clubs for 44 years, I still hear it on BBC radio.

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You sound kind of confused. I never mentioned anything about guitar music. I'm not talking about what kind of music they play in my town in 2021. I'm talking about what kind of music was representative of the mid-80s era of this movie and sorry, but it was certainly not mid-late '70s disco. You can retrofit the song into whatever category you like but when it came out, it was considered disco. And if you're trying to say Donna Summer's big disco hit of 1977 is a representative tune of 1984, you are sadly mistaken.

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They certainly didn’t do their best characterising the era. The vibes you get are mid 70s at best. On top of that, There’re glaring mistakes like when they say someone used a 40 calibre, which wasn’t available until 5 years later.

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