This trend has led to TikTok experiencing its smoothest movement in a decade.
Internet trends tend to come and go faster than most people can keep up, but sometimes they strike a chord with users. The “80s-style dance” trend is a new trend spreading on TikTok, following in the footsteps of other nostalgic trends such as “History Repeats itself” and “She Lives Inside Me.”
Sticking to the app’s dance origins, the “Dance Like the 80s” trend spotlights those who were young in that decade, allowing them to show off some of their best moves.
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Some people ask their parents to dance like the ’80s on TikTok.
This new trend is one of the most wholesome on the app, showcasing the movements of people who grew up in the 80s. Most of the young users of this app have parents who were born in their 80s, but this trend is aimed at those who have parents or grandparents who remember how moving and excited they were in their 10s. It has become popular among creators.
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Most often, this trend is set in a clip from the 1984 Bronski Beat song “Smalltown Boy.” As of this writing, he has over 50,000 videos set to this sound.
Each video showcases slightly different dance moves, but for the most part, each video has similar moves. Each video is full of hip wiggling, arm waving, and leg kicking, showing clear dance trends for this decade.
This heartwarming trend has done nothing but spread joy, both among those dancing and those watching the trend online.
One X user commented on a post containing a compilation of these TikTok videos: “Their smiles >>>> when they go back in time through the art of dance.”
“It’s actually harder than it looks. It must have been very popular when they were young,” said one person, praising the dancers in the comments.
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“All I know is that all the moms I’ve seen doing this trend are those girls from the ’80s,” said another woman.
This also led to some fun spin-off videos. TikTok user @logancraft96 used the green screen feature to edit a portion of the parents dancing against an 80s club backdrop, captioning the video, “This is what clubs looked like in the 80s.”
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“If you look at footage of actual clubs and discos from the ’80s, this is literally what they did!” one TikTok user commented on Logan Kraft’s post. “Even the hair was so fluffy! We were all sweaty and our eyes were shining. But it was like a fever dream.”
“Smalltown Boy” was part of Blonsky’s debut album. The era of consent. The song is about a young gay man who finds himself isolated from his family and friends after coming out. Although the clip shared on TikTok does not feature any of the song’s lyrics, it was a very popular synth-pop song at the time.
While not all TikTok trends are this fun and light-hearted, users of the app sometimes share moments that give them fleeting warmth while scrolling through their For You page.
