Men Without Hats

Montreal was a hotbed of cheesy disco in the late '70s, so it's not surprising that the same city would give the world Men Without Hats just a few years later. Formed in 1977, Men Without Hats would briefly rule the airwaves with their 1983 song "The Safety Dance," an almost perniciously catchy synth-pop ditty whose video was once inescapable on MTV. With a palette of uptempo, four-on-the-floor rhythms, gleaming keyboards and affected vocals, they sounded like a perkier version of Depeche Mode or OMD, but they failed to enjoy the same longevity; follow-ups to their 1983 album, Rhythm of Youth, never made quite the same impact, and they eventually shifted from synth pop to guitar rock before disbanding after their fifth album, in 1991.