"Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles came on the radio today and it never fails to remind me of something.
Namely, these bad boys:
Remember those? They took off in a huuuuge way. People were pounding their feet on plastic mats around the country -- around the world. It was probably the start of what's now become the standard combining-gaming-with-movement trend. They haven't really gone anywhere; indeed, they're pretty big in schools to tackle our raging child obesity problem and generally have more interactive schooling.
The reason that song reminds me of dance mats is because I used to kick so much ass at that song. We'll overlook the fact that I believe it was one of the "easy" ones. It was a nice song to do, nice and rhythmic for someone who isn't naturally blessed with a sense of that.
So whenever I hear that Buggles song it makes me what to do crazy scissor leaps and stamps.
Now to reveal the terribly deprived and poor childhood that I had, but we never had a dance mat in our family at the height of the craze. My experience of them were always at other people's houses. I loved those things so much I could have happily danced myself to oblivion, so maybe it was good that I didn't have one.
However I did go to a car boot sale around the time, or at least slightly past the peak of the mat-buying frenzy. I saw mats being sold for only ten pounds! And they plugged straight into the tv! The box showed that it looked exactly like the awesome ones everyone else had for their consoles.
Of course, that's always lies. When I got it home and opened it up, the mat was a complete cheap rip-off. Oh, and the graphics and 'songs'! It was like what you got while waiting for the Spectrum to load a cassette. I ended up playing it about twice and then putting it away forever to stop its possessed sounds.
Plus there's always that danger of play this too much in your bedroom and one day you'll crash straight through the floor.
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