Punk? Played out. Rap-rock? So over. According to Duran Duran’s John Taylor, it’s time to stop shouting and start dancing. 

“I feel like rap and hip hop are a bit tired,” Taylor says. “The aggressive post-grunge rap-rock isn’t as fresh. Maybe it doesn’t feel like the right time for too much shouting.”

Instead, Taylor is bopping to electropop and other dance music: “I was making party mixes over Christmas, so that’s what I’m into now. I like the Ting Tings, MGMT, Duffy, Crystal Castles, the Norwegian dance scene.”

A new favorite band is Midnight Juggernauts: “They’re like a cross between MGMT and Justice,” John says.

Mostly, John is just grateful that the specter of the 70s seems to be loosening its grip on music. “For a long time I felt like we were stuck in Groundhog’s Day, where music was just going back to the 70s, 70s, 70s. Nobody could get past that. I feel like if I see one more magazine cover about punk rock I’m going to scream.”

The dance of decades is moving on, and the 80s is getting its due. “It’s just happening now, that kids forming bands are drawing on 80s music,” John says. “Young kids now don’t have the sense that people used to have, that synthesizers and dance beats were not authentic.”

One 80s trend that probably won’t make a comeback is the sort of blockbuster music video that made Duran Duran famous: “The trick now is to make a video that looks great for 50 grand.” And that’s just as well, John says. “One thing I’ve learned is that a great video won’t sell bad music. You can have a great track and do just about anything behind it, and people will say ‘Hey, cool video.’ But a crap track, even with the most exciting video, no one will listen to it.”