My Buddy's Theory: Bars play 80's music when it's about to close because...

I was in San Francisco's Sunset district sorta bar hopping with my 2 buddies, Wanger and Chang. I say "sorta" because we went to a grand total of 2 bars and I did not have any alcohol because I was under the weather. I know - sounds lame. Stuff like this happens after you're hitched, but not all was lost. You see, the 3 of us haven't seen each other in a while and Chang made a rare visit from SoCal. I couldn't pass up a good chance like this to give them a nice Christmas gift; MY FLU. Only the best for my buds.

As I said, I couldn't have any alcohol, but I could definitely live vicariously through them so I bought them a round and watched them enjoy it while I had my Coke with no ice. After catching up with each other for a good while, the bar suddenly started blasting Michael Jackson's "Beat It". Wanger immediately cut off whatever random conversation that was going on and said to me, "You know bars play 80's music when it's about to close."

I've never done much bar hopping so I didn't really understand his point - I had to ask, "Why's that?" Wanger explained, "They want to everyone to start singing." Chang interrupted, "It's like the climax of a show. They play 80's music." Wanger continued, "It's like those Irish pubs with their soccer songs."

They didn't answer my question; Why 80's music?

So I proceeded to ask, "So 5 to 10 years later they'll be playing 90s music, right?" Wanger replied, "Nah, there's just something about 80s music that gets everyone to sing along."

You see, just about every conversation with my buddies are of this nature - circular and inconsequential. What else can I do? Whip out my iPhone and pull up Google to find out why? It was a perfectly senseless and meaningless point that had already gone on too long. Any further effort to discover a rhyme or reason on this matter was just a waste of time. Whatever, I'll bite....

And just as I was about to buy into this BS, Wanger continued, "Yeah, bars were doing this even during the 70's. They were playing 80's music to call it a night even back then."

Alright buddy, hand over the car keys...