Music Videos Of The '80s: Reminiscing

That video was choreographed by Michael Peters, who had also choreographed (and danced in) Michael Jackson's "Beat It". You have to wonder who would watch "Beat It" and think yeah. we want that guy for Pat's next video. It's not that the "Love Is A Battlefield" choreography is that bad (except for the boob shaking, which is hilarious), but it really was not what Pat Benatar was all about at all (and rhythmically, she's no Michael Jackson).

 

The Mystical Knights of the Oingo Boingo with one of their weird hits!

 

Still creeps me out

 

Another Oingo Boingo song

 

They used to have the actual video on yt but I guess it got taken down.

 

Complete with Larry "Bud" Melman.

 

Colin Hay, if you don't already know, is still out there playing and recording great stuff. His solo (and some acoustic) versions of a few of his MaW songs are pretty cool . . .

 

The (English) Beat with "Mirror in the Bathroom", opening track from I Just Can't Stop It, still a great album, and an amazing debut ...

 

Well, I remember the backlash. She had one big follow-up hit - the lovely but light pop "We Belong" - and then pretty much dropped off the charts. "Invincible" got to #10, and her much lauded return to harder rock ("All Fired Up") barely scraped the Top-40. Her albums stopped going Top-10 around the same time. In fact, didn't she slam the video as a terrible career move on some VH1 special back in the aughts?

It wrecked her career, no question. Going pop like that scored her a big single hit, no question, but it was a bad fit and killed her rock cred (and her album sales). It also pushed her into competition with the likes of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, at just the time she should have been solidifying her claim to a very different market.

But then, if you know her past, you know she didn't begin as a hard rocker to start with, although she turned out to be damn good at it. I think "Heartbreaker" is one of the great singles of the decade, while tracks like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "Treat Me Right" remain solid '80s hits.

 

It didn't really use any "technology" - they just faded from one face to the other. "Black & White" used computers to "morph" from one face to the next. Godley & Creme also directed a slew of iconic videos for others, including "Every Breath You Take" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" for the Police, "Rockit" for Herbie Hancock, and the trendsetting "Fade To Grey" for Visage. Along with Russell Mulcahy ("Total Eclipse Of The Heart", "Hungry Like The Wolf", "I'm Still Standing", "Bette Davis Eyes") probably the most-important directors of the early video era.

 

I was thinking about the "Love Is A Battlefield" video, and how Michael Peters choreographed that and MJ's "Beat It" and "Thriller". The "Battlefield" video predates "Thriller" by about 3 months, so I don't know if it's just me, but I can definitely see elements of the "Thriller" choreography in Pat and her troupe's dance moves. You can see the ideas percolating in Peters' thinking (perhaps he was picturing Pat and the girls as zombies?) So as lame as that dance sequence is, you can sort of say it's an influence on the most famous video of all time.

 

I was going to add that one in as well but thought I'd wait a bit. This was the song and video that hooked me on Devo for life. How it was never a huge hit I don't know. Really catchy song and the video clip was one of the first to make extensive use of digital animation. The clip was a revelation when I first saw in late 1982 on SBS' Rock Around The World show one night. And this was before my parent's had bought a VCR and I was desperate to see it again after the first view. The tumbling energy dome through space, both the wire frame pattern and the filled in dome were impressive for the time. Now you could do it yourself on your smart phone. Peek-A-Boo! was the strongest of the three clips from the Oh, No! It's Devo album and as Jerry of Devo has said, the clip for Peek-A-Boo! still looks pristine today in a timeless fashion.

 

It does seem like the influence of MTV really rattled Pat and her camp, like they didn't know what to do about it. It shouldn't have been a problem, because Pat was certainly photogenic enough. She had an MTV friendly image before MTV was a factor in image making. She should have just kept on being Pat Benatar. But like a few artists who were hot in the early 80s, when MTV became a phenomenon (~1983/84) they seemed to not know how to adapt, and usually their answer was to glam up their image for MTV. Billy Squier being the poster boy for that, but Pat fell for that too.

 

Always enjoyed this clip for When I'm With You by Sparks.

 

ABC -Poison Arrow

 

There was great book released in 1984, The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video, written by Michael Shore that was a definitive look at music video from the earliest visuals in the 1920's up to the release of the book.

 

As a 14 year old when I first saw this clip - WOW!!!!

Missing Persons - Words

 

Have we forgotten that we used to wear our sunglasses at night back then? Jail scenes filmed at the old Don Jail in Toronto.

 

The Rolling Stones Undercover of the Night filmed in Mexico. I believe this version got banned by the BBC.

 

Well done. I have about 3,500 80s videos and this was the first "obscure" one I thought of.

Instead I'll post the other 80s hit with the same lyrics to the chorus. Count the 80s touchstones:

* boombox
* dancing The Robot
* big hair
* strapped on keyboard
* kid on BMX bike
* bewildered adult onlooker
* falsetto lead vocals
* Members Only jacket
* vocoder
* studded leather belt

FREEEZ - I.O.U.

 

Really? 172 posts without Chris Isaak - Wicked Game?

 

Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait. Great FX on this one (the same director did "And She Was", "Boy In The Bubble", "Leave Me Alone" and "Sowing The Seeds Of Love").



Singer Valerie Day today :

 

I loved the early years of MTV...then it went to hell.