I suppose the quality of a music video has always revolved around the budget, and perhaps the creative genius at work. In the early 80s, with the advent of MTV, some videos were pasted together with a naiveté and playfulness that made up for a lack of sophistication while others were slick and more cinematic, like a short film. Bodies were heavily objectified (primarily women’s), videos were mainly made for a white consumer, plots were simple (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, or boy meets girl and sex ensues—off camera, of course), approaches were diverse (think of Donald Fagen’s video of “New Frontier” which surveys 50s jazz, Cubism and the Cold War using slick footage and excellent animation with Big Country’s video for the single “Big Country” which features the band members inexplicably cavorting around on four-wheelers). Some videos were made on a set or in a warehouse while others pulled together footage from different locations and live concerts. Michael Jackson’s videos for “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Thriller” reached new heights. There were costume changes and goofy props. What did we want? Surely, to see the artists, hear the music, view some choreography, see some skin. Not much has changed, perhaps.
Early videos featured long, slow, static shots—the close-up of the vocalists, a saxophonist on a raft, slow pans of the band walking down an abandoned street, the dramatic sprint in slow motion, lots of trench coats, sitting around in the studio (see Duran Duran’s playful and problematic video of “Girls on Film” or Heaven 17’s beautiful and stylish film noir tribute “Let Me Go”). Eventually things sped up. What changed? Did videos become quick, pulsing clips of footage as the technology improved and attention spans dwindled? I don’t know. (In the early 90s, I theorized that it was a Capitalist plot to groom our minds to process massive amounts of information more efficiently so that we could become more productive with less time in the work place!)
There was an explosion of videos at first, as far as MTV is concerned. So many different approaches. Again, available financing probably dictated what a group could offer. In 1982, A Flock of Seagulls got a hell of a lot of mileage out of a wall of mirrors and a rotating stage (and a large sheet of tinfoil???) in their video for “I Ran.” That video still delightfully haunts me. Five years later, in 1987, Dead or Alive’s video for “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” featured excellent camera work, but could not have been simpler, which leads me to admit that I will always have a fondness for some of the early minimalist videos that were theatrical in nature or downright silly. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the performance aspect, or the sense of spontaneity (which was probably deceptive). Or maybe they just simply left more to the realm of the imagination (where I tend to spend a lot of time).
Anyway, books have been written about this stuff. When it comes to early videos that capture that playful minimalism I mentioned, two early Robert Palmer videos come to mind, featuring the songs “Johnny and Mary” and “Clues.”
*Oh, and by the way, if you ever need to remember or show someone what a “telephone” used to look like, watch an early 80s video.
#MTV #Alternative80smusic #NewWave #PostPunk #GenX #VideoKilledtheRadioStar
