Recently, Kurt Andersen looked back at MTV’s Golden Age with Craig Marks, author of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution.
We asked for your favorite videos from that late, lamented pre-Jersey Shore era.
The clear front-runner seemed to be Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” with its intricate stop-action animation by the Quay Brothers.
Another favorite was A-ha’s “Take On Me.” “I didn't even care about the song,” wrote Rebecca from New York. “The video sold it.”
Willfree from Montana wrote, “I grew up on the very mild sexiness of network television.” But when The Eurythmics released the video for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “the image of Annie Lennox in suit and tie, black gloves, and short orange hair was ever after my iconic MTV. I loved a thousand other videos but ‘Sweet Dreams’ was always special.”
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Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC Radio, and is funded in part by Ken and Lucy Lehman and the National Endowment for the Arts. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our Science and Creativity series is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Comments [6]
Hi Michelle --
Turns out both the Quay Bros AND Aardman worked on "Sledgehammer." Good catch, thanks.
Sorry about your B key -- Boo.
All of Stan Ridgeway's vids (both with Wall Of Voodoo and his solo stuff) are amazing, but "Drive (She Said)" is still one of my favorites of all time-a little-bitty noir film that showed us all what the medium could be as a storytelling vehicle. If you weren't up between Midnight and Six you didn't see it, but here's a linky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7iARb-JpaY
The Sledgehammer video was not done y the Quay rothers (apparently my key-the one after A doesn't work). It was done y ArdMan, and I elieve Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit, animated the dancing chickens. Definitely NOT the Quays.
Rush's Time Stand Still with a floating Amy Mann. It began my love affair with Rush.
Rock It and of course anything Michael Jackson.
I would disqualify two of the leading suggestions ("Sledgehammer" and "Sweet Dreams") on a specific aesthetic rule violation: excessive lip syncing. They know that we know that they are not really singing, right? So why bother? It is a form of fouth-wall infraction.
As alternatives, consider George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Donald Fagen's "New Frontiers" (okay, the latter may not even be well known). Curse me as a purist or elitist, I think these stand the test of time. (Anyhow, you probably specifically wanted the videos that look dated anyway.)
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