80s in July (Music Archive #3)

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I was reflecting recently that people who didn’t grow up in the 80s have settled on just a few go-to music videos for understanding the early 80s look and sound, but there’s so much more out there that I wish they could experience. It’s not just Take on Me and Africa.

So I’m going to be exploring 31 of what I consider to be the iconic videos of the 80s that have become somewhat forgotten. Make sure you watch, because the videos are absolutely as important as the songs.

I have organized my selections into five categories, which I’ll be going through in the following order:

Electronic
Preps vs. Punks
Smooth Vocals
Bringing the Funk
Defining the New Wave

Day 1 (Electronic) – Eddy Grant, “Electric Avenue

Many people think of “Video Killed the Radio Star” as the song that jump-started the music video craze of the 80s. But for me, this was my first must-watch video as a kid. I loved it and would drop whatever I was doing whenever it came on.

From the synths to the motorcycle scratch to the imagery that anticipates and maybe even inspired Daft Punk, it’s not hard to see this video as the beginning of my love of electronic music.

Please rock down to Electric Avenue with me.

Day 2 (Electronic) – Howard Jones, “New Song”

Before his most well-known song, “Things Can Only Get Better,” this was Howard Jones’s defining work, both musically and visually.

In addition to being an amazing singer and keyboardist, Jones was a bit of a fashion plate. He goes through several very 80s looks here, and in some cases he was the first to wear and popularize them. I’m pretty sure it was this video that got the mini-trend of “painter’s jumpsuit” going.

Day 3 (Electronic) – Herbie Hancock, “Rockit”

While scratch, sampling, and synthesizers were not new to the 80s, the ways Herbie Hancock used them helped to define the quintessential 80s electronic sound. Few songs were as transformative to this sound as “Rockit.”

I am aware that this is one of those 80s songs that younger generations do know because it was in a video game soundtrack. And while it’s great to recognize the music, you are missing the whole cultural experience if you haven’t seen the video.

This video is deeply embedded in the psyche of every 80s child.

Day 4 (Electronic) – The Art of Noise ft. Max Headroom, “Paranoimia”

When it comes to electronic music, the Art of Noise were one of the more subtle but powerful influences on the growth of the 80s sound. Their “Peter Gunn” theme remake made quite a splash, and then they started teaming up with Matt Frewer to include Max Headroom in a few tracks.

It’s hard to explain to people who weren’t there the impact that Max Headroom had on mid-80s culture. He was in commercials, music, and several TV shows. So when my generation sees Matt Frewer in Orphan Black or Altered Carbon or The Librarians, that’s a big deal. It’s a huge cameo for us. If you’re interested, go on a Max Headroom deep dive. It’s definitely out there on the internet.

“Paranoimia” is probably the most well-known collaboration between these two digital icons.

Day 5 (Electronic) – Men Without Hats, “Pop Goes the World”

The last song in this category is probably the latest song on my entire list. By 1987, the overall sound of the decade was shifting away from its new wave beginnings, but there were a few notable holdouts. Obviously, groups that were intentionally more electronic kept the keyboards, drum machines, and samples as they made their transitions into techno, trance, and eventually EDM, but both pop and alternative (which meant something different at the time) were moving back to traditional rock instrumentation in the late 80s and early 90s.

For Men Without Hats, the classic 80s keyboard solo remained an important convention well into the Pop Goes the World album, of which this is the title track. This song and Moonbeam (whose video is a continuation of this one) exemplify the early 80s pop sound quite well, despite their release date.

Day 6 (Preps vs. Punks) – The Go-Go’s, “Our Lips Are Sealed”

When I use the terms Prep and Punk together, it’s important to be clear that we are no longer talking about music. We’re talking about fashion, culture, and aesthetic. It’s a classic divide, dating back to the Mods and Rockers in England. In the US in the early 80s, Preps were the fashionable upper class kids, often dressed in styles reminiscent of the 50s. They wore their hair high, like everyone in the 80s, but it was more tightly controlled.

The Go-Go’s were on the forefront of prep. Their sound combined classic 50s pop with New Wave, and in many ways anticipated where the B-52’s would go by the time they reached their Cosmic Thing album. (The B-52’s very slightly predate the Go-Go’s, but they are firmly in their Rock Lobster/Planet Claire sound at this point.)

One of the joys of doing this list, by the way, is being able to appreciate music that I didn’t take time for when I was young. The bridge for this song is really excellent.

Day 7 (Preps vs. Punks) – Cyndi Lauper, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

Today’s selection exemplifies the idea of “punk” as aesthetic rather than musical genre. “Punk” as a visual style was generally a celebration of working-class chic, often involving combining clashing thematic elements, like a fancy but old gown combined with waist chains and a tomboy hat. Some people did bring out the spikes for their punk look, and some people just wore jewelry like spikes. Hair was big but pointy rather than controlled, and sometimes even wildly different lengths in different places. Makeup was sometimes highly noticeable, with eyeshadow and penciling continuing outside their “normal” bounds.

You may also notice that, as a working class aesthetic, punk tended to be a bit more diverse than prep. It was still not perfect, but it was definitely more welcoming.

This was Cyndi Lauper’s first big hit, and although it did show her incredible vocal talent even as a bubble-gum pop single, many people didn’t catch on to her versatility until her second big hit, “Time After Time.” Lauper remains an accomplished performer to this day, and she was my favorite occasional cameo in the TV series Bones.

Day 8 (Preps vs. Punks) – Animotion, “Obsession”

Preps in the 80s wanted to be those aggressively well-dressed kids who always looked ready for prom even when they were heading to the mall. I personally didn’t know anyone who could achieve that every day at school – usually it was just a few elements here or there. But movies and music videos (and of course Miami Vice) showed us the ideal version of casual/formal, and you could tell that was what they were working towards.

(To be fair, I didn’t go to school in LA, so who knows? Maybe there were people who were holding this look down all the time.)

Everything about this video screams Prep. It’s like the director made a highly concentrated tincture of wealthy teen entitlement…and then just drank the whole fricking bottle before starting to film. And again, I know this song was in GTA, but you have got to watch the video for the full effect.

Day 9 (Preps vs. Punks) – The Bangles, “Manic Monday”

By the mid-80s, the prep and punk looks were beginning to blend together, and you could get combinations like Susanna Hoffs looking fairly well put together in jeans and jewelry. But several of the pieces, like Vicki’s beret/leather jacket combo, still put this video firmly on the “punk” side of continuum.

And of course, bassist Michael Steele, herself a former member of the Runaways, never failed to look punk. Her makeup plus the black wide-brim hat was an image worthy of emulation. I can easily picture Ally Sheedy’s Breakfast Club character growing into this look.

On a side note, this song is also the first of SEVERAL on the list written by Prince. But more about that later in the month.

Day 10 (Preps vs. Punks) – Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love”

I know I said this category is about the looks and not the sounds, but I’m going to divert today to talk just a little about sound. It’s so rare for a song to be both influential and subversive at the same time, since usually gaining influence means losing any kind of counter-culture narrative. But not with this song – this song is subversive because of rather than in spite of its influence.

On the surface, the synthesizer lick, soothing vocals, and many of its lyrics make the song an extremely bubble-gum pop tune – the kind that became associated with the prep aesthetic – and many preppy pop songs later emulated one or more of these sounds. (This song was released in 1981, so it’s early enough to be cutting edge.) But the bass line and the name-dropping of Bob Marley, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Kurtis Blow, Smokey Robinson, and James Brown place it at least partially in the funk-influenced category.

The subversiveness comes from that crossover. This is a song that is designed to appeal to preppy white teenage girls, but it introduces them to a world of music they may not otherwise have been exposed to. Is this intentional? Considering that Tom Tom Club was mostly made up of members of Talking Heads, I would say yes. These are musicians that are extremely aware of what they’re doing.

Day 11 (Preps vs. Punks) – Bow Wow Wow, “I Want Candy”

We close this category with one of the most iconic examples of “punk” being a look rather than a sound. There are plenty of stories throughout modern music history of a producer manufacturing a band that they think will sell. Bow Wow Wow was one of the rare instances where this was done with basically punk musicians – poaching a couple members of Adam and the Ants and then finding a very young but very punk teenage girl to sing.

While this zippy surf-rock lite song got a fair bit of radio play, this is one case where the video was actually less played, despite coming out in the very early days of MTV. I will leave it to the reader to decide whether this was because broadcasters felt the band’s look clashed with the music or because they were uncomfortable with how suggestive it was with its underage singer.

Day 12 (Smooth Vocals) – Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”

I am launching my third category of 80s music with one of its most quintessential examples, and also the video that made me consider putting together this entire list. While “Take on Me” certainly had an impact at the time and definitely deserves continued appreciation, this is an example of something that I consider iconic that seems to have become a second-tier, more obscure example.

Besides the “smooth vocals” that this song shares with the the other songs I’ll be featuring in this category, there are a couple of other 80s trends being featured here. The first is the strong nostalgia aesthetic. Looking back to one’s childhood was common in videos of the time, and you’ll see at least one or two more examples of this as we go. By the time we get solidly into the 90s, this is a much less common practice, which is why Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” stuck out as an exception.

The other weird 80s trend is the Aussie bands who most people didn’t know were Aussie, simply because they didn’t advertise their Australian-ness or have heavy accents like Men at Work.

Day 13 (Smooth Vocals) – Tears for Fears, “Head Over Heels”

While it was “Shout” that gave them their biggest splash, and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” that got added to almost every movie soundtrack, today I want to talk about Tears for Fears’s third single off of Songs from the Big Chair.

“Head Over Heels” often gets lost in the shadow of those other two bigger singles, but there’s so much to love about this song, and the video is a big part of that. Musically, the things that stick in my memory are the opening keyboard, the falsettos, and the pause before “four leaf clover.” But the video really sells it. It’s like a ridiculous 80s teen movie all in a single music video, complete with chimp. It just perfectly encapsulates the era.

Day 14 (Smooth Vocals) – Culture Club, “Karma Chameleon”

This is another song, video, and band that I didn’t appreciate enough when I was young. A lot of the context went over my head, so I just thought it was kind of a bland song that wasn’t really my thing. I vaguely understood even then that Boy George was flamboyant, but only later did I realize how fabulous this look is. Boy George never really went full-on femme, but more what we would think of today as non-binary or transgressive, which was unusual for the time.

The video means a lot more to me as an adult as well, now that I understand what a strong message it is to have such diversity of race and class in a Mississippi riverboat setting. I also understand the lines of the song about color (specifically “red, gold, and green”) much better now. This is such an inclusive song and video – very much a standout for its time.

Day 15 (Smooth Vocals) – General Public, “Tenderness”

The Beat (aka The English Beat) were a band that was extremely influential on the 80s look and sound. If you’re familiar with them, you can spot subtle nods everywhere, from the Beat shirt that Sting wears in the video for “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” to the song that plays while Ferris runs home at the end of his day off (“Rotating Heads”).

Members of The Beat also did a couple of notable side projects, one of which was Fine Young Cannibals, and the other being General Public. General Public gathered a surprising number of prominent musicians from The Clash, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and The Specials, but it was Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger on vocals that defined their sound. “Tenderness” is certainly their most recognizable song, and it illustrates this quite clearly.

Day 16 (Smooth Vocals) – Wang Chung, “Dance Hall Days”

This is one of those songs and videos that revels in nostalgia. The 80s were full of nostalgia for the 50s, partially because baby boomers were in their prime consumer years and partially because of the weariness of nuclear fear.

“Dance Hall Days” may not have been as popular at the time as “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” but I think it’s the superior song. This one did show up later in a video game soundtrack, but again, the video is a big part of the experience.

I considered putting Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town” in this slot, but maybe I’ll put that in a future list called “Origins of Emo.”

(ps – This video is marked as age restricted. I promise it’s fine. I think I know why it was marked, but it really doesn’t need to be.)

Day 17 (Smooth Vocals) – Level 42, “Something About You”

This is one the first songs that I knew had to be on this list. Level 42 was perfectly situated in the middle of the 80s. They blended the traditional vocal stylings of more poppy bands like Huey Lewis and the News with the very modern guitar and bass sounds of new wave.

Musically and visually, you can also see Level 42’s influence on the future. The melodic line that goes with “…that there is something about you, baby, so right” could fit right into many late 90s songs. And the maniacal plaid mime could easily have appeared in a Smashing Pumpkins or My Chemical Romance video.

Mostly, though, this is just a fantastic song that everyone needs to know. So here you are.

(Note – This is no longer the original video but a visual remix. It is one of those that gets regularly taken down but has never had an “official” posting.)

Day 18 (Smooth Vocals) – Talk Talk, “It’s My Life”

Talk Talk is one of those bands that did reasonably well at the time, but is rarely on people’s minds when they remember the 80s. And that’s a shame, because some of their stuff is quite excellent. The vocals and bass in this song are particularly good.

And this is the point where we need to talk about covers. There are a lot of covers of 80s songs that I consider utter travesties, particularly just about every cover of New Order ever. Typically, these covers add nothing interesting and instead strip away a lot of what made the song good in the first place. In particular, I find a lot of covers of 80s songs feel compelled to adhere more firmly to the beat, which takes away the power of the offbeat.

The No Doubt version of this song does that last thing a little bit, but it still manages to offer a reasonable interpretation of the original. It does lose a little in the conversion of keyboards to guitars – this song is an interesting illustration of how one can actually make a keyboard fill the sound more than an electric guitar – but overall it’s not bad.

But for today, let’s go back to the original. If you’ve never heard it or seen the video, you definitely should.

Day 19 (Smooth Vocals) – The Icicle Works, “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)”

I’m wrapping up this category with a personal revelation I had about year ago. As an armchair historian of modern music, I’m always fascinated to find conceptual links between eras and genres. In that sense, this song is a musical Lucy.

The keyboards suggest the 80s sound, but the rocket toms and (in particular) the guitar sound are ahead of their time. By 1991 every alternative band from both sides of the pond would be using a chorus pedal that sounded just like that, but this is 1984, before that particular piece of technology came into common use.

It’s entirely likely that being ahead of the sonic curve is what doomed Icicle Works to a mediocre career, as Arista declined to release their second album in the US. However, those songs are almost a perfect connection between mid-80s Julian Cope and the early 90s Madchester sound. Their influence is apparent in many of those later bands. (Listen to “Hollow Horse” to see what I mean.)

Day 20 (Bringing the Funk) – Grace Jones, “Demolition Man”

I created this category largely with Prince in mind, and you’ll see that over the next few days. But there’s another equally innovative artist that I want to talk about first. Grace Jones is perhaps even more of a visual icon than a musical one. Although she still made a splash musically, it was her look that was absolutely transformative. From her Studio 54 days to her time in Paris, Jones was always on the cutting edge.

This song was actually written by Sting, who we will hear from more later, but no one else could have performed it quite like this. I love how her vocals in the verses are reminiscent of John Lydon, but then in the chorus she breaks into the smooth power that typified both her sound and later Annie Lennox’s. The combination of bass riff and synthesizers firmly establishes this as a new wave song with a strong funk core. Over the next few days, I’ll examine more of that combination.

Day 21 (Bringing the Funk) – Chaka Khan, “I Feel For You”

This video is basically the perfect nexus of several things happening at the time. It’s a song written by Prince, performed by Chaka Khan – who had been performing in R&B clubs for over a decade – with rapping by Melle Mel, harmonica and vocal samples by Stevie Wonder, and of course breakdancing by Shabba-Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp.

This song brings together important sounds of the 70s and updates them perfectly for the 80s. The significance of this collaborative fusion cannot be overstated. There’s a reason it won a Grammy in 1985.

Day 22 (Bringing the Funk) – Prince & the Revolution, “Let’s Go Crazy”

I’m going to assume that you already know this song. The opening eulogy is frequently referenced across a wide range of media, and it’s one of the greatest rock songs of all time, so I do hope you’ve heard it before now.

But it’s also important to experience it in its original context – this video was the first release to promote Purple Rain, and it absolutely exploded across MTV at the time. The visuals and music of this movie dominated our consciousness – even for those of us who were way too young to be seeing a movie like Purple Rain. “Let’s Go Crazy” is the reason this category exists. It is the perfect blend of rock, funk, and new wave.

If you’re ever down, this song can help you get through this thing called life.

Day 23 (Bringing the Funk) – Sheila E, “The Glamorous Life”

The aftereffects of Purple Rain serve as an example of just how prolific a songwriter Prince was. He wrote so much music for Apollonia that when she decided not to continue recording after the movie, those songs ended up with multiple artists. “Manic Monday” went to the Bangles, and Prince gave several songs to Sheila E after she recorded with him on Purple Rain, largely jump-starting her solo pop career.

This video clearly illustrates why Sheila E is known as the “Queen of Percussion.” Watch for both her perfect stick bounce and her two cymbal kicks – they go by pretty quickly. (There’s also a saxophone toss that makes me shudder every time.)

It’s such a wonderful celebration of 80s visuals, between the soprano sax solo, the shoulder pads, the suit with the folded-up sleeves, the one fingerless glove, and of course the hair. Seriously, sax dude is like a perfect avatar of the 80s, right down to the single earring on the left ear (the socially acceptable ear for men to have pierced).

Day 24 (Bringing the Funk) – Morris Day and the Time, “Jungle Love”

I’m ending this portion of the list (and our Prince tribute) with the perfect capper, “Jungle Love.” This song is the perfect blend of funk and the 80s sound, and it’s the perfect blend of musicians to pull that off. After this movie and the associated album, Morris Day went off to work on a solo career, but for this moment all the stars aligned.

If you grew up after the 80s, you may remember this song better from Jay & Silent Bob, but as always the original context matters. Kevin Smith was just celebrating the greatness of the song and the smoothness of the performers. And that’s certainly there. But we can’t forget that Day was the antagonist in Purple Rain. His smoothness and vanity is part of what makes us love to hate him. And because of that, the mirror dance is one of the things that makes this video so iconic.

Morris Day was one of Prince’s oldest friends, so I think it’s appropriate to end this section and this song with a quote:

“Any music that I do is really going to honor his legacy because that’s where it all started for me,” Day says. “Whether it’s directly related or not, it’ll still be in his honor.”

Day 25 (Defining the New Wave) – XTC, “Senses Working Overtime”

Post-Punk and New Wave both emerged in 70s, before punk was even officially over. On the Post-Punk side, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees were already starting to make waves before what most people think of as their peak in the 80s, while XTC and Tubeway Army (later just Gary Numan) were introducing the sounds that would become New Wave.

XTC is listed in Wikipedia under both Post-Punk and New Wave, and so this is a good example of where I need to make my musical distinctions between the movements.

New Wave, in a sense, was the more accessible side of Post-Punk. It was presenting a new pop sensibility using updated technology and sounds without going as heavy into melodic and structural deconstruction the way Post-Punk did. (Compare XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel” with The Cure’s “A Forest” – both of which came out in 1979.) Post-Punk reveled in its outsider status, while New Wave crossed the line into pop.

In this sense, XTC was an influencer – they created a sound that others would follow later. At the time it was harder to see the distinction, but in context we can follow the thread to a larger movement. And so the rest of this category (and month) will be about defining New Wave through example.

Day 26 (Defining the New Wave) – The Human League, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination)”

While Americans mostly know them from “Don’t You Want Me?” and “Human,” The Human League exploded across the British charts at the beginning of the 80s. They outperformed other bands with similar sounds (that might be on this list if it were longer than a month) like The Thompson Twins and Flock of Seagulls, largely because they fully embraced the poppiness of their sound.

“(Keep Feeling) Fascination” puts the synthesizer right out front, and the vocals in the chorus on top of that line make this an iconic synth-pop hit. The song and video combine for an amazingly fun experience that I just want to share with everyone all the time.

Hoping you find some fascination in your day.

Day 27 (Defining the New Wave) – Eurythmics, “Here Comes the Rain Again”

One of the effects of New Wave was to anticipate and influence musical trends years of ahead of time. In terms of innovation, few can compare to Eurythmics. Their musical style is instantly recognizable to anyone who followed techno and the club scene well into the early 90s. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is an almost perfect techno song, and “Here Comes the Rain Again” is an early precursor to trance – particularly the chorus.

And of course we can’t talk about Eurythmics without talking about what a visual and musical icon Annie Lennox is. Her accolades and accomplishments are numerous – 8 Brits, over 80 million records sold, the first woman to be made a BASCA fellow, the first woman to be chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University – it just goes on. And at this point in the 80s, she stood out in stark contrast to other women we were seeing on MTV. In the era of big hair, her short cut was striking. We could tell that this was a woman who didn’t follow the trends of today but set the trends of tomorrow.

Day 28 (Defining the New Wave) – Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Two Tribes”

While we’re talking about club hits, let’s talk about Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Most people are familiar with “Relax,” which is in some ways a more timeless club song. But for this list I want to dig into the song that more accurately captures the ethos of the 80s.

By 1984, we were all pretty worn out with Cold War nuclear fear. “The Day After,” a TV movie about nuclear war, had been out for a while and was part of our overall consciousness, and we were just beginning to get the first hints of what would become the Iran-Contra affair. The song and video for “Two Tribes” are deeply rooted in this era and this feeling of helplessness and frustration about the state of politics and profiteering.

Day 29 (Defining the New Wave) – Depeche Mode, “Just Can’t Get Enough”

Depeche Mode went through quite a bit of growth throughout their career, but their origins are unquestionably New Wave, largely because of the presence of Vince Clarke. After this first album, Clarke left for a few other projects and eventually ended up forming Erasure.

Depeche Mode, meanwhile, spent a couple of albums shifting tone, and this forced exploration actually served them well. They were able to gradually move towards a darker sound with more meaningful lyrics, but on their way they developed an interesting mix of synth-pop and seriousness that gave us songs like “Everything Counts” and “Never Let Me Down Again.”

But here, at the beginning, they are still young and poppy. “Just Can’t Get Enough” is one of those ridiculously catchy tunes that invites repeated listening, sing-alongs, and joyous dancing. It is solidly situated in the synth-pop sound of the early 80s, and it defined that sound for many listeners and even for other bands that would follow soon after.

Day 30 (Defining the New Wave) – Duran Duran, “The Reflex”

Duran Duran is one of those rare bands that was tremendously popular (and of course attractive) but also incredibly talented. They hit their New Wave stride early with “Girls On Film,” but their more mainstream success in the US came from “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Rio,” both of which fit the more conventional rock sound at the time while still having a lot of the New Wave elements.

“The Reflex,” one of their biggest hits of all time, came just a couple years later. This is Duran Duran at their peak, and it is an iconic song and video. The “wave onto the audience” effect left quite an impression on us back in 1984, and it’s a moment that has been parodied and referenced many times since.

Day 31 (Defining the New Wave) – The Police, “Synchronicity II”

No list of New Wave icons would be complete without the Police. We’ve already seen one song (Demolition Man) written by Sting, but their influence was pervasive in the early 80s. Their early work helped bridge the gap between Ska and New Wave – I like to joke that they’re the smallest Ska band in history – and their later work transitions New Wave into the post-punk sound that would become known as “Alternative” (before that term became meaningless).

While most people know the Synchronicity album for “Every Breath You Take” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” I think it’s the less played tracks, especially the two title tracks, that really mark how innovative this album is. I particularly love this video for its rock-and-roll apocalyptic visuals (gee, I wonder why I love that), and this is Sting at his peak-80s. This is the outfit we associated with him a lot in this era. And he even gives a few Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen wild-eyed smiles just to top it off.