'80s Video Hits

Not since Al Jolson uttered the immortal line “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” and introduced the world to the marvels of talking pictures has a phrase so been so prophetic: “Video Killed the Radio Star” was just a modest one-hit wonder from a band named the Buggles — until the song’s quirky video launched the debut of a bold little start-up called MTV. The rest is music history, as long-loved artists like Michael Jackson (“Billie Jean”) seized the opportunity to expand their creative repertoire, newcomers like Madonna (“Like a Virgin”) used the medium to hone images and build mystiques, and fans discovered a brand-new way to love their favorite songs.

Norwegian band a-ha caused a sensation with the animated/live-action video for “Take On Me” — and we take on more sensational ’80s video hits in Next Steps.

The best thing about the ’80s video revolution was its open-door policy — it didn’t matter if you were a foreign one-hit wonder with a bare-bones colored smoke machine and a singer who looked good in leather pants (German outfit Nena, “99 Luftballons”), or an established star with a Hollywood set and a supermodel cameo (Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley, “Uptown Girl”); if your video caught the eyes and ears, you were in. Soon, everyone got in the game, from Texas longbeards ZZ Top with the wallflower makeover of “Legs,” to punk godfathers the Clash and the desert grit of “Rock the Casbah.”

Don’t change that channel (as they used to say way back when) — we’ve got more great ’80s video hits in Deep Cuts.

Whether they were striving for a serious tone (the spiritual search of XTC’s “Dear God”), offering up a ripe slice of pure entertainment (singer-choreographer Toni Basil’s cheerleader extravaganza “Mickey”), or slyly combining a little bit of both (Neil Young and the sell-out send-up “This Note’s for You”), ’80s video hits captured the excitement of a new movement in musical expression. Our Deep Cuts playlist lets you pick your video poison, from the glam-rock cheesecake of Warrant’s “Cherry Pie,” to the Brit bounce of Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes,” to the haunting beauty of Echo & The Bunnymen’s radiant “The Killing Moon.”

Ignited by the 1981 debut of MTV, and powered by an unprecedented union of sound and vision, the explosion of ’80s video hits forever changed the way people approach popular music. The new medium spread like wildfire, as it became a crucial part of an artist’s image, and an air of anything-goes creativity kept fans wondering what could possibly come next. So while Peter Gabriel’s eye-popping stop-action video for “Sledgehammer” hinted at new visual possibilities, Robert Palmer took a deceptively simple approach with the smoky-eyed all-girl band of “Addicted to Love,” and created an indelibly iconic image. Dexy’s Midnight Runners started a sweet-and-simple fashion fad with the overall-clad fiddlers of “Come on Eileen,” and the superstars-united mini-doc for “We Are the World” became and out-and-out social phenomenon as it demonstrated the incredible power of an art form that was here to stay.