The most 80's music videos of all time, and why they're awesome.
 

In this thread, we post a music video, and explain why its the most 80's thing we've ever seen.

I'll lead off with this, from 1987 -




So why is this the most 80's thing I've ever seen? Easy.

1 - Perms. Ann and Nancy Wilson always had pretty epic hair, but in this video, its even more epic.
2 - Pointy guitars. That V that nancy is playing is a wet dream of 80's Carvin guitars. Its sexy, its pointy, it has a tiny body, and I want it.
3 - Weird guitars. The guitar with the metal tubes on it? Thats not a fake, as far as I can tell. I've seen similar things from 80's startup guitar companies before. Its a tribute to the fact those companies died so fast that they're entirely associated with the late 80's now.
4 - Guitars that aren't guitars. Look at the silver monstrosity that guy is playing. It has a PLASTIC DRIER HOSE ATTACHED TO IT. Its clearly made of cardboard and scraps. But I don't care. Its awesome.


But most of all, what makes this video so very 80s is the drummer. More particularly, the fact there are about 3 breaks where the video cuts to different shots of the drummer, in time with the tom hits in a drum fill.

Oh, and there's a shot of the drummer twirling his sticks. No 80's video is complete without it.

aww yeah I am all over this ****


look at this suave mother****er

:) The first time I saw "There's the Girl," after buying a Heart video album as a youth, I could tell it was unusually cheesy.


Samantha Fox- Touch Me - YouTube

The hair (especially hers), the denim jacket, the powder or liquid coming off the drums....

This happened and we all let it happen.

lol seriously though, just look at those cloths.

Paloma beat me to posting Der Kommissar. But I'm going to post another really 80's German pop video:

Peter Schilling - Die Wüste lebt



Superimposed flames. Need I say more? :laughing: Oh, his video for "Terra Titanic" is really 80's as well. It just looks so... fake.



I love Peter Schilling and his cheesy videos :love:

Men Without Hats had some really 80's videos too:

Pop Goes the World:


The Safety Dance:

It's so dirty and I love it!

The drummer twirls his sticks. This video is officially 80s.

Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)


1.) Check out the clothes. Fancy.
2.) Check out the chick. 80s dream girl.
3.) Check out those beautiful jump cuts.
4.) This video makes me laugh hysterically during the choruses. During the first chorus, when they're aggressively singing the chorus at the camera, I lose it. I lose it even more during the second chorus when two of the band members pop up on either side of the 80s dream babe lip syncing. Beautiful.
5.) The instrumental break is a thing of beauty, to be sure. Their instruments are highlighted, the bassist is playing a strange travel bass, and then it goes all nuts, jump cut and slow motion-y.
6.) The keyboard player is playing his keyboard while it is affixed to the wall of the warehouse.
7.) I almost forgot - playing invisible instruments...fantastic.

Also, important question: In the 80s, did people actually find Steve Perry attractive?!

1. Cheesy sci-fi - check
2. Mad Max costumes - check
3. Lots of things blown about by a big fan - check
4. Chapman Stick - check
5. Shooting in locations that allowed the crew to go to places they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford - check

(Sting even accidentally falls down and they didn't edit it out)

Just saw this on VH1 Classic the other day and thought to myself 'dang this is more '80s then I remembered...




1.) Lots of bright colors.

2.) Crazy hair styles.

3.) Lots of Synths.

Did Sting and Billy Idol share wardrobe and hair stylists for these videos?

Russ Ballard - Voices (stereo) - YouTube

For me it doesn't get more 80s than the cold war satire of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes". It's funny, for some reason I always remembered this as being Reagan and Gorbachev duking it out in the pit, but watching it now I realize it's supposed to be Reagan and Chernenko.

- Plot that doesn't make sense :p
- Big hair (my gosh I LOVE)

Cinderella! YES!

Folks make fun of Hair Metal all the time now-a-days but I don't care what anyone says, Cinderella was good! :band:

1. Overblown set? Check.
2. Swords, smoke and questionable outfits? Check
3. Too many guitar and drum shots? Yep.
4. Ahead of it's time? You bet your ass it is!

Given that I'm the number one Toto fan on the forum, I love the Hydra album, Hydra song and Hydra video, BTW that video is from the late 1970s (just) and not 1980s but you are forgiven;) Its west coast AOR at is best.

Mad Max inspired vid. Check.
Leopard print boots. Check.
Bad Hair. Check.
Bad dancing. Check.
...and I like this song too :(


all of the above again but I couldn't give 2 craps, this is a superb track! (apart from singer Coverdale all the musicians in the vid didn't even play on the album)

I don't think "Still of the Night" is especially 80's. And the song is awesome. "Lick It Up" and "Nobody's Fool" merely are good.

Now for something very 80's, visually and sonically.

Starship-Tomorrow doesn't matter tonight - YouTube

One of the few Kiss songs that I really love.

I love that Knee Deep in the Hoopla album, its full of great songs and the band had all the vital elements of classic AOR in that song. Great vocals by Mickey Thomas and a guitar solo by Craig Chaquico. Also, what a pretty girl that is in the video (no not Grace Slick, the other one in the video;)) Also she reminds me of someone I once knew.

KISS without make-up?

Doesn't get much more '80s then that!


http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...Sglammetal.jpg


Man that is some big hair.... :afro:

For the video to "Breaking the Law", Judas Priest rob a bank with the power of rock. Win.

Talented Rock Musicians who went "New Wave" for the time - Check (It was quite a trend.)

Attempts at being dramatic which mega fail - check

Music filled with nagging Synth hooks that may want to tear off your ears - check

Catchy as all hell music that was perfect for The 80's after that beginning - Check

Dale Bozzio - Check

Bad Special Effects - check and double check.

Yeah, I actually liked those bad attempts at making videos for MTV in The Early 80's. Before things got too overblown, the wanna-be New Wave happening did at least have some videos that make you want to laugh and tap your feet at the same time.

As this is about The Most 80's Music Videos and not all out classic and timeless, I decided to offer up some mega cheese that seriously defines The 80's Pop Video trend that at least contain some halfway decent music.

Rod Stewart's 80's was certainly filled with crap post-Tonight I'm Yours, but this did define his Mid 80's just fine. Music that would suit Miami Vice, a video that tried to be like a movie, and at least Rod Stewart's voice still convincing before his MOR downfall. Throw in a Jeff Beck cameo, and you have a fine example of 80's-ness.

Moving onto music I would be caught hearing, this is the sight of Pete Wylie and (I think) Josie with 80's Hair in a "conceptual" video, but with the tune still offering the Wah! goodness.

how do people not think this stuff isn't the cheesiest stuff of all time?
i really want to know.

One last round of 80's from me tonight. Propaganda, my favorite ZTT band (sorry, Frankie) in all of their over-dressed glory which makes it for me. The tune is great and wall to wall with those synthetic "Orchestra" blasts..

1) That hair
2) That dance
3) That voice

etc.

you're completely missing the point, aren't you?

we love them because they're cheesy

that makes absolutely no sense to me.
what ever happened to loving music because you love the way it sounds? why do you have to love something because it sounds so embarrassing that its a character?
it's like those people who love really bad and cheesy movies because they're really really bad. it's hipster mentality. they will think something new is bad but they won't like it because it's not "cool" to like it.
i think the same thing is going on here.

Who said we don't like the way it sounds?

howard made it seem like the whole point was how cheesy it was.

Cheesy sounding 80's music. It's good stuff.

so what if nickelback made a cheesy 80s sounding song, would you like that?
i think they already have, btw.

To make things a little bit easier to understand, the 80's in general were cheesy pop groups making cheesy pop songs / cheesy songs in general. That's why we consider it to be cheesy, though it's still pretty good stuff.

if you ask me, that is still happening today. take nickelback for example. cheesy pop group making cheesy pop songs. do you not consider that to be good?

All depends on preference. Some groups are bad and some groups are good, which is how it is with any band in any era.

see, your logic has failed. if cheesiness is the determining factor, then you should like all cheesy music. cheesiness is obviously not the factor if you are also factoring in whether the group is "good or bad" as well. just face it, it's not as cool to like today's cheesy music but it's cool to like old cheesy music.

that is classic hipster mentality.

Again, you're completely missing the point. 80's music in general is cheesy. So, it's just a deciding factor of what groups people like from that era, just like any era.

you don't think today's pop music is cheesy in general?