I’m taking a break for about ten days (I do this every April… Maryellen and I like to take a Spring Break to essentially do some landscaping and enjoy spring… we like playing in the dirt!)
But before I go, let me leave you w/ something that I find funny.
Ok, I was born in 1966, meaning I came of age in the 80’s. Thus, I have a soft spot for all things 80’s. But one aspect of the 80’s that I can admit hasn’t aged well is music videos. I mean, looking back, the music videos of the 80’s were horrible. It was the infancy of mainstream music videos, and as a result, people really didn’t have a feel for what made a video bad or good. Thus, you had a lot of videos that were almost literal translations of the song.
For example, if a song mentioned a jungle, the video usually had a jungle in it. Or, to give another example, I recall a video by the band Bananarama where the girls in the band threw bananas out of a car window (I could just hear some marketing dweeb saying “look, it’s quite simple… the name of the group is Bananarama, so we have to have Bananas somewhere in the video, ok?? People are going to expect that.” )
I think that guy went on to become one of my many bosses, but that’s beside the point.
Anyway, even worse, some bands didn’t do the simple “follow the song” script, and instead tried to make some “artsy” video that told a story, interjected with the band playing. And the results were usually side-splittingly laughable. Because the bands are just so… serious about it.
Journey did this in their video for Separate Ways (Worlds Apart). The song is a decent enough 80’s anthem, but it’s a pretty funny video. Not just because it’s cheesy, mind you, but because they were really trying to be cool. I have referenced this particular video for years whenever discussing how funny 80’s videos were.
Here’s the video for you to look at (this will open a new window… sorry, this video won’t let me embed it in the blog):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQbZRMLKozk
Ok, did you watch it?
Isn’t that just… I dunno. Words are hard to come by. But they were seriously trying to be “hip”. I mean, I can imaging the director saying to the keyboardist.. “you know what would be REALLY cool? If you could play the keyboards on_the_wall… yea, you heard me right – THE FRIGGEN WALL!!! It’ll blow their MINDS!!!”
Now, here’s the funny part – obviously, I’m not the only person who thought this video was funny. A group of college kids remade this video last year shot for shot. What’s even better, they put the original in a little window within their video. The results are positively hilarious – check out the wigs, phony moustaches, etc. These guys definitely had a good time, and it shows.
Cool, huh?
Others have taken to copying these guys and do their own remake (the original Separate Ways video has taken on a cult-like status in the “cheesy 80’s videos” genre), but nobody else’s is nearly as good.
Now, I don’t mean to disparage Journey – I definitely like the band, and they always bring a good 80’s vibe to mind. But that’s when I hear them, not watch them 🙂