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Music Videos
Oct. 8th, 2004 08:01 amA recent post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
norabombay got me to thinking about music videos. At the time that the video revolution hit popular music, I was in college and had little access to TV. By the time this changed, in the mid-'80s, I had pretty much stopped trying to keep current with the music scene. As a result, I've only seen relatively few videos; most of what I've seen, I've seen while browsing from one channel to another, passing through one of the video channels in between. Yesterday, though, I tried to remember how many, and which, videos I'd seen that have stuck with me. I could only come up with five. In four of the five cases, it was the video that drew the singer to my attention. (NB: These memories are, I think, ten to twenty years old, and I can't be sure how accurate they are, but they're what I have.)
Celine Dion, "If You Asked Me To". This isn't one of my favorites of her songs, but her clear, sweet voice caught my attention, prompting me to buy a couple of her albums. (Which of hers are my favorites? I like the soaring, swirling melodies of "Halfway to Heaven" and "If I Were You"; "If You Could See Me Now" has some nice imagery; and "With This Tear" is simply haunting.)
Taylor Dayne, "Love Will Bring You Back". What caught my eye was how much she resembled the young Lauren Bacall. (This resemblance appears to be unique to this video; other pictures of her that I've seen don't show it.) I mentally file her in the same general category with Bonnie Tyler: a strong but not altogether pleasant voice, some rather good song choices, and a great deal of energy. Bonnie is definitely her superior, though; as far as I know, Taylor has never done anything nearly as good as "Total Eclipse of the Heart", or even "Faster Than the Speed of Night".
Gloria Estefan, "Can't Stay Away from You". The video is a wordless playlet, with the song in voiceover. I really like the song, but it was Gloria's acting that sold it; the aura of desolation she projects at the end of the video touched me.
Jackson Browne, "For America". I have a vivid mental image of Browne's backlit form, fisted hands raised high in exaltation; I don't recall the background, but there may have been a flag rippling on the screen behind him. I still love this song, a clear declaration that love of country can be as strong a wellspring of liberal or even radical politics as it can be for conservatism.
Foreigner, "I Don't Want to Live Without You". I was already familiar with the group and the song before seeing this. I do have one of their albums, but I wouldn't rate them all that highly. Nonetheless, the ending of the video impressed me: variations on the title repeat over a series of stills, mostly of couples kissing or embracing, but intercut with other stills - a couple of puppies sleeping together, a lioness with her cubs, a rhino with a tickbird on its back, and - the final shot - the Earth as seen from space. The audacity of those images delighted me.
And that's pretty much the complete roster of my encounters with the video revolution. Oh, there've been others, but only bits and snatches, dimly remembered; these are the ones which stuck.
norabombay got me to thinking about music videos. At the time that the video revolution hit popular music, I was in college and had little access to TV. By the time this changed, in the mid-'80s, I had pretty much stopped trying to keep current with the music scene. As a result, I've only seen relatively few videos; most of what I've seen, I've seen while browsing from one channel to another, passing through one of the video channels in between. Yesterday, though, I tried to remember how many, and which, videos I'd seen that have stuck with me. I could only come up with five. In four of the five cases, it was the video that drew the singer to my attention. (NB: These memories are, I think, ten to twenty years old, and I can't be sure how accurate they are, but they're what I have.)Celine Dion, "If You Asked Me To". This isn't one of my favorites of her songs, but her clear, sweet voice caught my attention, prompting me to buy a couple of her albums. (Which of hers are my favorites? I like the soaring, swirling melodies of "Halfway to Heaven" and "If I Were You"; "If You Could See Me Now" has some nice imagery; and "With This Tear" is simply haunting.)
Taylor Dayne, "Love Will Bring You Back". What caught my eye was how much she resembled the young Lauren Bacall. (This resemblance appears to be unique to this video; other pictures of her that I've seen don't show it.) I mentally file her in the same general category with Bonnie Tyler: a strong but not altogether pleasant voice, some rather good song choices, and a great deal of energy. Bonnie is definitely her superior, though; as far as I know, Taylor has never done anything nearly as good as "Total Eclipse of the Heart", or even "Faster Than the Speed of Night".
Gloria Estefan, "Can't Stay Away from You". The video is a wordless playlet, with the song in voiceover. I really like the song, but it was Gloria's acting that sold it; the aura of desolation she projects at the end of the video touched me.
Jackson Browne, "For America". I have a vivid mental image of Browne's backlit form, fisted hands raised high in exaltation; I don't recall the background, but there may have been a flag rippling on the screen behind him. I still love this song, a clear declaration that love of country can be as strong a wellspring of liberal or even radical politics as it can be for conservatism.
Foreigner, "I Don't Want to Live Without You". I was already familiar with the group and the song before seeing this. I do have one of their albums, but I wouldn't rate them all that highly. Nonetheless, the ending of the video impressed me: variations on the title repeat over a series of stills, mostly of couples kissing or embracing, but intercut with other stills - a couple of puppies sleeping together, a lioness with her cubs, a rhino with a tickbird on its back, and - the final shot - the Earth as seen from space. The audacity of those images delighted me.
And that's pretty much the complete roster of my encounters with the video revolution. Oh, there've been others, but only bits and snatches, dimly remembered; these are the ones which stuck.
