Innovation and novelty abounded in 80’s music videos, often featuring multiple characters in costume, from Captain Sensible’s wacky romp in ‘Wot‘, the colourful, motley crews in Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun‘ and ‘Goonies R Good Enough‘ whilst the looney Californian beachgoers in Van Halen singer David Lee Roth’s joyous version of the Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls‘. Van Halen themselves provided one of the best loved rock band videos of the mid-eighties in ‘Jump‘ and otherwise, Cyndi Lauper and A-Ha used clever animation in ‘She Bop‘ and ‘Take On Me‘ respectively while Lauper was flying across the stage singing in a garbage bin in the live video for ‘Money Changes Everything‘.

Again, Dire Straits made a huge impact with use of animation in the video for ‘Money For Nothing‘ in 1985, a song which had lyrics about MTV and actually critiqued the new MTV and music video culture of the 80’s, generating huge amounts of discussion and celebration. All the videos just mentioned were hugely influential during the 1980’s as the constant bombardment of innovation progressed at a breakneck pace. As did Toni Basil with her simple but explosive cheerleader video for ‘Mickey‘, Pat Benatar with her epic New York street battle dance extravaganza for the smouldering, impassioned ‘Love Is A Battlefield‘. Rod Stewart’s 1982 video for disco song ‘Young Turks‘ featured similar street gang-themed dancers backing up runaway rebel young lovers, also making a genre-defining contribution to music video.

Sexual suggestion featured in Stewart’s outrageous pool party video for ‘Tonight I’m Yours‘, while Duran Duran made an enormous impression on the sexual outrage front with the ‘Girls On Film‘ video. On which note, who could forget Billy Idol with his brazen sexuality in the cheeky videos for ‘Rebel Yell‘ and ‘Eyes Without A Face‘, which featured scantily clad women slapping their upper thighs and butts in sync with the electronic handclaps in the middle of the song. Ido’s famed guitarist Steve Stevens made the leap to Michael Jackson’s video for ‘Dirty Diana‘ from Jackson’s 1986 album ‘Bad‘ to searingly explosive effect, whereas the video to his ‘Smooth Criminal‘ became an 80’s legend-creating masterclass in gravity-defying dance choreography.

As did Madonna, another of the major players in the MTV revolution, creating sensation after sensation with both her songs and videos from one end of the 80’s to another. Her video for early hit ‘Lucky Star‘, which like Toni Basil’s ‘Mickey’ was a simple affair of Madonna and her dancers in a white studio, was hugely influential for the magic combination of costumes, choreography and energy. From the footage of her and her brother Christopher dancing on stage at Top Of The Pops in London to the underground New York club in ‘Into The Groove‘, various forms of club dance culture created iconic music video imagery from Madonna in the 1980’s.

She went more pop and social realist with the lead single from 1986’s album ‘True Blue’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach, and again the video for the single created a global tidal wave of discussion for bringing the subject of abortion to the world conversation and then a more glam and showbiz form of dance with the clip for ‘Open Your Heart‘. ‘La Isla Bonita‘ and ‘Who’s That Girl?‘ featured Spanish dance, and at the end of the 80’s,’Like A Prayer‘ created another global storm of controversy with its depiction of Madonna kissing a black Jesus crying blood, another era-defining dance celebration with ‘Express Yourself‘ and more controversy with its representations of BDSM. Madonna was the queen of the 1980’s as far as being possibly the single biggest benefactor and innovator of the MTV revolution throughout the decade.
Another noteworthy innovator was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with their ingenious psychedelic Alice In Wonderland-themed video ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More‘ video featuring Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart as the hookah pipe smoking, sitar-playing caterpillar atop a giant mushroom. Petty was one of a slew of rural-influenced or based acts from the American heartland that produced some of the most major American, and in the case of Bryan Adams, Canadian videos of the 1980’s. This is in stark contrast to the uber-modern London, New York and LA club and fashion culture that fuelled most of the international artists mentioned thus far. Bryan Adams was singing in the mountain snow in 1983 hit ‘Run To You‘ and out in a derelict rural barn in 1985’s monster hit, ‘Summer Of ’69‘.

John Mellencamp lifted the lid on the hardship and struggle of rural America with the singles from the album on which his star rose, 1985’s ‘Scarecrow’ and the 1986 follow up ‘The Lonesome Jubilee’ that made him an 80’s megastar. The clip for ‘Rain On The Scarecrow‘ starts with three farmers talking about being financially destroyed by untenable government loans and the song then proceeds to elaborate on this theme as it shows all aspects of American rural and farm life. Similarly, video for the lead single from ‘The Lonesome Jubilee‘, ‘Paper and Fire‘, basically recreates a hoe down by a row of weatherboard houses on a mud street in the deep South with black and white people as the song recounts its sorry tale of failed dreams.

Bruce Springsteen had a mega hit with his album ‘Born In The USA’ however the only video that made a significant contribution to the ongoing MTV revolution was that of ‘Born In The USA‘, lead single from the album, depicting Springsteen performing on stage and bringing a girl up from the audience to dance on stage with him at the end. However, the videos from all four singles comprised a powerful representation of working class, steel town America Springsteen is known for singing about, complementing the picture created by Bryan Adams and John Mellencamp. 70’s greats Elton John and Bruce Springsteen also made significant contributions to the canon of iconic videos in the 80’s.

Such as John’s video for ‘Nikita‘, singing a love song to a Russian woman behind the communist fence in the snow and the classic dance spectacular on the beach at Cannes, ‘I’m Still Standing‘. While Joel had four singles from his monster hit mid-80’s album ‘An Innocent Man‘ in the videos, all of which emblazoned themselves across the national psyche of the US. ‘Uptown Girl‘ motor mechanic set video to accompany this 50’s doo wop style song also charted working class aspiration in the most cheerful, optimistic way and spoke to the heart of the US nation with this display of pure Americana, although interestingly, amongst its obviously very gay dancers there were a couple of camp, feminine black men in midriff tops doing rap dance moves.

Bringing the Americana back to the city was Huey Lewis and The News who in 1985 became huge, of course with ‘Power Of Love‘ from ‘Back To The Future’ which had a plain, but popular video of Lewis and band singing in a darkly lit bar. However their subsequent videos were a lot more colourful, very popular and made an important contribution to the fabric of mid-80’s MTV culture. ‘If This Is It‘ took place on a California beach while ‘Stuck With You‘ featured Lewis and the News at a Beverly Hills pool party. Both are very beautiful songs, yearning and romantic but treat their subjects with upbeat, wryly humorous themes in both videos, which also capture something of the spirit of ridiculous US 80’s excess but do it with so much light-hearted panache and style.

Meanwhile in Britain in the late 80’s, gay disco loomed large, thanks mainly to Stock, Aitken and Waterman and Pet Shop Boys. Dead or Alive made a huge splash with ‘You Spin Me Round‘ with the flamboyant and outrageous lead singer Pete Burns entertaining and amusing us royally with his upfront camp in the clip for the song, which became one of the most beloved and iconic videos and songs of the 80’s. Also blessed with the songwriting gifts of Stock Aitken and Waterman were Bananarama, who scored an equally huge hit and classic video with ‘Venus‘, an anthem just as much to gay and heterosexual audiences. Pet Shop Boys reappeared with the thinnest of veils over their gay subject matter with ‘It’s A Sin‘, ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?‘ and ‘Domino Dancing‘ between 1987-88, all of which produced celebrated videos to accompany the masterfully crafted Hi-NRG and high disco pop creations they supported.