In Honor Of MTV’s 30th Anniversary, The Five Best Music Videos You’ve Never Seen

videos

by Frances Martel | 6:01 pm, August 1st, 2011

» 26 comments

The network formerly known for playing “Video Music” (and inventing “reality television”) turns thirty today, and while many can complain it is showing some signs of aging (Where are the music videos?), MTV has given at least two generations lifetime memories– most Americans can’t thank Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Hall & Oates and Duran Duran enough. But some of the greatest masterpieces of the Music Video era often go unsung, so on this birthday, we bring you best music videos everyone forgot existed.

Robert Hazard: “Escalator of Life”

Robert Hazard is one of the great heroes of the 1980s, though from this video you may not quite know it. Hazard is responsible for writing the Cyndi Lauper classic “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”– though failed to achieve that level of popularity with his darker fare, particularly his obscure hit “Escalator of Life.” Succumbing to the apparently irresistible temptation every ’80s artist had of spelling out every metaphor in every line of their songs, this video features some amazing escalator cinematography by some people who look like the band the Human League but are not. The mullets, mannequins, and existential locked door motif are all worth noting.

Junior: “Mama Used To Say”

The pastel colors and jolly R&B beat make this video worth bookmarking to watch on a bad day alone, but its place in history as one of the first British R&B crossover hits in America cements its appeal. Sure, the animation is static, but it was a brand new take on the music video that feels at least somewhat prescient of the backdrop in Lionel Ritchie‘s “All Night Long“.

Nik Kershaw: “Wouldn’t It Be Good”

Released a year before what is perhaps the biggest animated music video hit of the 1980s, A-Ha’s “Take On Me” (Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” gets an honorable mention), Kershaw’s “Wouldn’t It Be Good” became a hit on the back of its phenomenally creative music video, employing Chroma-key technology to depict a troubled extraterrestrial’s internal struggle as he makes his way back to the technology that can take him home. Looks clunky to us now, this sort of thinking got the ball rolling on what would become much a trend that gave us some of the best art of the time.

Ultravox: “Vienna”

“Vienna” was released in January 1981, which puts it in music video Prehistory (before MTV), gaining heavy rotation on shows like TBS’ “Night Tracks” before making it onto the nascent network. It’s about as high brow as music videos can really get, but that it takes itself seriously makes the delicate tune all that much enjoyable to hear.

The Bongos: “Numbers With Wings”

“Numbers with Wings” is one of those songs that was a huge hit in its time in certain circles, but never made it deep enough into the mainstream to give The Bongos the one-hit wonder status that, say, Dexy’s Midnight Runners currently enjoy. Nevertheless, the Buñuel-esque surrealist scenes and attempts to literally depict nonsense lyrics won it a Best Director nomination at the first ever VMAs.

birthdays, MTV, music videos, Ricky Gervais, Robert Hazard, Seona Dancing, The Bongos, Total Coelo, Village People

http://bleacherreport.com/users/535519-nick-p nick price

Robert Hazard IS MY heroes of the 1980s
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ECYBIXNKAG5E46BC3GCJQPA7CQ well_its_no_cannibal_holocaust

The Bongos, Ultravox and Nik Kershaw in the same post, on Mediaite?? Wow this is pretty awesome.
http://twitter.com/lazzzlo lazzzlo

Oh boy, I’m getting old. The Nik Kershaw vid was huge back in the day. I always liked Midge Ure and Ultravox as well.
Anonymous

Thanks Mediaite for remembering my 20′s. Oh My.
unmutual

Hilly Michaels – Calling All Girls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIlglm7EImE
http://www.facebook.com/TomKaneEsq Tom Kane

Robert just died a few years ago. 2008, I think. Quite a loss. Videos of that era were campy and kinda silly, but Robert was one of those guys you had to see live to appreciate. He left all up on stage. Hooters, Tommy Conwell, Beru Revue, Dead Milkmen. It was quite an era. I’d take any of them over the crap that passes for music today.
Anonymous

Robert Hazard, The A’s, Tommy Conwell, Hooters…man there were some pretty good small time Philly bands back in the day.
Anonymous

Much better Robert Hazard Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Dkr5R0LUo

A good A’s tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIkDWNWVlA

Tommy Conwell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJYxJV3SeQ4

Hooters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB1Q-PfUvN0

Good memories!
http://www.facebook.com/TomKaneEsq Tom Kane

How about this for the Hooters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQ78ebHmjQ
Anonymous

Nice! I saw them at some small college type club back in the day. Can’t remember the name. Wild night!
Anonymous

…and The Sharks…Kix…Cinderella…really good music in Cent Penna in those days.
Anonymous

Damn! How could I have left out Cinderella!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUkqBRC1zUA&feature=relmfu

I remember seeing Bon Jovi when they were a cover band way out in the woods in this huge log cabin club somewhere around Newton, NJ when I was staying over a friend’s house and thinking to myself that these guys were really good, lol. And of course Bon Jovi “discovered” Cinderella.
Anonymous

I did’nt realise I had so many contemporaries here. I imagined you all as much younger. Is’nt it sweet, is’nt it nice, turning disco- dollies to a life of vice?
http://twitter.com/tavernwench TavernWench

“This means nothing to me, ohhhhhhh, Vienna”

That song makes me feel young again. :-)
http://twitter.com/tavernwench TavernWench

You have fantastic taste! Back in the day, I was the biggest Nik Kershaw/Ultravox/Midge Ure fangirl imaginable. It’s fun to hear this music again, and I really need to get it back in my rotation. Hearing “Vienna” again after so many years makes me feel nostalgic in the way Don Draper explained it on Mad Men, like the memory of an old wound. It makes me wince a little; we were so young.
http://Mediaite.com Frances Martel

I think this is my favorite comments thread in the history of Mediaite.

And I am jealous of all of you that lived an era where these videos were on heavy rotation.
BeggarBoy

When there WAS a rotation, of any kind….damn I miss those days. 24 hours a day, everyday, of nothing but 4 minute videos. Pop Quiz: What was the SECOND music video played on MTV. Bzzzz, time’s up. Pat Benetar: Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Follow up question: What was unique about the Benetar video? Her husband, Neil Geraldo is the first guitar player to appear on MTV (there wasn’t a guitar player in the Buggles vid). I’m kinda depressed I know all this without having to think about it.
BeggarBoy

Hey, I don’t have to be depressed, I don’t remember this stuff as well as I thought, because I just realized it was Pat Benetar’s: ‘You Better Run’ that was the second video!
BeggarBoy

Christ, now my heads filling with videos, the mostly forgotten ones for me run along the lines of
Split Enz: ‘One Step Ahead,’ Squeeze: Black Coffee In Bed,’ Nick Lowe: ‘Cruel To Be Kind,’ Madness: ‘Our House,’ Pete Shelley: ‘Homosapien,’ Golden Earring: ‘Twilight Zone.’The Call: “The Walls Came Down.’Violet Femmes: ‘Gone Daddy Gone.’Wall of Voodoo: ‘Mexican Radio.’Man it just goes on and on.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3STEQOLDUZODDUETV4AGG7XSXM Aeeadk Aeea

★★◎Something unexpected surprise fashion

hello everyone,im wholesale supplier online
Believe you will love it.
very good shopping web.
-
-
our website: { w w w – ( happyshopping100 ) – c o m }
┗☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆┛
Anonymous

Omg, a dissertation of the 80s, an oasis of desert the timeline of popular music. I was a child of the 60s and the 70s and spent most of the 80′s praying for something (anything!) new in the 90s. You are listening to exactly what literally made me turn off my radio and stop buying albums back then, with Pat Benatar being one of the notable exceptions.

We are all romantic over the time we grew up in.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SIYF5565LXG7BBKTKGSSFWU7TA The Rock

There is a lot of good music today but your just old and don’t know what good music is. There isn’t that much crap out today so your claim that there is crap in todays music is a lie.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SIYF5565LXG7BBKTKGSSFWU7TA The Rock

80′s videos are chessy I like more of the big hits from the 80′s otherwise these videos don’t do it for me. I’m more into 90′s & and today’s music which is pretty good and those that say today’s music is crap doesn’t know what good music is your wrong as well.
Sixpounder

Hopelessly insipid music, set to video by persons with the skill level of the average freshman in TV production at a junior college. Hard pressed for somrthing to write about, Frances?
http://twitter.com/tavernwench TavernWench

It was indeed “You Better Run” and who cares if you thought it was “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on first try? That Neil Geraldo trivia (first guitarist on MTV) is golden.
BeggarBoy

Yeah it was the image popping into my head of Pat in a tight stripped shirt and the finger pointing that made me remember it was “You Better Run”