My Favorite 80s Culture Moment is....
Almost without question, it's a moment when I realized what the music video was and how important it would be. It was during viewing the video for Duran Duran's song "Is There Something I Should Know?".
This is a hell of a video. The Fab Five were solidifying thier debut into the pop culture by making some genre-defining videos. Under direction of Russell Mulcahy, the Durans jetted off to the West Indies to lens a group of visuals for such classic songs as "Rio" and "Waiting for the Nightboat" and thence to Sri Lanka to do "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save A Prayer".
After this run, the Durans loomed large in the public eye. Going into the followup to Rio, the album to be called Seven And The Ragged Tiger, the debut album Duran Duran was rereleased. Replacing the last track on Side 2 (it was a vinyl disc, folks!) was a tune with the intriguing title of "Is There Something I Should Know". Partaking of equal parts thumping rhythm, mystical shadowings, and a catchy ten-note hook woven through amongst catchy and introspective lyrics.
The video was of another dimension entirely, It was the purest video expression of surrealism I have seen. Sextants and measuring devices play in and out; people appear and disappear behind treetrunks and simple poles; bowler-hatted Magritte men measure and survey everything in sight. And moreso, woven in and amongst these entrancing images were scenes from thier eariler signature videos, as though they were closing a door on thier first stage in a wink-and-a-nod way. Every viewing presented a new gift.
The most powerful part of the video was the outro, a repetition of the musical theme of the chorus. The screen is divided into three heighthwise parts and images pass in and out of frame, from right to left, with the insistent beat of the music. The visuals themselves become a character in the video. You have no choice, the hypnosis complete; you are pulled forward along with it.
The music video is an example of high art and its coming-of-age was with that production. No longer did they merely illuminate the lyrics, they constructed thier own world and drew you in. It is still, at nearly 20 years remove, my favorite music video, and the release of "ITSISK" completed my journey to unabashed and unembarrased Duran Duran fan.
And I still am.
I think DD were the quintessential 80s band...high concept, high style. The essence of 80s culture.
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