Seriously Naff Music videos — and I mean N.A.F.F.

[Snake Plissken]

I’d post Wired for Sound and Atmosphere* here but I’m damned if I’m looking them up.

*You know which one

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The opening post reminds us that the pop music that we usually associate with a past period was, as often as not, not the dominant soundtrack of that time.

I wasn’t there, but the 60s, for most people, were a lot more about naff covers on network variety shows than they were about Hendrix melting faces at Woodstock or whatever was going on in the Village or Haight Ashbury, etc.

That's a recurrent theme on chart music. I mean if you sit down to go through a random episode of top of the pops you're going to run into exactly what people were into at the time. And that often meant novelty records, and shakin Stevens!

mind you, if you pick an American chart from 66 or 67, you are going to know 50-75% of the songs.

[E10 Rifle]

Surprised no one's mentioned Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

But glad. Because it an absolute no-holds-barred masterpiece of overstatement, melodrama, incoherent symbolism and the general turning of things up to 11. A video on which no expense was spared and at which no kitchen sink went unchucked. I salute it unreservedly.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Oh yeah that's definitely a winner. Well worthy of Jim Steinman's work

The most significant thing about the Liberace clip, to me, is the date — March 1968. A month before Reverend King's assassination, several months before RFK's and even more before the police riot in Chicago.

The vid is Gran and Gramps Jones attempting to come to terms with the previous year's Flower Power epidemic because they don't know what it is... or was. An indicator of crossed wires among cultures and ages when everything was moving so fast no one could pause for breath. Of course their imaginary hippie world, courtesy of network TV, was inhabited by solely white people wearing Day-Glo clothing made by Sears-Roebuck.

That said it is very funny. I do wonder if the choreographer who put the short tubby guy next to the tall lanky one had dropped a tab or two of sunshine themselves. The costume designer absolutely had. No question.

[Bored Of Education]

Not quite in the same category but I always cringe about “Sledgehammer”. Obviously it was an innovative video at the time but

(a) It was one of the first where they said “Let’s take the latest digital effect and use it on the video regardless of whether it has anything to do with the song”. Perhaps I am tainting it with the slew of copycats that took that approach afterwards.

(b) using the latest video effects has dated it.

[3 Colours Red]

I don't think that Sledgehammer has aged as badly as most of the early attempts at CGI used in music videos - stop motion was pretty much as good as it was ever going to be well before 1986, whereas if you wanted top-of-the-line computer animation before the dawn of the 21st century, you really needed a bigger budget than the vast majority of music videos were allowed. Only someone of the stature of Michael Jackson could get those kind of $$$ to be able to pay for top-notch stuff.

Look at the Todd Rundgren video I posted. That's from 1991. It's not like CG was still crap by then, look at Terminator 2. But again, that's Hollywood money.

Speaking of Peter Gabriel, the Steam video from 1993 went overboard with the visual effects, much to its detriment. Next to Sledgehammer, it just looks so cheap and nasty.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Surprised no one's mentioned Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

But glad. Because it an absolute no-holds-barred masterpiece of overstatement, melodrama, incoherent symbolism and the general turning of things up to 11. A video on which no expense was spared and at which no kitchen sink went unchucked. I salute it unreservedly.

Yeah, this isn't naff, it's just fucking glorious. You may not necessarily agree with the director's vision, but you're delighted that they were able to see it out to its fullest extent and none of this faffing around, they gave us the three hour directors cut straight from the beginning.

[Fargo Boyle]

Or there's this version...

[ursus arctos]

The director for that video has quite the oeuvre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Mulcahy

[Hot Pepsi]

Surprised no one's mentioned Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

But glad. Because it an absolute no-holds-barred masterpiece of overstatement, melodrama, incoherent symbolism and the general turning of things up to 11. A video on which no expense was spared and at which no kitchen sink went unchucked. I salute it unreservedly.

”Maximalist” is the term I would use. It fits the song, which is wonderfully OTT. Banana sandwich, one might say.

1983 was around the peak time for this sort of thing. There was a lot of money available for videos, but it was still a very new form so there was a lot of kitchen sink throwing, as you say.


On his 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, Rob Harvilla made the point that Beavis and Butthead were derided as symbols of everything wrong with American youth and TV.

But they just sat there and paid attention to the videos and talked about them.

That’s how most kids watched MTV, especially in the early 80s when most of our TVs didn’t have a remote control.

How many kids today would just sit and watch something like thar for three or four minutes?

[ursus arctos]

It gets extra credit for being shot in an honest to God Victorian asylum

[Gangster Octopus]

If anyone tries to add Wild Boys to this thread, I'll, I'll, sulk...

[Hot Pepsi]

That belongs in that High MTV Era of Banana Sandwich expensive videos. It’s not Naff. Just a bit extra, as the kids say.

[Hot Pepsi]

[Hot Pepsi]

Or there's this version...

The original reminds us of when MTV was great and this video reminds us of when YouTube was great.

[ursus arctos]

If anyone tries to add Wild Boys to this thread, I'll, I'll, sulk...

I would posit that Rio is a much better candidate for this thread.

Sane director as Total Eclipse of the Heart, as it happens.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

OK, we're all agreed that Total Eclipse of the heart just blasts though all attempts to define or constrain it with human words. But how do we feel about Holding on for a hero? It starts with probably one of the strongest 30 seconds of any 80's song. That opening is just amazing. But the Video simply can't keep up

[Benjm]

Difficult for me to resist mentioning Desireless' Voyage Voyage in response, even if the video - directed by photographer Bettina Rheims - is pleasingly weird.

The Guardian put up a "20 Best Europop Songs" listicle yesterday with this as number one. You are now officially an influencer and taste maker.

[Hot Pepsi]

I would posit that Rio is a much better candidate for this thread.

Sane director as Total Eclipse of the Heart, as it happens.

I'd forgotten that had a fire sax solo in the middle.

I may need to reassess my view of Duran Duran. At the time, I thought they were cooler than I could ever hope to be. Then later I thought the songs had kinda aged poorly - too many instruments. Too much naff. Just too much. But now I can appreciate just how hard they were going for it all the time. All that cool took a lot of effort.

It also led me to discover that somebody took the time to give us this.

https://duranduran.fandom.com/wiki/W...n_Duran_videos

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm assuming we can't nominate Eurovision entries into this. They would swamp the field.

Epic Sax Guy

[Benjm]

Don't it make you feel good?

No, Stefan, no it don't.