This thread has to start with this one as it has it all including polyester suits and perma-press hair......
and it reaches TOTAL EPIC PROPORTIONS at 1:43
Can anybody top this one??
This thread has to start with this one as it has it all including polyester suits and perma-press hair......
and it reaches TOTAL EPIC PROPORTIONS at 1:43
Can anybody top this one??
^^ This ones better if you understand the words :
"If you look close you can see my nut sack..."
There's that one 'Rock Me Tonight' that always gets mentioned in such threads. In the UK I don't think Billy Squier ever meant much so I hadn't seen it until recently. It is indeed quite something!
Pretty much killed his career too. Squier was actually a pretty kick ass live performer (I saw him twice), but that video killed his rocker cred.Originally Posted by JJ88
Since no one should be asked to endure the actual video of this song, here's the highly entertaining literal version of it:
Well you see, I may be in the minority here, but I don't think the continuum of "terrible" to "awesome" is circular.
I think a "terrible" video, like the above, is pretty far down the terrible spectrum which puts it a very long distance from "awesome" territory. It could be just me, but that's how I feel.
That said, there's no shortage of terrible videos, many linked to TV variety shows who seemingly specialized in this muck.
What about that ABWH Brother of Mine video?
Totally. And Elton's I'm Still Standing video. I'm not going to post it.
I was just watching some Roxy Music videos the other day--not as out-n-out terrible as what's been previously mentioned.
Rather, it is a subtle and elegant form of tastelessness.
May I suggest the videos to "Avalon" and "More than This".
Added bonus: Bryan Ferry's wispy mustache in the "Let's Stick Together" video and the distilled camp of the promo video for "These Foolish Things"
The problem with music videos is, you often times have these video directors who are less concerned with making a video that's designed to promote the new single, and more interested in asserting their own creative presence. Or as Paul Stanley once put it, they're "trying to remake Raiders Of The Lost Ark in 4 minutes". Hence, you've got these hunks of dren that have nothing to do with the song, it's more like "Look at the mini-movie I made" rather than doing something that's supposed to represent the song.
The really strange thing about that is, a lot of the early 80's videos looked a lot alike. That's because a lot of them, at least the ones you saw on MTV anyway, were all director by one of about five people (those being Bob Giraldi, Russel Macahy, Steve Barron, and one or two others), which resulted in a certain kind of homogeneity. The videos directed by Giraldi, Macahy, and one or two others even had the same "actor" making cameos in virtually every one (in the above linked Bonnie Tyler video, he's the school master at the end of the clip...I believe I read he was the wardrobe master of the production company that made all those videos...he's also a dignitary at the dinner in Ultravox's Vienna video, he was the lost explorer in Haircut 100's Love Plus One clip, he's the girl's father in Squeeze's Black Coffee In Bed video, etc).
Back in the late 80's, Arista put out a compilation of videos by The Church, which had these little linking bits between the songs, mostly home movie footage, of the band on the road or whatever. There's a great bit where Marty Willson-Piper and Steve Kilbey are talking about why they don't like videos. Kilbey makes the point that when you're making a record, you can hear something's not right, and you can fix it or change it whatever. But when you're making a video, you kind of have to trust the director on the day, which sometimes doesn't pan out. Marty then says "That's what we should call the compilation of videos: We'll Fix It In The Cut". At another point, Steve sarcastically compares the band's videos to the work of Bergman, Fellini, and Disney, with Marty chiming in with "Some of the best music videos ever made, except for the bad ones".
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
...and the all-time worst IMO:
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
actually, I think this is just really bad.
Last edited by davis; 08-06-2014 at 07:43 AM.
I prefer this version:
Well, the Pans' People 'Monster Mash' one isn't really a video- daft as that clip is, this was filmed for a reissue of a record from the early 60s. For US members, there was a strange tradition on BBC pop show 'Top Of The Pops' of filming scantily-clad women doing bizarre choreography for hit records that they couldn't get the performers on the show. File in the 'wouldn't get away with it now' category- indeed, several aspects of 1970s TOTP now seem terribly tainted. I think this had been dumped by the 1980s, but my TOTP viewing didn't start until the 90s...by then of course, they could just use the videos.
That Bowie/Jagger one is an embarrassment from two great talents, so double the embarrassment. People usually use the 'but it was for charidee!' excuse to justify such sloppy work. Think this is the same David Bowie who just five years earlier had done the astonishing 'Ashes To Ashes' video with David Mallet.
I remember they were running that Asia 'Don't Cry' one on the screen when I saw them live. Hmm, not sure the 'video age' suited everyone!
Last edited by JJ88; 08-06-2014 at 05:43 AM.
Both awfull and awesome:
Trololo... The Full Original Version.
Happy Birthday - Indian Style
Happy Birthday Song Orient Version
Yes! This one is hideous.
Friggin LOL! Just as the crystal meth kicks in he realizes he needs to sing with an English accent. I love it.
Come on, the Russian singing guy is excellent.
I know someone will defend this one, but I find it pretty embarassing. I think it's the whole "Let's set it at the turn of the century!" for lack of any better idea that spoils it:
My cat added that emoticon - I have no idea why.
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