The Highs and Lows of the '80s Hard Rock Scene, As Told Through Its Music Videos
By Chris Steffen · Mar. 17, 2021
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Would the hard rock scene of the 1980s reached its level of cultural saturation without music videos and MTV? The rapidly expanding cable TV subscriber base made it worthwhile for record labels to sign huge checks in hopes that an eye-catching video would elevate their artists above the rest of the pack. Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister broke the ice, and were soon followed by ascendant bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Guns N' Roses, who made visual spectacle and grandiosity (or endearing cheapness) part and parcel to their appeal.
We enlisted Richard Bienstock and Tom Beajuour, the authors of the new oral history Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion, to take us on a guided tour of the scene's most groundbreaking, controversial, and iconic music videos. Their book is a treasure trove of stories, drama, and details from one of the most over-the-top eras in rock, and music videos played a major story in defining the aesthetic and attitude of the moment. Featuring tales of agonizing video shoots, impressing Michael Jackson, and chasing David Bowie down the street, here are eight of the most archetypal and illustrative videos of '80s hard rock.
The Highs and Lows of the '80s Hard Rock Scene, As Told Through Its Music Videos
Would the hard rock scene of the 1980s reached its level of cultural saturation without music videos and MTV? The rapidly expanding cable TV subscriber base made it worthwhile for record labels to sign huge checks in hopes that an eye-catching video would elevate their artists above the rest of the pack. Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister broke the ice, and were soon followed by ascendant bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Guns N' Roses, who made visual spectacle and grandiosity (or endearing cheapness) part and parcel to their appeal.
We enlisted Richard Bienstock and Tom Beajuour, the authors of the new oral history Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion, to take us on a guided tour of the scene's most groundbreaking, controversial, and iconic music videos. Their book is a treasure trove of stories, drama, and details from one of the most over-the-top eras in rock, and music videos played a major story in defining the aesthetic and attitude of the moment. Featuring tales of agonizing video shoots, impressing Michael Jackson, and chasing David Bowie down the street, here are eight of the most archetypal and illustrative videos of '80s hard rock.
The 1990 debut single and video from Nelson was a preemptive strike against perceptions that the twin-led band (the sons of early rock 'n' roll star Ricky Nelson) were pretty boys who couldn't play. The video's creative team also came up with a concept that made things much, much more complicated.
Tom Beaujour: The beginning and end shows them singing and playing guitar together, and they're sending signals there. What they'd actually done as their entire promotional campaign for months before their record came out, because they knew nobody was going to believe that they could play or sing, and because they were celebrity kids and how they looked, they went from radio station to radio station and mall to mall with an acoustic guitar.
Richard Bienstock: The production of the video itself was totally bananas. It was directed by Jim Yukich and produced by Paul Flattery, and they had done Genesis's "Land of Confusion" and all of these other mega-videos. These guys went to Nelson and said, "Here's how we're going to do this, we want the snow to fly upwards, we want the birds to fly backwards, so we're going to film you playing the entire song backwards." This is what happens when you have a quarter-million dollars to spend on a video, is everyone in Nelson learned to play and sing the song completely backwards.
People would slag them for not being able to play, but not only could they play, but they were able to learn to play the whole thing backwards, including singing, so they were actually onstage, performing it all backwards, drumming backwards, which the drummer said was the hardest thing he ever had to do. So not only was it incredibly colorful, but it was also incredibly laborious and this insane conceit. You really see the epic scope that people were willing to go to at the end of this thing and the amount of money involved and the power these video directors had, to dictate to a band, "OK, go home and learn to play your song backwards."
