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3 music videos that were intended as a protest against music videos

Many musicians balked at the idea of ​​making music videos, but when MTV took off in the early 1980s, major artists rarely chose to promote their music with clips. In the age of YouTube, it's still a big deal when artists decide to forego making videos for their latest releases. Witness how Beyoncé caused a stir by not releasing videos for any of her tracks Renaissance And Cowboy Carter– a move she later attributed to her wanting to put the focus back on her music.

Each of the three artists featured here found their greatest popularity during MTV's golden age, but each felt the need to go against the grain. All three made videos for some of their songs but were not happy about it. Instead of completely surrendering to the status quo, each of them used at least one of their promotional videos to engage with the popular medium. As it turns out, biting the hand that fed the music industry ultimately helped all three of these artists commercially.

“It's My Life” by Talk Talk It's my life (1984)

Talk Talk owed much of their initial success to their 1982 video for “Talk Talk,” which was a staple on early MTV. However, Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis despised videos, and when it came time to make a video for the lead single and title track of their second album, he used it to make his point. Most of the Tim Pope-directed video for “It's My Life” consists of clips from a BBC wildlife documentary entitled Life on Earth. There are also shots of Hollis posing dejectedly next to animals at London Zoo. There is no story, no appearance, and no footage of Talk Talk's other two members, Paul Webb and Lee Harris. To further illustrate the point, there are shots of Hollis' mouth and face obscured by wobbling black lines.

Talk Talk's label, EMI, wanted the band to remake the video more in the style of a typical MTV clip. They obeyed, but intentionally botched the lip sync. Despite efforts to sabotage the videos, “It's My Life” became Talk Talk's only top 40 hit in the US, peaking at number 31 billboard Hot 100. With more than 47 million views, the song's original video is Talk Talk's most popular official video on YouTube.

“Bastards of Young” by The Replacements Tim (1985)

Even in the early days of The Replacements, Paul Westerberg was vocally against making music videos. He made his position clear in the band's song “Seen Your Video” from their 1984 album let it be (Saw your video / your fake rock'n'roll). The Replacements' next album Tim would be their first album for Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and they would face greater pressure to make videos than at their previous indie label, Twin/Tone.

Jeff Ayeroff, Warner's senior vice president, found a way to convince The Replacements to make a video for “Bastards of Young.” The band wouldn't need to appear in the video, as it would consist almost entirely of a shot of a pulsating speaker blaring the song. As the video continues, viewers can see someone on a couch listening to “Bastards of Young” – or at least that person's arm, hand, and a dangling cigarette. The video ends with the listener getting up from the couch and knocking the speaker over.

Randy Skinner, who directed the “Bastards of Young” video, also directed clips for “Hold My Life,” “Left of the Dial” and “Little Mascara,” which also featured the narrator. Nine years later, she directed REM's video for “Bang and Blame”, which featured all four band members and did not destroy any audio equipment.

How did MTV react to the Replacements' reluctant entry into their world? They rewarded her by naming “Bastards of Young” the No. 96 video on their 1999 list The 100 best music videos of all time. Made the video Rolling StoneIt can also be found at number 69 in the top 100 videos list.

“Obvious Song” by Joe Jackson Laughter and joy (1991)

Jackson's 1982 video for “Steppin' Out” was hugely popular and likely played a major role in making the song his biggest hit. Still, Jackson was hesitant to make the video, which is telling Time out that “rock 'n' roll is becoming a big circus, and videos and MTV are part of it. People who are seriously interested in making music as an end in itself need to break away and take a different path.”

However, Jackson took a few more steps down the mainstream path, making videos for “Breaking Us in Two,” “You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want),” and “Down to London.” Finally, he took the opportunity to mock MTV in his 1991 video for “Obvious Song.” The song is a criticism of rampant hypocrisy, greed and superficiality, particularly in the United States. It was a small step to bring this critical eye to the typical fare that MTV aired, and the video features a big-haired Jackson shredding on guitar and a dancing, singing Statue of Liberty. It was directed by Marcus Nispel, who has made many popular videos, including the one for C+C Music Factory's “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).”

The video for “Obvious Song” did not receive the same accolades as the clips for “It's My Life” and “Bastards of Young” and is actually the least viewed of the five official videos on the Joe Jackson Vevo channel on YouTube. While “Obvious Song” didn’t get much of a boost from its video, it did get plenty of airplay on modern rock stations. It took 10 weeks billboard's Alternative Airplay chart, which climbed to No. 2 and was knocked off the top spot by Elvis Costello's “The Other Side of Summer.”

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Photo by ITV/Shutterstock

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