Guilty pleasures....

[Magpie]

So I'm trying to turn my system around for a round of night shifts, so I've been drifting aimlessly through Youtube and have found myself in quagmire of eighties nostalgia. I'm talking music vids here--cheesy, primitive, low-budget, and in many cases surpisingly brilliant. So I thought I'd jot down some observations. Feel free to add to, comment on, or argue with any of them:

Adam Ant: Both with the Ants and solo, the guy was a flaming genius. The videos are cheap, but fun--and the guy is actually quite a talented comedic actor. As far as style goes, if Steampunk had existed back then, this man would have been worshiped as a god. Truly ahead of his time

Flock of Seagull--uniformly crappy videos, but they still sound good. It's interesting that looking back they where lumped in with all the other Brit synth bands, but actually their distinctive sound came mostly from their guitarist.

The Stranglers: "Duchess" remains one of the best "punk" songs ever recorded. Bar none.

Berlin: I had a huge crush on the Terri Nunn in my early teens, and "The Metro" and "No More Words" were (and still are) my favourite tracks. "Take My Breath Away" was like a icy-steel shard of betrayal straight through my heart.

Divinyls: "I Touch Myself"--Be our guest, Chrissy. We'll just sit quietly over here and watch. And watch. And watch.

XTC: "Making Plans For Nigel"--okay, so NOW I love the song for the unique guitar tones and the quirky juxtaposition of the perkiness of the music with the despair of the lyrics--back then I loved it because my parents couldn't stand it and because it was banned at my school because the headmaster's name was Nigel. "Mayor of Simpleton" equal parts whimsy and cleverness.

The Pursuit of Happiness: "I'm An Adult Now". You probably have to be Canadian...

Mitsou: "Les Chinois", "La Corrida", and "Dis-moi, Dis-moi". Again, you probably have to be Canadian. And male. Being 15 and in the middle of a hormonal maelstrom probably wouldn't hurt either. Ah, good times....

With that I open the floor....

[Robert]

Many Sparks videos are good e.g. "When Do I Get To Sing My Way?"

[Errata]

"Hungry Like The Wolf" still makes me laugh pretty hard.
"Take on Me" is still the most brilliant music video of all time.
Any 80's and 90's era George Michael videos are pretty entertaining. Some for the videos themselves, others like "All She Wants" because I watch it and wonder how in god's name I was ever under the impression he was a straight man.
"Hello" by Lionel Richie, featuring the creepiest sculpture in video history
"She-bop" became a lot more peculiar once I learned what the song was about.

[RivkahChaya]

You didn't know right away what "She-Bop" was about? How old were you when it came out?

[Errata]

You didn't know right away what "She-Bop" was about? How old were you when it came out?

5 maybe? I might have turned 6. So because it didn't especially come up in my life after the songs initial release, I think I found out when I was nearing 30. Sort of like how when I first heard "We Didn't Start The Fire" I didn't understand any of it until the last verse.

[Beowulf]

The 80s for MTV rocked. I don't think it's ever been as good.

For years I have been trying to find a vid on MTV. I thought it was just beautiful (the song) but the band was like, Swedish or something? About 11 people, including midgets and at least one transvestite with long blond hair, kind of thick and wild, singing some kind of torchy love song.

So I'm throwing that out there for anyone who might remember this?

[Barnaby]

Meatloaf.

[Errata]

The 80s for MTV rocked. I don't think it's ever been as good.

For years I have been trying to find a vid on MTV. I thought it was just beautiful (the song) but the band was like, Swedish or something? About 11 people, including midgets and at least one transvestite with long blond hair, kind of thick and wild, singing some kind of torchy love song.

So I'm throwing that out there for anyone who might remember this?

Are you possibly remembering this wrong? I think I can count every video with transvestism on one hand, and none of them were torchy love songs. Was he long haired? Wearing a dress? Possibly an actual woman?

[Ally]

I truly don't consider any music, no matter how bad, a guilty pleasure. Same with TV shows or bad movies. It's not like my appalling taste is hurting anyone. Sometimes you gotta love something even though it's absolutely freaking terrible, like loving the world's ugliest dog.

For a real guilty pleasure, you have to go with something that's out and out bad for you, like when you crave, for god only knows why, Taco Bell. THAT'S a guilty pleasure.

And I am coming up totally blank on the Swedish transvestite music video, unless he was just confusing one of the long hairs for being a woman.

[Beowulf]

Are you possibly remembering this wrong? I think I can count every video with transvestism on one hand, and none of them were torchy love songs. Was he long haired? Wearing a dress? Possibly an actual woman?

It was a foreign group. The man was really a man. Long haired, fake blonde I think, kind of a twisted sister look.

At one point I think there was a bathtub they were getting in and out of. Dry.

This video was not played often and I'm pretty sure was a foreign group, not English or American. I seem to remember they were Swedish or something.

The song was a sort of 'I love you, you've hurt me' or something. But it evoked a sort of angst and was really pretty, as crazy as this sounds, lol.

Thanks for even trying.

[Errata]

It was a foreign group. The man was really a man. Long haired, fake blonde I think, kind of a twisted sister look.

At one point I think there was a bathtub they were getting in and out of. Dry.

This video was not played often and I'm pretty sure was a foreign group, not English or American. I seem to remember they were Swedish or something.

The song was a sort of 'I love you, you've hurt me' or something. But it evoked a sort of angst and was really pretty, as crazy as this sounds, lol.

Thanks for even trying.

Oh I can do this... I think. I have rigorously trained myself in 80s music. Twisted Sister look means hair metal. That's good. I know hair metal.

It actually would have been easier if the singer was a brunette, but we shall persevere.

Not a lot of hair metal coming out of Sweden. Unless you saw Motley Crue and thought it was Swedish due to the umlauts, but they're pretty well known. We'll have to expand, since the Swedish bands I know well, and I'm pretty sure there are no bathtubs.

I know some music videos with bathtubs... none of them are blond or Swedish.

"You done me wrong" songs tend to be power ballads. I know lots of those even if I never saw the video.

There was a metal band whose lead singer was a midget... but he was bald. Otherwise I can't think of a single power Ballad that has a midget in the video.

I didn't have Mtv as a kid. So I do better with the song than the video. Can you remember the song at all? Was there piano? Was it in falsetto? Any lyrics you remember?

[Ally]

The 80s for MTV rocked. I don't think it's ever been as good.

For years I have been trying to find a vid on MTV. I thought it was just beautiful (the song) but the band was like, Swedish or something? About 11 people, including midgets and at least one transvestite with long blond hair, kind of thick and wild, singing some kind of torchy love song.

So I'm throwing that out there for anyone who might remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQRDI7mTyw

How many possible midgets and transvestite videos can there be from the 80's?

[Errata]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQRDI7mTyw

How many possible midgets and transvestite videos can there be from the 80's?

See I thought of this, but it was banned at the time

[Ally]

Yes but it wasn't banned outright until after it had played for a while, which might play into his remembering it as 'not played' often. It was only outright banned after they received complaints, so it played for a while, at least long enough for enough parents to whinge.

[Errata]

Yes but it wasn't banned outright until after it had played for a while, which might play into his remembering it as 'not played' often. It was only outright banned after they received complaints, so it played for a while, at least long enough for enough parents to whinge.

See I remember the "I Want To Break Free" video, but it never played on MTV at any point that I was even exposed to MTV. Clearly I saw it somewhere along the line, but I had seen it by the time you no longer had to cradle a phone on a modem, so it wasn't the internet. It remains a mystery.