Video Killed the Radio Star

It is probably no exaggeration that the music video is as important a contribution to the music industry as the CD, MP3 or Ticketmaster. Prior to the 1980s, artists and bands only needed to worry about what their songs sounded like and whether they would be any good on the radio and on vinyl so it didn't matter what they looked like, whether they could dance and if there was a director around who could make some award-winning film to go along with their song which would open it up to a whole new market.

That all changed on August 1, 1981 when MTV went on air with The Buggles' song 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and the rest, as they say, is history. From the rather primitive roots of this and other videos in the early 1980s, a huge industry spawned with established feature film directors such as John Landis and Martin Scorsese directing videos for Michael Jackson and other aspiring filmmakers (David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry) making music videos to hone their craft or to keep their eye in, so to speak.

In September 2009 Sky Arts broadcast a three-part TV show looking at three of the pioneering directors who worked in the very early stages of the whole music video craze and continue to do so to this day: Russell Mulcahy, David Mallet and Wayne Isham. These three filmmakers attracted very different artists due to their styles, with Mulcahy working with bands like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Queen who also, along with the likes of AC/DC, David Bowie and Billy Idol made a couple of videos with David Mallet. Wayne Isham tended to attract the heavier end of the musical spectrum, working with the likes of Judas Priest, Pantera and Metallica. Saying that, he also directed the video for 'So Emotional' by Whitney Houston!

Each disc is pretty much the same with the original 23 minute piece that was broadcast on Sky Arts along with approximately 2 hours of material from which the 23 minute show was cut down from and every one of the music videos mentioned or alluded to in the TV show. These 11 videos can be played altogether or you can just pick the ones you want. Although they are not particularly long, the TV shows are fairly revealing with candid conversations with the directors and the artists with whom they worked. Some are more candid than others and you are told that, when Bonnie Tyler asked Russell Mulcahy to work with her again (after the success of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'), he quite bluntly told her to "f*** off"!


I was quite struck at the similarities between these three DVDs and the 'Director's Label' Work of the Director... DVDs as they both feature many of the director's finest music videos but these, unlike the Work of the Director... DVDs, contain interviews with the filmmaker and the artists. If you are into music and can appreciate a well made film no matter how short, then you'll find these extremely watchable and, if you like the music, so much the better.

Although my musical tastes would probably align me firmly with the work of Wayne Isham, I found Russell Mulcahy to be the most entertaining and outgoing speaker and there are several instances when I wasn't sure if he was completely sober or slightly drunk and/or high! The pieces with Duran Duran are quite funny as they talk about how they simply ran out of time and money and most of the crew had gone home before they had finished so one scene was filmed by a German tourist and others were done 'on the fly'.


In terms of a 'track listing', the Russell Mulcahy disc features:
The Buggles -- Video Killed the Radio Star
Bonnie Tyler -- Total Eclipse of the Heart
Culture Club -- War Song
Duran Duran -- Rio
Duran Duran -- The Wild Boys
Fleetwood Mac -- Gypsy
Kim Carnes -- Bette Davis Eyes
Queen -- A Kind of Magic
Spandau Ballet -- True
Spandau Ballet -- Chant No. 1

On the show you have contributions from Russell Mulcahy, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Bonnie Tyler, Trevor Horn from The Buggles, Mick Fleetwood, Kim Carnes, Roger Taylor from Queen and Gary Kemp Spandau Ballet.


The David Mallet disc has the videos for:
AC/DC -- Shook Me All Night Long
AC/DC -- Thunderstruck
Billy Idol -- White Wedding
Boomtown Rats -- I Don't like Mondays
David Bowie -- Ashes to Ashes
David Bowie -- Let's Dance
David Bowie and Mick Jagger -- Dancing in the Street
Def Leppard -- Photograph
Joan Jett -- Crimson and Clover
Queen -- Radio Ga Ga
Queen -- I Want to Break Free

In terms of interview subjects, aside from David Mallet, you have Bob Geldof, Roger Taylor, Joan Jett, Joe Elliot and Rick Savage from Def Leppard and Brian Johnson and Angus Young from AC/DC.


And now for the (mostly) heavy metal stylings of Wayne Isham:
Def Leppard -- Pour Some Sugar on Me (Live Version)
Dokken -- Alone Again
Howard Jones -- You Know I Love You
Judas Priest -- Painkiller
Judas Priest -- Turbo Lover
Megadeth -- Sweating Bullets
Metallica -- Enter Sandman
Pantera -- 5 Minutes Alone
Queensrÿche -- Jet Set Woman
Skid Row -- 18 and Life
Whitney Houston -- So Emotional

Wayne Isham proves to be a larger than life character and, with the likes of Lars Ulrich from Metallica, Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi, David Stein, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row and Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford and K. K. Downing from Judas Priest, this is a satisfying and entertaining programme with over 130 minutes of extended interviews so clearly these guys love to talk!

3DD Home Entertainment are releasing each disc individually and a box set containing all three so you can either choose the director you want or, if you like all of the music, get the lot!

The Discs

The Picture
As this was filmed so recently, the quality is extremely good although it is slightly odd that the videos are featured in 16:9 when they were shot in 4:3, something which is remedied when you watch the videos by themselves and they are available in the correct aspect ratio.

I can perfectly understand this aesthetic choice as it would be a little jarring to go from one aspect ratio to another for the sake of 10 or 15 seconds of a music video.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo is perfectly suited to this kind of interview footage and videos that were shot in stereo or even mono so both the dialogue and the music are very clear and I was surprised at how well balanced soundtrack was so that there aren't any fluctuations in volume and the music is played at about the same decibel level as the interviews.


Final Thoughts
Looking at the most accmlished and expensive music videos currently playing on all of the cabe nd satellite channels, particularly MTV, it is surprising how many concentrate more on the video itself than the music and singers now not only have to look the part but have to be able to dance, lip sync to their own song and not look embarrassed when surrounded by a number of gyrating backing dancers. This wasn't always the case and, although older videos (like the one for Bohemian Rhapsody) will always crop up on lists for the 'Greatest Music Video', it does make you wonder how bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin would fare in today's society.

I found all three of these DVDs to be entertaining, informative and regulatory and so would certainly recommend them to anyone interested in the featured artists, directors or music videos in general.