High Art!

I miss the days when music videos were so much more than scantily-dressed dingbats lip-synching to songs that they didn't even write. Back in the 80s, the music video as a marketing medium was often high art - there were actual plots wrapped up in those three minutes of music. Yeah, they were often cheesy - but fun. Where did all of that imagination go?

I present two examples that I remember quite well from my teenagehood for that reason. They're both from the band Chicago - not the first group, I'm sure, that springs to mind for most people when you think of great 80s music videos. But check them both out. The only Chicago I like is when the band was fronted by cutie-patootie (and fellow Polish-American) Peter Cetera. The first video, for "Stay the Night", has Cetera as a car mechanic lusting after a slutty 80s beyotch on wheels. This video was actually well produced, and features the infamous L.A. ductway - how many films has this location made an appearance in? It sort of reminds me of a Steve McQueen movie - although there's no explanation why Cetera survives, let alone still looks good, after his truck blows to smithereens.

The second, for "Along Comes a Woman" (a good song I haven't heard in years) was definitely very Indiana Jones/Casablanca-inspired, with the band's cameo fitting in nicely with the brassy music of the 30s and 40s. Enjoy...and what are some of your favorite/most memorable music videos from the 80s?