This video used to be considered very weird and strange...
30 years ago, pop music may have been homogenized strains of disco, new wave, synth pop, country lite, and arena rock bands...but one thing they were not yet, was visual. MTV came out the year after this, and this was one of the first videos the channel played in their first few hours of broadcasting. Long before the terms "indie" or "alternative" the Talking Heads were pushing the boundaries of experimental art music and redefining pop music in the unlikeliest combination of styles. Growing beyond their Jonathan Richman influenced straight white angular art rock, they merged influences and actual band members from the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, even incorporating progressive rock guitar god Adrian Belew for their breakthrough "Remain In Light" album....All brewed up inside the hypnotic influence of Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies"
Adding further influences to the mix of this music video, are lead singer David Byrne's "preacher character" and director Toni Basil who pioneered hip hop dance moves and popularized the infamous "white background" music video style. They came up with the idea of his movements being a confluence of hip-hop dance moves, obscure religious rituals, and epileptic seizures..
S a m e a s i t e v e r w a s . . . S a m e a s i t e v e r w a s . . .
2 years later, after MTV was well underway, the director of this video had her own hit song that received copious amounts of airplay on the channel...
F i v e E a s y R i d e r P i e c e s
In 2009, Toni Basil Accepted an award as a 'Living Legend of Hip Hop' for her accomplishments in dance and choreography.
David Byrne did lots more stuff, including only a few years later interviewing himself about the greatest concert film ever made...
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