Post-apocalyptic imagery in early '80s music videos

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John Carpenter and Kurt Russell take loose credit for the trend on the commentary track to "Escape from New York," but really, what was the deal? From Patty Smyth to Motley Crue to Billy Idol, every other early '80s video seemed to feature guys and gals dressed in tatters running through the fire-lit streets. Favorites? Recurring images? Let's discuss!

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 8 December 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite the early 80's but "This Corrosion" by the Sisters of Mercy. Sublimely ridiculous.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Most ridiculous: "Knockin' at Your Back Door" by Deep Purple off the Perfect Strangers album. In between shots of the band playing, there is some bizarre quasi-"Thunderdome" footage of post-apocalypse folk futzing around on motorcycles and "dancing" to the lumpen tones of the reunited Purps.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Come to think of it, there are a whole lot of "Thunderdome"-inspired videos, most recently that Tupac vid.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 8 December 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Synchronicity II by the Police

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky", where the boys discover a cache of jukeboxes and TVs after the apocalypse. Mike Campbell discovers an electric guitar just in time to play his solo.

Utopia's "Crybaby", where the band is safe inside a glassed-in biodome, dressed in "Logan's Run" outfits while outside the landscape has been ravaged by some sort of holocaust.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Also "99 Luftballoons".

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Monday, 8 December 2003 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Duran Duran "Wild Boys"!

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:01 (twenty-two years ago)

some of you may be too young to remember, but a lot of people in the early 80's thought that there would be a nuclear holocaust that was going to kill every man woman and child in the world in great balls of fiery death. that might help explain some of the imagery in videos of the day as ludicrous as some of them looked then and now. This cold war fear along with thatcher/Reagan/big brother/1984/fear of technology and/or the future also helped to make the paranoia-laced isolationism of a lot of post-punk/new wave/synth-pop so very wonderful even if it is all a laugh now.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I seem to remember Loverboy spawning a particularly egregious example of this trend (featuring hot post-apocalyptic chicks), but I can't recall which song the video was for.

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Cold war paranoia? I imagine most of the directors just thought it looked cool to dress dancers like "Road Warrior" extras, barring songs that explicitly addressed an iminent nuclear holocaust (like "99 Luftballoons"). I mean, Motley Crue were hardly channeling "The Day After." In the Strauss Crue book they do talk about pioneering the post-apoc look, but they never reveal why. How mysterious!

What was the video like for Mike and the Mechanics "Silent Running"? I seem to remember that being post-apoc. Or maybe just barely pre-apoc, like Rush's "Distant Early Warning" (I think).

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

billy joel, "pressure." sort of an apocalpyse in his head.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Synchronicity II by the Police

does anybody know if this video was supposed to be serious or not? I saw it for the first time recently and it first assumed they were making fun of the trend (especially since their videos are usually either really cheeky or really classy). But after awhile I noticed that they never did anything that implied they realized how absurd the video was.

Kiss's videos from the Lick It Up era were pretty post-apocalyptic. And I don't know WHAT they were about in Scandal's "The Warrior."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky"

Quintessence of great video/shite song syndrome.

The video for Kiss' "Lick It Up" is so unintentionally hilarious it hurst (especially during the "orgy of food" sequence).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:15 (twenty-two years ago)

all post-makeup KISS videos are atrocious.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Sting looks completely coked out in that video, I always assumed that he at least was taking it completely seriously.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd just like to use the word 'completely' one more time, kthx.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

eurythmics, "like lovers do" w/ annie running around a post-apocalyptic world.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:20 (twenty-two years ago)

" Dancing with myself " by Billy Idol- had that horrible Blade Runner rip off--I cant remember why everyone was falling in that video. Oh yeah, it was Idol's hubris that was knocking them off of the roof.

― darth nader, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:20 (twenty-two years ago)

oops, almost forgot Ratt's " Round and Round video " . I saw this a couple of months ago a really enjoyed it. Especially when the lead guitarist falls through the floor and lands on the dinner table, then does the classic lead guitar trade off by pointing up to the other guitarist. So insane, she said...

― darth nader, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously, what was the deal with that Mike and the Mechanics song/video?? Some sci-fi story?

― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

let us not forget david bowie's "let's dance" video and its (to paraphrase Frank Zappa in "Be in My Video") cheesy atom-bomb explosion that all those big eighties groups used.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

In Sammy Hagar's "Give To Live" he magically appears over an H-bomb cloud, shoots a laser out his guitar at it and it begins to move in reverse and disappear. It's the only video I know of where post-apocalyptic imagery is averted!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Blue Oyster Cult's "Dancing In The Ruins". In the future, wars will be fought by gangs of skateboarders! After the the fight, the thrashers will retire to a post-apocalyptic club and watch BOC play.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Red Rockers "Eve of Destruction" cover was like this, but I have pretty successfully repressed my memory of it.

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky", where the boys discover a cache of jukeboxes and TVs after the apocalypse. Mike Campbell discovers an electric guitar just in time to play his solo.

best example of this type of video.

i loved this theme for videos in the early/mid 80s.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, 8 December 2010 22:59 (fifteen years ago)

four months pass...

since the topic lost steam, can we expand this to include generally sci-fi themed 80s videos? I've been compiling a small list lately, and came up with a lot of the same stuff here like Duran and Billy Idol, but am sure there are more.

Billy Ocean - Loverboy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMC_zyy_PXU

ZZTop - Rough Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmi4bmrZPOk

Corey Hart - Boy in the Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcPr2-ipfa4

When the Rain Begins to Fall - Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5jJiGQAG_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcPr2-ipfa4

― Kim, Friday, 6 May 2011 16:26 (fifteen years ago)

whoops - not sure how Corey got in there twice

― Kim, Friday, 6 May 2011 16:27 (fifteen years ago)

almost forgot,

Rick Springfield - Bop Til You Drop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9XXbx5fb2g

― Kim, Friday, 6 May 2011 16:30 (fifteen years ago)

even Chicago got in on the action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0jVS_-4nhQ