'80s One Hit Wonders

Okay, Information Society has to be one of my favs. “What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)”, still appears to get me dancing after all these years and again takes on additional level of irony which could not have been foreseen by its writers, not that I should give them too much credit for being social commentators. Nonetheless, think about it, surveillance everywhere we go, interrogations; hm, reality imitating art anyone? And can’t forget the lovely little sample of Mr. Spock: pure energy, perfect. Even the name appears more applicable today than in 1989. Now, as for the video, well I for one would have advised against the peddle pushers and the collage of boldly coloured instruments. Hey why don’t you just announce that none of you play any instruments, eh? All that said, I can think of worse videos from the ‘80s. Yep, these guys tapped into something and the song still works today.


Okay, the Buggles and Video Killed the Radio the Star?

Oh, right, everyone refers to that one as it was the first video on MTV. My only recollection of this as a wee lad was marching over to the neighbor’s house who had what at the time could be considered cool: a voice recorder for a door bell. Since it had that tiny, cheap speaker sound to it, my mates and I used to enjoy running up, pressing the button and then with our noses held we would chant “I heard you on my wireless back in ’53…” We usually didn’t get to the next part but we usually achieved our aim of annoying the neighbors. Anyway that is all I have to say on this one. As for the glasses, silver suits and Spartan background in the video, you decide. Again, they had a point didn’t they, video may have indeed killed the radio star; yet when I tune into some of the stations around States I realize this may not have been such a bad thing. I just wish it could have been a little more thorough in its annihilation.

Animotion and Obsession well what a lovely little song to come of age with. Have to admit that the big blond hair do and turquoise number may not be what look for today but at the time it was hot. As for the song, well not really too much to say about this one other than it was a hot little dance number. Other than that this one does not do much more for me.

Men Without Hats and “Safety Dance”.

Sure you have to throw out “Pop Goes the World”. What a strange little band they were, eh. And what is with the dwarf? Now thinking back to this one, I can remember going on a school trip to a place called “Wicken House” which my mates and I would sing to the part “We can dance, we can dance.” This was immensely popular in the UK. I think everyone liked the novelty and appreciated the sort of medieval quality to both the keyboard music which pervades the song and the video mirroring the medieval theme. Little did I know that when I would eventually settle in a small pseudo-hippie town in southern VT that many of the characters in the song would be its inhabitants. Okay, so we can dance but what else can we do…dwarf toss, bear bait, badger bait, _____bait.


That’s certainly all folks yet I would love some feedback and perhaps your own selections.