Eight ’80s music videos that will take you around the world
I can’t look at a sailboat without thinking of Duran Duran, the wind blowing their frosted tips as they ply the clear blue seas in the ‘Rio’ video. As a teenager in the 1980s, it was pop music that helped ignite my desire to see what was outside my subdivision.
Nathalie Merchant singing about the neighbor playing “Aida” in “Verdi Cries” (“I’m hearing opera through the door”) led me to listen to the legendary Italian composer’s epic opera about forbidden love in Egypt. The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” introduced me to Albert Camus’ novel “The Stranger” and so began a lifelong love of existential literature.
The then-new medium of music videos and globe-trotting rock stars took me on a trip around the world, from the streets of Paris to the canals of Venice. I give you the top eight ’80s music videos that rocked my world.
Spandau Ballet – Gold
Carmona, Spain
This breathtakingly romantic, Goldfinger-inspired video follows Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley through the city of Carmona in southwest Spain. We see him trudging through cotton fields and a maze of sun-drenched streets flanked by white-washed buildings in a truly fabulous linen suit in search of an elusive gold piece that will complete his gold puzzle. The band plays in a tiled courtyards with intricately carved Moorish screens (what better place for a sax solo), and we occasionally see Hadley in a stunning black suit inspired by Spanish bullfighters. Sigh. I’ll let you watch to see how it all ends.
INXS – Never Tear Us Apart
Prague, Czech Republic
This whirlwind tour hits the highlights in Prague, the historic capital of Bohemia, with dreamy INXS frontman Michael Hutchence as your nonchalant tour guide. I could literally watch him walk around this city all day, his tresses blowing in the Cold War wind. He begins along foggy banks of the Vlatva River with medieval Prague in the background. He encounters a string quartet wearing tuxes and elegant swans before stopping by the gothic Charles Bridge in a half-hearted search for a raven-haired beauty. There’s a sax interlude in the Old Jewish Cemetery (the oldest gravestone dates to 1439), before Hutchence wanders by the iconic Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square to find his tour group. It’s a crying shame he’s gone.
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
Sydney/Carinda, Australia
A tan David Bowie sweats and plays guitar in a dive bar in the Australian Outback, a tiny desert outpost called Carinda in New South Whales, while the locals drink and dance on the dusty red and green linoleum floor. Here Bowie’s critique of racism and western cultural imperialism plays out as we see an Aboriginal couple lured nearly 1,000 km away to the capital, where they are at first dazzled by the shopping, the Opera House, beaches, and galleries (you see them happily painting aboriginal snakes on the wall under the contemporary art), but soon find themselves working back-breaking jobs while Sydney hums and shines without them. They return home to the bush, dreams crushed, accompanied by breathtaking shots of Warrumbungle National Park.
Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Southern California, United States
This one embodies the great American road trip for a pasty Brit. Tears for Fears singer Curt Smith drives an antique Austin-Healey 3000 sports car on Interstate 10 in southern California, his mullet ponytail waving in the wind. He stops in a telephone booth (now defunct) to make a call at the Wheel Inn (also now defunct), perhaps to see where to pick up fellow band member Roland Orzabal, who seems to be stuck in the studio. Smith cruises by the giant dinosaur roadside attraction in Cabazon, made famous in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Then there’s some gratuitous Southern California ATV racing on sand dunes and a couple of Motown backup dancers grooving in front of vintage gas pumps that perhaps are meant to capture the spirit of America?
Duran Duran – Save a Prayer
Galle, Sri Lanka
This video illustrates the pinnacle of exotic, romantic, 1980s rock star travel. I forget to breathe watching Duran Duran walk along beach, waves crashing against an unreal pink and blue sunset, in fabulous linen suits and high-waisted crop pants. What I would give to hang out on a log with them in the jungle, maybe play with an elephant in the river.
The setting is a Sri Lankan postcard as Galle fishermen ready their traditional oruwa sailboats along the beach. Young Buddhist children wrapped in yellow robes file along stone walls. Ancient temples stand in the jungle despite the march of time. Simon LeBon plays out a love affair in a white-washed Amangalla Hotel with slowly spinning ceiling fans and a beautiful woman in red. (“You wanted to dance, so I asked you to dance.”) Yes, you can stay there today. You can also visit the ancient 5th century palace seen in the helicopter shot, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the most visited history site in Sri Lanka. The epic Buddhist statues carved out of granite rock are at a site called Polonnarwu, including the dramatic last frame of the fellas looking up at a Buddha at Lankathilaka Temple, clearly having had a religious experience equal to mine.
Check out this post from a traveler who retraced in the footsteps of Duran Duran in Sri Lanka.
Madonna – Like a Virgin
Venice, Italy
I can’t imagine what Venetians thought when they saw Madonna writhing around, showing off her armpits and shaking her rosaries on a gondola ride along the green waters of this romantic Italian city’s canals. I wonder how many times she or the cameraman bumped their heads on the low bridges before they hopped a high-speed vaporetto for some gelato. I’m relieved when she spends some time safely inside a Medici-era palace, sauntering around in a lacey, high-low wedding gown (always so fashion forward!). And then there’s the lion (a real, live one!), which probably has something to do with the Lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of the city that presides over tourist ground zero, St. Mark’s Square.
Howard Jones – What is Love
Paris, France
Howard Jones emerges out on iconic Art Nouveau metro station and wanders around a chilly Paris visiting famous fountains all across town, including the pool at Luxembourg Gardens, a stop by one of the famous cast-iron sculptural drinking fountains designed by Charles-Auguste Lebourg in the late 1800s, and ending in front of the whimsical spinning and spewing (and brand new, at the time) Stravinsky Fountain by artists Jean Tringuely and Niki de Saint Phalle, right next to the Pompidou Center. I could really use a hot street crepe about maintenant.
Big County – In a Big Country
Isle of Prubeck, United Kingdom
I love watching these Scottish studs ride ATVS across the green fields of the Isle of Purbeck, along the English Channel. They pass by the ruins of Corfe Castle, built by William the Conquerer in the 11th century, and embark on an action-packed mission to apparently retrieve an ancient laptop ahead of a tough goth chick wearing thick black eyeliner and a leather jacket. It has everything: intrigue, fires, fist fights, bagpipes, orienteering, scenic harbors, flannel, scuba diving, jet skiing, and of course, romance. If you have any idea what just happened, let me know.
Bonus Video
The Damned – Alone Again Or
Mundi Mundi Plains, Austrailia
This is my all-time favorite that taps into all my romantic visions of the American West in the most ridiculous and swoon-worthy way. It was actually filmed in New South Whales, Australia, also the setting for the post-apocalyptic Road Warrior (a.k.a Mad Max 2) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . It has cowboys, banditos, flamenco dancers, dust devils, horses, motorcycles, big trucks, and more. The. Best.