I’m In the Mood For a Huge Chunk of 80s-Flavored Cheese
Posted on March 13, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 49 Comments
How about you?
I mean, there is nothing about this video that is not 80s. It may be one of the most 80s videos ever. That hair! That synth! That hair! Those clothes! That hair!
…So what you’re saying is that you can’t fight this feeling, any more?
I’m gonna have to take it on the run, Madeline.
Lol I remember this era all to well! :-)
Still binge watching Nero Wolfe myself. I swapped the 50’s for the 80’s.
I see your Giuffria and raise you one Stryper…
I don’t know which I love more: the drummer’s zebra-striped shirt or the keyboardist’s playing style.
They all have better hair than her…she should up her game there
They were going to shoot this in a welder’s shop instead of a loading dock, but they were afraid all the hairspray would catch on fire.
Shocking lack of keytar.
How about Tori Amos in the 80’s?
http://youtu.be/fh4B0jjVeYU
Hairspray and curling iron + 1/2 hour = ready to go out for the evening. I remember it all too well…very young in those days!
There’s always Vixen (the white fingerless gloves wrapped in black lace were ever so stylish):
https://youtu.be/mQOmDUnt8Hs
That corded telephone!
One of my favorites! I actually hunted down a copy of the CD this was on so I could listen to it again.
The 80s was my decade (I graduated high school in 83). I don’t remember this song or video at all. Are you sure it’s not a parody, like this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfX0H9v5_3k
I clicked Play fully prepared to one-up you with my submission. But no. I can’t think of a more 80’s song than yours.
For your consideration as a runner-up:
Man. The 80s look hideous. I must’ve been on a field trip overseas for ten years or something. I managed to miss all that. Thank God.
I am equal parts amused and horrified. It appears I blocked most of the 80s for a good reason.
I was wondering if I was going find a picture of a nice bit of aged Wensleydale, but instead I got music that I think I avoided hearing the first time around.
That is one disgruntled looking drummer.
We’re doing this now, are we? Okay…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCe2bTtKCJg&w=560&h=315%5D
Everyone just needs to relax…
And before there was Dieter und Kraftwerk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM
Now is the time when we dance!
singer looks like David Lee Roth and sounds like Sammy Hagar
The 80’s wasn’t really like that. Not for me. There must have been something about us that kept us from cringing every time we turned on MTV (which played videos like this 24 hours a day back then), but no one I knew actually dressed that way, or wore their hair that way.
Ok, not quite 80s, but the video has an 80s vibe, and the song reminds me alot of Bowie’s trippy space oddity phase. I saw the last twenty seconds on a local video program on Saturday and I haven’t got it out of my head. I think I’m memetic patient zero for Olympia
100% free of acoustic instruments or natural fibers! Even Aretha went all synth in the 80’s https://youtu.be/pOjjxXwjglM
Man, I was a huge fan of the band that these guys spawned … House of Lords.
Enough of MTV. If you want some real 80s cheese just go to the store and buy a big chunk of Velveeta. I think they still sell it and nothing says the 80s like Velveeta. http://images1.laweekly.com/imager/velveeta-crisis/u/original/4304856/flickr-velveeta.jpg
Ah… When the voices were real and instruments fake. I miss those days!
Gag me with a spoon. I’m going to have to go listen the Ladyhawke soundtrack to wash that away.
I love this song devotedly. The only better one-hit wonder was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARERFbiqCfk
(And then there’s Level 42, T’Pau, a-ha, Pet Shop Boys….) I was born in 1970. I will be singing this stuff in my senility.
Okay, Scalzi – I’ll grant you, that’s so Eighties Cheese that the only thing missing are Crockett and Tubbs breaking with with their guns stylishly drawn.
But somehow, I feel you’re missing another side of Eighties Cheese – the first-time director throwing everything but the kitchen sink into a music video as his Hollywood Calling Card – like with this little power ballad from REO Speedwagon:
https://youtu.be/zpOULjyy-n8
this is a good song
Not gonna lie, I was a huge Giuffria fan. I kinda sorta liked all those metal-synth bands in that weird era between 1983 and 1986. [Thankfully, 1986 is when I discovered college radio and I never looked back. ;) ]
Her hairstyle is very similar to mine in 1984-ish when I started law school. My hair is absolutely straight so took lots of hair spray and feathering of bangs to get that spiffy lift in place. None of the guys at law school had rock star hair, though…those were the Reagan years. More prep than pop!
Indeed, sir. I think you have discovered the archtype against which all 80s pretenders will be judged.
Let’s recount the 80s-ness of it:
— Big blonde metal hair on dudes
— Arm bands as male jewelry
— leather jackets with those weird shoulder wings
— solid color, high-top Reeboks
— satin tight pants
— animal print tight pants & sleeveless t-shirts
— female hair sprayed within an inch of its life
— big fur coats
— corded “antique” phones (good catch, @rufaroz)
— overly wrought, sparkly glass “diamond” jewelry
— sequined dresses
— guitar player has that shaggy Randy Rhodes haircut (their guitar player looks like a mad pixie)
— big ol’ aviator sunglasses
— her makeup: that super eyeliner – fabulous.
— the ruffly Jessica McClintock dress on that gal in the restaurant – enough ruffles for a whole prairie of ladies.
— men with one dangley earring.
The only thing we’re missing is a bandana. But maybe the scarf he wears makes up for that. Loverboy always had the bandana thing covered.
Man, I broke out in hives at the 1:30 mark of that Giuffria tune and had bail out. But this cure worked like a charm! Mucho Pedro points to the first person who can identify the key of this song.
Somehow I missed the video for that one. I did look forward to seeing this one, though:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6GATH1n6vQ&w=420&h=315%5D
I try not to think about the 80’s…
wow!
MrsBug: don’t forget the guitar with pointy ends all over! Every 80s hairmetal guitarist played one.
Nope, nope no, nope, nope no, nobody
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUpRfgl_ug
Yes
“This video contains content from VEVO. It is restricted from playback on certain sites.”
Thank you, youtube, for being a pain in the ass.
Meh, nevermind, it was the fact that I dared to block youtube’s tracking cookies… *sigh*
That wasn’t my 1984. This was my 1984:
http://youtu.be/w1uVZwbOVCw
Mind you, most folk wouldn’t think it any better.
Thank you, KROQ, for your unlicensed days – I could hide from the hair and the metal, and pretend the 80s were all about punk, New Wave, and the beginnings of “alt rock.” Oingo Boingo was about as synth as my 80s got.
Animal crackers in my soup,
Lions and tigers loop-de-loop …
I know it’s a bit late to add this now, but I just relistened to the song without watching the video, and I was struck by how much this sounded and felt like a Journey torch song — right down to the singer’s eerie resemblance to Steve Perry.
What was it you said once, John — it’s Steve Perry’s world and we’re just living in it?
All that hair spray. The only era I can think of that outdoes the 80’s in that area is the current one. Given the choice between spikes and flowing locks, I’d take flowing locks.
The 60s were easy. Just brush and go.
I’ve seen this recent look described as “sleek and sophisticated.” I wonder if the current generation will wince as much as we do at 80’s hair when they look back on the sleek sophistication of the 10’s :-)
http://mediumhairstyleupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Spikey-Hairstyles-for-Men11.jpg