Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Time: 9:05 PM
Song: Stand Back
Artist: Stevie Nicks
Mode of Consumption: Watching Vevo’s 80s channel’s “Totally Hits” show.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sleEAnBH0sZMe0pOQNidG?si=234e7af346a541ea
We watched about a half dozen music videos from the 80s after an evening of setting up a garage sale (yes, that meant hauling about a thousand records up from the basement).
This one was the first. It’s primarily Stevie Nicks, dressed in a black gown, dancing and singing to the camera with a dark background. Nicks looks pale, and we both wonder if this is during the height of her drug era. A few times, I notice she looks down, as if she’s reading something. I don’t think she is, but there are just a few instances where it appears she’s lost focus on her persona and the video.
The music video would have been still a new medium at this point, and each video sort of shows that. Most of them are performance-based. The artist sings, either on stage or in some empty room, or something similar.
There are intercut images of male dancers in the Nicks video. In Glen Frey’s video for “The Heat is On,” a stubbly Frey sings with intercutting scenes from “Beverly Hills Cop.” The best of the bunch and likely the one with the most production value is ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’.”
The last one we watch is Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine,” which opens with late comedian Sam Kinison riling up a group of video extra’s by proclaiming they wouldn’t be making the usual music video. The big change: the extras would be holding cameras on stage, filming the band.
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