The power of video

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 15

The power of video

By

PAUL WALLACE

Every entry in this week’s top 10 pop chart has been put there by the most exciting and alarming development in the pop world since guitars were electrified — a promotional video film costing at least £lOO (SNZ2IS) a second to make. And never has money been better spent. Even Paul McCartney admits that his single with Michael Jackson, “Say, Say, Say,” only made the charts because of the video that went with it. Now, spending SUSI million dollars for a rock video is not unusual — 20 years ago, less than that would have been spent on a Hollywood blockbuster. “Today, groups have got to be worth looking at as well as being worth listening to,” says Greg Geller, an executive for RCA Records. “Now, companies are spending a fortune on videos for groups they are confi-

dent will succeed. “There’s far less money available to risk on unknowns. But without a video, a pop record has virtually no chance of getting into the charts.” Which was why Bette Midler’s record company recently spent £600,000 (SNZI.3M) on a five-minute video, involving Midler and Mick Jagger, to publicise her latest single, “Beast Of Burden,” a Jagger/Richards composition from the Rolling Stones album, “Some Girls.” And acres of countryside were transformed into a World War I battlefield for Paul McCartney’s “Pipes Of Peace.” Duran Duran spent £ 300,000 making a video on location in Sri Lanka for “Union Of The Snake.” But the results helped them both to reach number one in the charts. No wonder top film directors are now being wooed from the cinema to make

rock videos for vast fees. For instance, the Hollywood director, John Landis, made Michael Jackson’s £ 350,000 ($750,000) video to plug his “Thriller” album. It was launched at a premiere reminiscent of the _ great days of Hollywood, and is even being hailed as a possible Oscar nomination. MTV, the all-rock cable television network, shows rock videos 24-hours a day to some of the biggest audiences in the United States. And screening times of new rock videos are now publicised in American newspapers. Britain is probably about to get a 24-hour music video cable station, hoping to emulate the success of MTV, which pours non-stop rock videos into 16M homes. Says Nicholas Roeg, the director of such films as “The Man Who Fell To Earth” (starring David Bowie) “Today, making pop videos is both lucrative and artistically acceptable. It’s a very exciting development.” Big-budget videos took off in Britain when Adam Ant’s video for “Prince Charming” catapulted the record into the charts. It featured Diana Dors and a cast of surrealist figures with Adam, in Errol Flynn style, swashbuckling though the lavish sets and swinging from chandeliers. With record companies willing to sink anything from £lO,OOO ($21,500) to more than £400,000 ($860,000) on artists’ videos, the demand is growing. With every strange and whimsical scenario now apparently exhausted, the

most recent trend is pop videos designed to shock. As a result, many have been banned or aroused bitter controversy, but sales have continued to soar. The BBC faced embarrassment over “Relax,” by the group called Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It banned the record on the television show, “Top of the Pops,” because of sexual innuendo in the lyrics, and claimed that the video was too suggestive. In spite of the ban, the record went to Nq. 1. But the enormous sales power of pop videos does not always guarantee success. One heavy metal band got more than the airtime they could have hoped on MTV, America’s first allpop station — until record company executives hastily withdrew it. The group were revealed as balding and paunchy, and sales dramatically flopped. The risks brought on by pressure to produce something different are increasing. Pete Bums, from Dead or Alive, was bitten by a jaguar in a London film studio while making a recent video. Duran Duran’s latest, “New Moon,” cost more than £lOO,OOO ($215,000) to film. The 16-minute short — an epic by rock standards — took four days to shoot and took over an entire French village. But their record company know that despite the number being an almost certain hit, it’s the video that really makes it sing. . . Features International.