All the Cool Videos Were in the 80s
Recently, Cookie Magazine (If you don’t know it, don’t ask; it’s a “family” magazine marketed to moms with stories like ’20 fun games for long car trips!’ and ’17 low-cost scrapbook ideas!’) listed the top 10 music videos to share with your kids. Here’s the list:
- “Take on Me,” a-ha
- “Stand,” R.E.M.
- “Hourglass,” Squeeze
- “Mickey,” Toni Basil
- “She Drives Me Crazy,” Fine Young Cannibals
- “And She Was,” Talking Heads
- “No Rain,” Blind Melon
- “Walk Like an Egyptian,” The Bangles
- “It’s Oh So Quiet,” Bjork
- “Say Say Say,” Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney
I knew I was in trouble with this list when my 5-year-old asked what a comic book was while we were watching “Take on Me.” Nevertheless, we’ve trudged through most of the list, and so far she has liked only about three of them: “Mickey,” “Walk Like an Egyptian,” and “Say Say Say.” I have a feeling she’ll like “It’s Oh So Quiet,” because it has lots of dancing.
What’s interesting is that eight of the 10 songs on this list were 80s songs. I’m not sure if it’s because the person who compiled the list was a Gen-Xer like me, or because music videos were more kid-friendly back then. Granted, I didn’t show her Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” but the videos back then seemed to be more inventive, more…well, fun. I stopped watching videos around 1990, and frankly, I’m not sure if they even exist anymore, since MTV and VH-1 seem to be 24-hour reality channels now.
One thing I did find, though; watching these videos sparked others in my head, and she now loves watching the video for “Come On Eileen.” Yes! And thanks to low-budget video editing and fan-created montages, we can now “watch” videos from the Beatles and Beach Boys.
So let’s hear it: Can you think of any kid-friendly music videos? Post in the comments below. Until then, here’s “Come On Eileen.”
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