Soundtrack, Part 4
By Mitch Berg
Yesterday’s (and Tuesday’s) entry was a bit of eighties apocrypha, meaningful maybe only to me.
Today’s? Sublime, and a pretty universal pop culture reference.
Do I even need to introduce it?
The video isn’t just representative of the golden age of music video. The rotoscope noir-in-color is the golden age of music video. MTV would certainly have existed without it – but nobody would have cared nearly as much.
And the song itself – the bubbling syths and synth drums, the descent into the choruses, and of course Morten Harket’s iconic falsetto in the chorus?
I heard and saw this for the first time sitting on a friend’s couch, watching MTV for the first time. On top of everything else, this song says “Welcome to Minneapolis, and the Rest Of Your Life” to me.
Whevever I am, I feel “1985” down to my marrow.
October 6th, 2023 at 9:24 am
I graduated from college in 1985 and had two part-time gigs while I looked to find a real job. One of the gigs was as a weekend DJ at a local bar that had a dance floor in the back. “Take on Me” was a huge hit that summer and we played it all the time. It wasn’t a great year for music, but between Prince, Madonna and New Order we were able to keep the floor filled most nights.
October 6th, 2023 at 10:57 am
Always one of my favorite vids, and classic MTV golden era. To me, it’s intimately connected to an old flame that burned brightly before flaring out spectacularly, and a massive change in my career direction from physics to engineering.
October 6th, 2023 at 3:09 pm
Another song I didn’t know I knew.