When I was younger, barely able to write my own name, I was obsessed with Eiffel 65’s ‘I’m Blue (da ba dee)’ music video. I would ask my older sister to play it on repeat to the point of sending everyone but me in the household to the brink of meltdown. Years later my niece would have a similar obsession with Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ — sending me into meltdown.
Music videos are magic; they have the power to catapult a song so far into the zeitgeist that they become collectively tattooed into the deepest parts of our subconscious. And it’s been this way since The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ first aired in the early hours of August 1, 1981, on an obscure new program called MTV. It was Music Television’s first video, and with it the game forever.
