Every now and again I miss grad school day , despite the fact that my fondest memories involved drinking , watching miss before it became completely godawful , or some combination thereof . Still , the itch to forge an essay of substantive academic merit mutely looms over me , like the world ’s least exciting poltergeist . ( This itch is more often than not triggered by photos of Josh Holloway without a shirt on . )
20 SciFi Disco Videos That Were Made By Insane hoi polloi
Muppets of Disgust, Muppets of Eroticism: A Post-Lacanian Decalogy of Exegeses on The Extraterrestrials in Billy Ocean’s “Loverboy”
In the 1939 variation of Walter Benjamin ’s essay “ What is Epic Theater ? , ” the author take note that :
The [ Brechtian ] art of the epic field consists in producing astonishment rather than empathy . To put it compactly : instead of identifying with the character , the audience should be civilize to be astonished at the destiny under which they function .
And in the history of the music video , there is no smashing exercise of larger-than-life dramatic art than R&B superstarBilly Ocean’s1985 single “ Loverboy . ” The hearing is not only astonished by the fortune under which the characters function , but the spectator also has no bally clue what those circumstances are . Here are ten reasons why “ Loverboy ” is pop history ’s most challenging music video .
1 . ) A Casual Strangeness
Unlike the reified weirdness of , say , a Lady Gaga — whose defining type trait is “ Debbie Harrywho can not knock ” — the outlandishness of “ Loverboy ” look mostly accidental . This is not to say that Ocean has always unknowingly dabble in the region of the fantastic . Indeed , two of his more memorable one confronta phantom made flesh by means of self-propelled intervention¹ and a “ Caribbean queen [ with which whom Ocean is ] sharing the same pipe dream , ” perhaps through telepathy , perchance via some genus of sexy Freddy Krueger .
Debbie Harry ’s H.R. Giger - directed music video is the Alien prequel we never asked for
2 . “ Loverboy ” Is Unadulterated Aerosolized Hard - on
Without the visuals , “ Loverboy ” is consummate dancefloor collection plate plate tectonic theory . ( But with the vocals , of course of action — the dub remix of this songcompetes with the dub remix ofHall and Oates ’ “ Out of Touch”in the Olympiad of Regrettable Dub Remixes . )
3 . sensualism In A Vacuum ( Of outer space ) But the music video ? entirely staring — a ugly hoofed man who is constantly on the brink of regurgitation travels to an intergalactic taverna . Save the barbot and TV - manoeuvre cyborgs , the patrons are extremely difficult to bet at , peculiarly the baboon sailor . Compelled by logical system extraneous to our human ken , the protagonist murder a Satan extraterrestrial and steals his companion , who is the hybrid ofRollen Stewartand a platypus . ( Are these two genetically compatible ? We do not know . ) In marrow , there is nothing sexually lure about this music TV , this veritable R. Kelly ’s “ Trapped in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , ” except for …
4 . ) Kneel Before Ocean
Unlike other early skill fiction - color euphony videos — say , the robot sequence from Michael Jackson ’s “ Moonwalker ” — Ocean excuses himself from the phantasmagoria in “ Loverboy . ”
Instead , he serenades the viewer from the prophylactic of some consecrated geometry . Did Jor - El — the known Stevie Wonder lover that he is — transportation Ocean there as revenge for beating out “ The Woman In Red ” for the 1985 Best R&B Vocal Performance , Male ? Also , is Billy Ocean Kryptonian ?
5 . ) BrundleLoverboy
Of of course not . Ocean became trapped in this pocket dimension by messing around on what is likely a homemade teleporter platform , a recurring trope in eighties dance videos . How do we know this ? Ocean made two music videos for “ Loverboy ” — the original one just had him ram on a telepod . In fact , we see snippets of the first video in the Fraggle Rock halfway star sign second version .
6 . ) This means someone — Ocean , his label , his astrologist — purposely changed the music picture for “ Loverboy ” to make it completely insane .
And that ’s grand .
7 - 9 . ) These guys
Even though these are the shittiest Jawas money can buy , they do n’t make my esophagus taste like old orange juice .
10 . ) The galaxy ’s loneliest rhomb
Remember our discussion of Brecht before we all lost our appetence ? In “ Loverboy , ” the BrechtianVerfremdungseffekt(“alienation effect ” ) is not achieved through the video ’s divers cast of stranger — many of whom were presumptively stymied by the velvet rope at Jabba the Hutt ’s Palace — but by Ocean himself , who is ensnare in a holograph and directly , desperately screaming carnal promise at the witness in exchange for freedom .
It is a jarring spectacle , the handsome poet-singer plead with the free-and-easy attender , promising anything to scarper a dodecahedron’s - eye - view of some distant nebula ’s grodiest I bar . ( That , or nobody gets put down in the Phantom Zone . ) This spare , trans - dimensional subtext transform a simple statement of sexual wonder into the pronunciamento of a man ensconced forever in the intro to3 - 2 - 1 Contact .
¹ The music video also stars a duck’s egg act a sax , an unbelievable sight on any juncture .
² Despite Ocean ’s pressure that he and the Caribbean Queen with the paint - on blue jean are secluded to a communal dreamtime , reality countered this title , as such region - specific fluctuation “ African Queen ” and “ European Queen ” so easily evince .
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