There are few bands whose music fills me with as much joy as Earth, Wind & Fire. Their songs are simply just fun. They make me want to get up and dance. Actually, I usually start dancing in my seat when they come up on shuffle. I love how this song, after the opening chorus, commands you to do so:
Let this groove get you to move
It's alright (alright) alright
Let this groove set in your shoes
So stand up (alright) alright
They want you to have as much fun as they're having. And really, can you go wrong with a video like this? All the sparkles & rainbows & novel (at the time) music video tricks. When I was younger, I would've thought this was lame. Now I think two things: these people were probably on a lot of drugs & they were having a damn good time.
The older I get, the more I can appreciate having a damn good time.
2 comments:
I'm just realizing how the very high voices of Disco influenced Heavy Metal in the 80s. Those long-hair guys sang so high, I was always straining to hit their notes.
I feel like I don't have good handle on pre-MTV video-making history to know why this was made. Maybe they filmed them for dance shows? There are pre-MTV Queen videos that are similarly styled (though not as rainbow groovy as this one). This one has all the cool effects.
When I briefly tried to read a book about the history of MTV (it was simply too long for me to commit to it), I found it perplexing in the early chapters that all the interviewees insisted that no one ever thought to make music videos before MTV came along. There are tons of music videos from the 70s (and before). I'm still scratching my head over that. So I didn't learn from that book why music videos were made pre-MTV, but I think your guess that they were made for dance shows (like Soul Train) is probably the correct one, or at least on the right track.
Post a Comment