The Rock Ballad

The 80’s jump-started a popular type of music video, the rock ballad. Although rock ballads came about in the 70’s, the 80’s really took the lead in defining a style for a rock ballad music video. Every band from the decade had at least one rock ballad song followed by an accompanying video. Hair and Rock describes a ballad as a type of song that has a slow tempo, low voiced notes, use of electric / acoustic guitars, and evoke emotional pain, love and loss.

So what are some characteristics of a rock ballad music video? 

It’s simple, any video that shows the band preforming on stage for an audience. Sometimes these videos are in color and sometimes they’re in black and white. Many include shots of pretty girls from the bands shows, signature band moves on stage, the bands tour buses, and backstage footage.

Many bands embraced this type of video because it showed off their personalities while preforming. The fans were able to connect emotionally with the song as well as each band member by the way they preformed. I believe many concert tickets were sold because of rock ballad music videos. By viewing this type of music video, fans could recognize their peers having fun a concert and in turn want to be apart of that atmosphere.

Some bands that truly utilized this style of video are Aerosmith, Guns n Roses, Poison, Bon Jovi, Journey, and Motley Crue. Each of these bands had several rock power ballads and signature videos to match.

Motley Crue defined the rock power ballad with their Home Sweet Home music video in 1985. In the video they include every characteristic of a power ballad video. The majority of the shots are of the band preforming, however they also include shots of pretty girls, stage acrobatics, smashing guitars, backstage footage, and interaction with the audience. The band also utilizes the use of editing color shots with black and white shots. Home Sweet Home is the quintessential 80s rock ballad video which helped define the genre completely. 

One band that has used the rock ballad music video throughout their career is Aerosmith. In 1988, Aerosmith released their video for their rock ballad, Angel. The video combines shots of the band preforming for a large audience as well as shots of the band preforming in a slue of random locations. The pretty girl in the video is represented as an angel that flies over Steven Tyler. As mentioned in my last post, 80s music videos utilized overlaying shots which can also be seen in this video. 

These videos became such a big hit with rock bands that they remained popular through the 90s, and can still be seen today. Aerosmith used these techniques throughout the 90s in such rock ballad hits like Crazy and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. Both songs evoke emotion of love and loss defining them as rock power ballads. The videos make use of the popular techniques from the 80s, in particular shots of the band preforming which has become a signature for Aerosmith music videos.


These videos helped define a generation and inspire rock bands for decades to come. By capitalizing on this type of style of video, bands were able to connect with fans and present there personalities making them that much more popular. Bands to follow in this style include Green Day, Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Yellowcard, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead. As we approach the 90s look forward to story line videos, fashion influence, and the introduction to hip hop. 


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Editing in the Eighties

In 1981, MTV debuted their first music video, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. This video is the perfect example of a typical 80s music video. The Buggles used several key video elements that represent the look of an 80s video.

After watching the video, off the bat, I noticed the editing techniques. First was the overlapping of different video images. In particular shots of the lead singer overlay shots of a little girl by the water, and in the far background shots of the moon are present. This type of overlapping became very prominent at this time. It gave the illusion of a futuristic world. It can be seen in other hit videos from the 80s like Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams, and .

Another technique that was quite popular in the 80s, also seen in A-ha's, Take on Me, is the use of black and white mixed with color. In Video Killed the Radio Star, the shots of the lead singer are in black and white but the video underneath is shot in color. Again this type of editing technique is presenting a futuristic feel that hadn’t been seen before. However in the video Take on Me, the black and white shots are mixed with color shots. Combining the two creates a unified look making the viewer believe it is one overall shot, instead of layers. 

Take on Me completely innovated the music video. Besides the use of color, Take on Me was the first of its kind to use computer-generated graphics with live-action footage. The video became one of the most popular music videos of the 80's, and completely changed the face of music videos.

Using black and white shots with color shots also became very popular for rock bands in the 80s. One particular example would be Poison’s, Every Rose has its Thorn. This video shows real life images of the band while on tour. Each clip is from a different time on the tour so depending on what type of camera was used, some shots are in color and some are in black and white. In combining different shots like this, it’s easy to differentiate between staged footage and real life footage. In a video like this, the audience is able to connect with the band on a personal level because of the real life footage.

 

The 80s were definitely an eccentric time for pop and rock. Editing techniques were all about innovation and creating a persona for the artist or band. In my next post I plan on discussing the 80s further with, what I think the most popular type of music video from the 80s, THE ROCK BALLAD VIDEO. Also coming up look forward to posts on the fashion from the 80s, and the ever influential, Thriller video. And later, I plan on moving into a time period more familiar, the 90s.

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