Ah (or should I say a-ha?) this one really takes me back. To this day, this remains my all time favorite video! I'm a sucker for the song from this one-hit wonder from Oslo, Norway, and the video was pretty groundbreaking in 1985. It used rotoscoping animation, which has been around since 1915 (invented by Max Fleischer), but was something new in the burgeoning music video world. Rotoscoping is a technique where animators trace over live-action film, frame by frame, to give it an animated look and feel. Richard Linklater (dir. Dazed and Confused) used this technique in two of his more recent films, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. The mix between the real world and the animated world, coupled with the fantasy love theme, are what make this video such an enduring, timeless classic.
Take On Me facts:
- From the album Hunting High and Low
- Song topped the Billboard charts on October 19, 1985
- The last scene is based on the 1980 movie Altered States
- a-ha is the only Norwegian band to reach #1 on the Billboard charts
- Video won 6 MTV Video Awards in 1986, and was nominated for 2 others
- Originally titled "The Juicy Fruit Song"
- Although a one-hit wonder in the US, a-ha continues to make new music and tour
- Featured in one of many....many....pop culture references on The Family Guy
Post Script Video
Interesting post post script - it took me longer to find this Family guy clip than the real video, all the ones on youtube are from jackasses that filmed their TV set. I mean really, who does that?!?
0 comments:
Post a Comment