Usually we don’t blog here about our processes behind the scenes, but I’m eager to share this with as many of you as possible.

We have a slew of concert videos that’ll be going live on the site in the next few weeks. When I saw that This is 80s Hair Metal was included in the collection, I naturally shot it to the top of the “to be done” pile.

Though it isn’t a music I take with a whole lot of seriousness, my enthusiasm for 80s metal isn’t necessarily ironic – I’ve grown to appreciate in more recent years the passion with which heavy metal musicians commit themselves to their work. And that passion is evident throughout This is 80s Hair Metal. Hair metal leans more toward the silly and hedonistic side of metal, but the musicians in this compilation embrace that silly hedonism for all they’re worth.

Much of the footage is of low quality, drawn one believes from fan-shot concert bootlegs. The compilation seems rather random and even haphazard, but given the occasional random haphazardness one finds in hair metal this isn’t entirely surprising. In the end, the quality of the video does speak to the love of the fanbase of the genre. And some of these bands only seem to exist on this compilation (the Hollywood Rose cut looks like it was shot in someone’s basement, for cryin’ out loud). So I’m watching this stuff both enjoying the archiving of a subculture’s history and amused by the rock antics.

But let me tell you, I was completely unprepared for the final clip on this thing, a performance by the band London of the song “Nothing Happens.”

I believe it’s from some crazy, T&A action movie made sometime in the early 80s, though my considerable research hasn’t yielded the movie’s title. At first I was bewildered, thinking it was an actual music video within which the guest performers’ antics were emphasized over those of the band. That I couldn’t tell what was happening within it didn’t stop me from sharing the clip with my co-workers here at Jaman central. I’m not going to tell you what happens within it because there are just no words to describe it (though the presence in the clip of ubiquitous 80s nerd Eddie Deezen, seen in the clip rocking the HELL out, will be all the indicator some of you need). Suffice to say I don’t think I’ve had a music video so efficiently destroy my perceptions of reality since Duran Duran’s Girls on Film (night version).

This is 80s Hair Metal ties in nicely with the 1980s spotlight we’re doing on the US homepage. I recommend it for those of you with a taste for the more esoteric pop music of the 80s, or for those who just wanna rock out (which on a Friday afternoon as I write this should be a fair number of you). Have a great weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Reviews, David, Bloggers, Films on Fire, Jaman Culture, Look! New!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.