Music Video of the Day: Don’t Change by INXS (1982, directed by Scott Hicks)


Today’s music video of the day is for INXS’s Don’t Change, from their third album, Shabooh Shoobah.  Though INXS had been around for a while and had released two previous albums before releasing Shabooh Shoobah, Don’t Change is often described as the song that introduced the band to the world outside of Australia.

The song’s video was originally envisioned as featuring the band performing on airport runway.  However, due a bad weather, the band was instead forced to film and perform the song in a nearby hangar.  The video was directed by Scott Hicks, who would later go on to direct Geoffrey Rush to his first Oscar in 1996’s Shine.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Room For One More by Anthrax (1993, directed by ????)


The video below features flashing lights and similar visual effects that may be difficult for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy so, as always, watch it at your own discretion.

This music video features Anthrax doing what they did best, rocking it.  Like many of the older metal bands, Anthrax usually kept it simple when it came to their music videos.  Instead of going for gimmicks or a lot of bells and whistles, they just picked up their instruments and played as fast and as loud as they could.  It’s not a bad approach.  Though this video does feature clips of cattle and construction, it still puts the band front and center.

The song was recorded and this music video was shot during the time that John Bush was lead singer of the band, replacing Joey Belladonna after the latter was fired.  Belladonna, of course, would later rejoin the band.

Who directed this?  I have no idea.  Neither does the imdb or the imvdb.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Send Me An Angel by Scorpions (1991, directed by ????)


This music video from the German group Scorpions has an old west theme that fits the song well.  Send Me An Angel is Scorpions at their most soulful and showed audiences outside of Germany that the band was capable of much more than just singing about being rocking you like a hurricane.

This song was included on Scorpions’s 11th studio album, Crazy World.  It was the 4th and final single to be released off the album and it went on to become one of Crazy World‘s signature tunes.  While the song peaked at #44 at the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at #22 in the UK, it was a huge hit for the band in the rest of Europe.  It was especially popular in Belgium, proving once again that Belgians just have better taste in music than the rest of the world.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Playground Twist by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1979, directed by Clive Richardson)


In this music video for Playground Twist, Siouxsie and the Banshees show that, despite it’s fearsome reputation, punk rock could be just as fun as any school playground song.  The children who appeared in this video probably had no idea that they were dancing with the woman who Bill Grundy was attempting to hit upon when Steve Jones of the Sex Pistol called him a “dirty sod” on live British television.  The British tabloids labeled this exchange and the entire interview between Grundy and the Sex Pistols as being “the filth and the fury.”

This was one of several videos that Clive Richardson did for Siouxsie and the Banshees.  He also directed videos for several other groups that were a prominent part of the New Wave scene, including Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, and Adam and the Ants.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Take This Job And Shove It by Dead Kennedys (1984, directed by ????)


If this song isn’t the unofficial anthem on Labor Day, it should be.

Of course, Take This Job And Shove It is best known as a country song.  The most popular version of the song was performed by Johnny Paycheck and it spoke to the frustrations of everyone who was stuck in a bad job and who dreamed of just telling the foreman or the shift manager to go to Hell.  The song was Paycheck’s biggest hit and it was subsequently performed by many artists, some country and some not.  Dead Kennedys covered the song and, as seen in this 1984 performance at Olympics Auditorium, they added their own spin to the song.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Bois Lie by Avril Lavigne, feat. Machine Gun Kelly (2022, dir by Nathan James)


Yay!  Avril’s back!  The song is called Bois Lie and it’s about how boys lie.  But Machine Gun Kelly says that girls lie too.  One good thing about being a star is that you can still get away with singing songs like this even when you’re nearly 40.

As for this video, it was shot during Machine Gun Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout Tour.  This is one of those “look how much fun we have on tour” videos.  To be honest, both the song and the video have kind of a Degrassi feel to it.  So, if you ever wondered what it was like when Ashley and Craig went on tour together, this video is probably a good indication.  Of course, I imagine Ashley and Craig would end the performance by having a massive fight onstage and breaking up every night.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hero of the Day by Metallica (1996, directed by Anton Corbijn)


This video was directed by Anton Corbijn.  If you were a rock star in the 90s, Anton Corbijn probably directed a music video for you.

In this video, a young man discovers that Metallica is inescapable.  Even on television, every channel features either a show or a commercial that features the members of the band.  For someone who has access to 24-hour Metallica television, the young man doesn’t seem to care about much.  Not even his girlfriend can get much of a response from him.  He would rather just fantasize about monsters fighting.  The young man in the video is played by George Clements.  He also appeared in a music video that appeared on Queen’s Made In Heaven compilation.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: A Farewell to Kings by Rush (1977, directed by ????)


To quote Neil Peart, this song “seems to encapsulate everything that we want Rush to represent.”  The song is about dealing with the hypocrisy and finding your own truth, away from the demands of the establishment and the so-called “kings” who think that it is their place to tell others how to live their lives and what to believe.

Both the song and the music video are filled with imagery that harkens back to the Middle Ages, a reminder that hypocrites have always been there and they always will be but that the people will always find a way to be free.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Another Rainy Night Without You By Queensryche (1991, directed by Matt Mahurin)


“Sometimes rockers have to pretend to be all sensitive like that to get chicks.”

When Butt-Head uttered those words of wisdom, he was talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Under the Bridge but he could have just as well been talking about Queensryche and Another Rainy Night Without You.  Of course, Queensryche was always more given to emotion than some of the other prominent metal groups of the era.

The most interesting thing about this black-and-white video is that it was directed by Mary Lambert, who also directed both the original Pet Semetary and it’s sequel.  Lambert also directed the music video for Queensryche’s Empire.

Update (9/9/22) — Actually, there are two videos of this version.  One of them was directed by Mary Lambert.  However, the video at the top of this post was directed by Matt Mahurin, who has been directing music videos since the late 80s and who has also worked with everyone from Peter Gabriel to R.E.M. to Metallica.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me by Weird Al Yankovic (2011, directed by Koos Decker)


In honor of the coming release of his biopic, today’s music video of the day is from Weird Al Yankovic.  Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me is one of his more underrated song but, as anyone who has ever had to clean out their email inbox knows, it’s also one of his most important.  Thanks to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, it’s not as much of a problem as it used to be but there was a time when I dreaded sharing my email address with anyone because I knew I would soon be forced to deal with anything that made them laugh, cry, or think.  Anyone who says that they’ve never wanted to say, “Stop forwarding that crap to me!” is lying.

Enjoy!