Director Background
Antonia Christina Basilotta (better known by her stage name - Tony Basil) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, filmmaker, director, choreographer and dancer. She is well known for her multi-million selling worldwide #1 hit “Mickey”. Aside from her successful endeavours in other areas of media, she has also toured America with her 8 & 16mm films with the show “Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle”. Aside from directing her own video for “Mickey”, she has co-directed and choreographed the video for “Once in a Lifetime”.
Her experience in film helped her to direct the music video for the Talking Heads single, having starred in over 10 films before its release, including Five Easy Pieces and The Last Movie.
Artist, Song & Genre
New wave band Talking Heads are one of the most simultaneously critically acclaimed and undervalued groups of the ‘80s. As well as being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, four of their albums make up Rolling Stone magazine’s Greatest 500 Albums of All Time. Possibly their most well known hit, Once in a Lifetime, recorded in 1980, is widely credited as having a substantial influence and being one of the most important pieces of musical work in America.
Talking Heads are known for their stunning live performances, mainly due to the extraordinary acts that David Byrne puts on, so it comes as no surprise that Stop Making Sense (their 1984 concert film) features a 4 minute-long, unbroken chiaroscuro shot of Byrne performing the song, and was released the following year as its own single.
Talking Heads have always been anti-corporate and experimental, not unlike The Ramones. In America, the first new-wave bands were the acts associated with the New York club CBGB, where Talking Heads, along with Ramones and Misfits, frequented.
New wave is a genre of music, the definition of which is often a source of misinterpretation and confusion. Its popularity rose during the 1970’s, alongside punk rock. For a small period of time, the two were interchangeable and new wave was not considered a genre in its own right, but eventually the two became more easily distinguishable as new wave combined elements of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture and disco.
Talking Heads are often considered the “face of new wave”, consistently topping the list of “best new wave artists” in magazine and web articles (http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_artists-newwave.html) , with “Once in a Lifetime” being their most popular hit.
Audience
Talking Heads have gained a huge fan following in the UK, which is still strong today. Talking Heads rose to popularity during the late 70’s with the release of “Once in a Lifetime”, primarily due to its music video. Their demographic would typically be males, who are now aged around 40-50. When they played their historic gig in Italy, nearly the entire crowd consisted of male followers, which was unusual for a band of such popularity.
Due to the rising popularity of punk rock during the same era as new wave, many punk fans also listened to new wave bands such as Depeche Mode, Talking Heads and New Order, which helped to gain Talking Head’s popularity through word of mouth. However, when the song was released, it struggled to gain popularity despite MTV replaying the video frequently during its launch, as MTV was not widely cited as the popular channel it is today.
The music video on Youtube has gained 3.2 million hits since early 2010.
Style
This music video was released during a very important time in music video history. Music videos were only just gaining popularity, and the crucial element that this form of art lacked is the codes and conventions. There were no “set of rules” to follow, (not that Talking Heads were likely to adhere to them anyway) which meant that everything was essentially fair game. It didn’t matter if the video wasn’t conventional, nothing was at the time; they possessed a license to create something as abstract as they liked. Nobody was going to question or criticise it, as there was nothing to compare it to. It was also one of the first music videos to use different backdrops and create these images through the use of technology.
The music video does have the elements of that of a performance music video, with David Byrne lip-syncing the lyrics. However, the video also contains narrative (in that there is footage in the background which relates to the lyrics) and abstract elements. I believe that this video successfully combines all three forms of music video without making the video seem too complex/cluttered.
Textual Analysis
The video is difficult to analyse in a textual sense, due to how abstract it is. The video does not have a setting or location, as the director has taken full use of the technology at hand, creating various backdrops created through CGI instead of using an actual location.
The video opens to a high-key, medium-long shot of Byrne dancing like a marionette, suddenly flinging his arms, tapping his head and getting on his hands and knees to tap the floor throughout the video, much like the actions you could perform with a real marionette. A deeper meaning to this could be that we as a people are controlled by corporations, being transformed into by-products of a consumerist lifestyle.
Byrne lip-syncs throughout these opening shots, staring directly at the camera to intentionally break the fourth wall, he is addressing us as the viewer. There are several quick cuts and pan ins/outs as Byrne continues to dance sporadically. Byrne is dressed in a very smart single-breasted suit, which is a huge juxtaposition to the manner in which he is dancing.
The camera cuts to a medium-long shot of Byrne performing a swimming motion across the screen as smaller, faded clones of Byrne swim “behind” him to the backdrop of what is intended to be the ocean, as he lip-syncs the lines “letting the days go by/the water hold me down/letting the days go by/water flowing under”. The camera then instantly cuts to a close-up of Byrne’s face, shaking violently as if he is having an epileptic fit.
The rest of the video is essentially quick cuts of various shot lengths in high-key lighting, with Byrne and Basil taking full advantage of the replayability of certain clips to entice the viewer and keep them attracted to the video. Some quick cuts may only last seconds, including one shot where Byrne is silhouetted in a spotlight.
Production Trivia
Toni Basil explains the choreography in the music video in the book “MTV Ruled the World - The Early Years of Music Video”, his passage is quoted below.
"He [Byrne] wanted to research movement, but he wanted to research movement more as an actor, as does David Bowie, as does Mick Jagger. They come to movement in another way, not as a trained dancer. Or not really interested in dance steps. He wanted to research people in trances - different trances in church and different trances with snakes. So we went over to UCLA and USC, and we viewed a lot of footage of documentaries on that subject. And then he took the ideas, and he 'physicalized' the ideas from these documentary-style films."Basil then went on to explain “...when I was making videos - whether it was with Devo, David Byrne, or whoever - there wasn't record companies breathing down anybody's neck, telling them what to do, what the video should look like. There was no paranoid A&R guy, no crazy dresser that would come in and decide what people should be wearing, and put them in shoes that they can't walk in, everybody with their own agenda. We were all on our own."
Some of Byrne's mannerisms (such as physical spasms, unfocussed eye movements, and sharp intakes of breath) were inspired by his choreographer Toni Basil showing him footage of epilepsy sufferers.
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