I showed this video to my daughter a couple of weeks ago. She is into dance – having taken a few different classes before settling into Irish Dance a few years ago.
This blew her away.
There are two components to this video. The first is the song itself. Listen to the words. Rhythm Nation is about unity, making things better, essentially a positive message of hope. It’s a good song.
What makes this song even better is the visual component to the video, the dance. The feet beat out a rhythm that accentuate the music, driving the message of the song home even further. But that’s not the best part.
Dancing in music videos these days has become son “quick cut” that you rarely if ever see the whole routine from start to finish. With this video you did. I remember going out to clubs at the time and when this song would come on there would inevitably be one or two people who danced the routine from this video.
Because they could.
This video shows off the whole dance and it is not something just slapped together. Everything was intentional and deliberate. The choreography was, and still is, stunning. And it is only effective because you can see it all.
It is a shame music videos are not as prevalent now as they were 20 or 30 years ago. I would discover new music this way, and yes, you can still see music videos online today, but you sort of have to know what you are looking for. That sense of discover is gone now with no dedicated format for the music video. That means a video such as this if it were to come out today just would not have the same impact.