3 Strange Music Videos From the 1970s That Raise an Eyebrow

Those of us who were raised on music videos in the 1980s and 1990s remember the golden age of the medium. Every few minutes a new video would come on the screen on channels like MTV or VH1, and you’d sit there agape, in awe.

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But the phenomenon didn’t start in the 1980s. By the 1970s, music videos were important marketing materials. Here below, we wanted to highlight three music videos from the 1970s that made a splash. Indeed, these are three strange music videos from the 1970s that raise an eyebrow.

“I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You” by The Alan Parsons Project from ‘I Robot‘ (1977)

This music video feels less like a piece of entertainment and more like some strange student film project. Certainly by 1977, the style of modern music videos hadn’t yet been figured out. But even by early music video standards, this is a strange one. It’s like The Alan Parsons Project took home video footage from a few scientists and spliced it all together for this promo vid. It reads more like an introduction video for Microsoft than pop music!

“Making Plans For Nigel” by XTC from ‘Drums And Wires’ (1979)

In the 1990s, music videos were made to sell a song. They were created to please audiences and get them even more interested in the music. But in the 1970s, some two decades before, music videos seemed to be created to shock and even disturb music fans. Just look at the video for XTC’s “Making Plans For Nigel”. You might feel a little queasy watching it frame by frame.

“Take A Chance On Me” by ABBA from ‘ABBA: The Album’ (1978)

ABBA’s music video for the hit song “Take A Chance On Me” reads like the opening for the television show The Brady Bunch. Then the work turns into fuzzy glamor shots of the band. For as popular and successful as ABBA was in their career, it’s remarkable how rudimentary this video seems today. Perhaps it was cutting-edge in the moment. But now? Wow. Bury it in a time capsule!

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