The music video that launched Billy Idol: “He was the greatest looker and mover since Elvis”
On August 1st, 1981, music changed forever thanks to a TV channel – MTV. Dedicated to showing music videos, it completely and utterly changed the game. Previously an undervalued or really pretty pointless craft, suddenly, the video was everything and suddenly, a star could be born from that alone.
The MTV era is a fascinating one. Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, the power of the channel upended music and caused a complete recalibration of priorities. Before, music videos were pretty low on the list. Few places showed them so artists didn’t pour that music energy into them or even didn’t made them at all. Instead, it was all about performing on TV shows where a band would appear, likely lip sync, and hope that was good enough to hook people in.
The issue is that a TV show already has it’s own brand and vibe. There is already an aesthetic, likely already a stage there that can’t be messed with, and so the artist has to fit the box. MTV changed that though as the birth of a channel dedicated to videos made artists realise how powerful they could be. Suddenly, there was a new form for an act to promote their song, but on their own terms, expanding their own artistic world and presenting their track with visuals to match, to draw in a new crowd and to thrill fans.
Quickly, things got a bit silly. It was the ‘80s, you know, of course things were going to be a little bit lame, like David Bowie and Mick Jagger dancing in the street or a whole bunch of bands immortalising some terrible hair cuts. Things got silly in terms of budget too as in 1984, Duran Duran seemed to think the form was so valuable that it was worth splashing out over a million on their ‘Wild Boys’ video.
However, the entire career of Billy Idol might be proof that it was valuable. Obviously, Idol had been around long before MTV as part of the punk wave in Generation X. But, after they dissolved, his solo career was launched by the power of one clip.
The music video for ‘White Wedding’ is one of those era defining pieces of footage as the aesthetics, the editing, everything is just so ‘80s. It was also, simply, cool. From the barbed wire wedding rings to the motorbike smashing through a church window, it was wild and glamorous. It was so popular that it was arguably the video that made the song, not the other way around.
It was also the video that made the star as people’s obsession with the clip and its constantly replays on MTV relaunched Idol into a huge name. For the video’s director, that was no surprise.
“”In those days, he was the greatest looker and mover since Elvis,” director David Mallet said. To him, Idol was too much of a star to be kept on tape. He needed to be seen, and so naturally, the MTV era saw that and made him a star almost off looks alone. “Before ‘White Wedding,’ nobody would have admitted that was even possible,” Mallet said, “One look at that video and they got him.”
