A-ha: Take on Me

This music video is so cool. The use of drawings in the video makes the video seem so special.

*Version watched: 35mm scan.

A beautiful music video that to me, gains more and more value with each day that passes. Today I was on Twitter, reading some of the things people were saying about animation on a thread. One guy said something about AI and its advantages, and according to him, the fact that rotoscope can now be done in minutes rather than hours or days, made AI infinitely better than human effort.

That's the era we're living in. I think that the value of music videos like this is intangible and extremely important, because it reminds us of who we were back in the 80s, 90s and even 2000s, when the value of time and work was drastically different than it is today. Effort and hard work are values that are disappearing slowly with the advance of new technologies.

A-ha has one of the most iconic videos of all time in here, with 2B views on YouTube. That is Thriller territory there. The song is also one of the most recognizable and beautiful pieces of music ever made, and it is funny to me that some Norwegian band managed to have such a big hit.

This music video represents simpler times, but also, times where effort and hard work meant something. This type of technique nowadays would be done effortlessly with the help of technology, but back in the day, it was impactful because it was a crazy task to tackle. Maybe today, it'll be just one more viral music video who people forget after a week passes. That's the sad state of the music and video industry today.

(9.0/10)

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Director: Steve Barron Music by: a-ha (Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Pål Waaktaar) Cinematography: Oliver Stapleton Editing: Richard Simpson and Edgardo Vinarao Animation Directors: Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger.