1980 20/20 Report on Music Videos: "Surreal," Says a Repelled Hugh Downs

Via Rhizome and a swell YouTuber, a 1980 20/20 report on music videos reminds us that people from the past can be so adorably clueless (as can people from the present, but often in a now, happening way, thank you very much.)

Don't worry, 20/20 provides plenty of historical perspective and explains all three music video concepts. Yet apparently unsatisfied that correspondent Steve Fox pronounced "rock music" like a foreign and slightly odd term or possibly still in a tizzy from Kate Bush's confusing swaying, anchor Hugh Downs asks as his first, most pressing follow-up question, "But what are they going to do for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony?" Although Fox might have suggested many possible alternate responses when later sitting around the newsroom in Downs' absence, at the time, he answered, "Well, to be honest, Hugh, none of the experimentors have yet figured out a way to make that look as good as it sounds."

Keep trying, experimentors! Then you can give up on this "rock music" nonsense and stick to making videos for music that sounds like music!

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