The featured song was a big hit in 1981. It was also Blue Oyster Cult's last hit. I don't think you can blame the music. I mean, this is big, rousing stuff.
No, the video helped make the song but hurt them. In the MTV era, metal and hard rock groups―which is certainly how BOC identified―got associated with a certain look. Androgynous with barely plausible deniability. Of course Ozzy Osbourne looked like the Midlands pub denizen he essentially was, but obscured that fact with leather and makeup.
Anyway, Blue Oyster Cult had this Long Island housepainter thing going on and it just wouldn't do. Life is often unfair that way.
2 comments:
Unfortunately, the video you posted is one of those odd ones that has a 'video unavailable in your country' notice so we couldn't see it. Although I'm guessing the video you linked to was likely of higher quality, Jer was pretty sure the song was 'Burnin' For You' I found a live version from a 1981 performance (the original mtv one doesn't appear) that I'll go with instead and hope it comes close.
The guy wearing the gold lamé t-shirt pretty much proves your point about Long Island housepainter all by himself. That and the 1950s lady hairstyle. It looks like the band continues to have fans, but so does Metallica. No accounting for taste.
There's definitely no accounting for mine either. The HU band is my favorite heavy metal group. Go Ghenghis!
The international rights issues for videos is weird and patchy. Outside of your own country you never know when something you can see will be non-playable for someone else. Music videos on YouTube, or at least those for major artists, tend to exist in multiples, so you probably could find the exact one that I embedded, but that's out of my hands.
Yeah, the gold lamé, the bouffant hair, the lead singer's non-very-commanding mustache: these things could all work in the 70s when it all came down to concertgoers who could only see you as a blur. In the 80s the rules started to change. Metallica rose as part of a subsequent cultural change.
The Hu (and saying their name out loud must lead to some confusion) have definitely found their own niche. More power to 'em.
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