Love is a Battlefield

It a was Tuesday in the office - a lackluster day at the best of times - save for the private disco pumping through my head phones. I was revelling in the joy of 80's music!

I'm a huge fan of 80's music. I'm a child of the 80's, and as if by osmosis resulting from long car journeys, i can't go a day without indulging myself.

There is something awe-inspiring about power ballads; their synths, big drum beats and the inevitable key change are the ingredients for the perfect tune.

Take for instance A-HA's 'Take on Me'; a song so catchy it is still played in clubs today. How can a man who unashamedly sings in falsetto not be admired?!

Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' still stands the test of time. Here we have a woman whose voice is breaking as much as her heart is. There's an overwhelming sense of passion, we can't help but be carried away. The film clip is pure genius; the boys with the blue lights in their eyes - and at the end - was it all a dream? The song truly takes us on a journey; from the opening piano - to the crescendo- then back to the piano - we're as exhausted as she is.

These songs from the era of shoulder pads, greed is good and big eye shadow never scrimped on the video clips. The clips were as important as the songs. Madonna took her video clips so seriously, she saw it as art. Many of her early clips were in fact. how could we forget Vogue?

What has inspired me to write tonight, however, is 'Love is a Battlefield' by the brilliant Pat Benatar. I listen to this song occasionally, and I always love the intro - the chorus- the big drum beat- but it is the video clips which truly makes this a classic song.

Here we have a story:

She leaves home, never to be seen again and hits the hard streets of (presumably) New York lives it tough, but still writes home to her little brother.

Replete with gelled up hair, big beads, neckties and colored clashing clothes.

It is about 3 minutes into this clip, that we really see its greatness.

She's in a club, swarming with sleazy men. Her attention is caught by a woman yelling at a man to 'leave me alone'.

Pat won't be having a bar of this and she steps up, steps in and stops this white vested man in his tracks!

Not only that, she recruits all the other rough city girls and all together they take part in one of the best dance formation to grace music video clips. There are side steps, strong arm movements, samba like rhythm steps and lots of aggressive shimmering.

Their moves are powerful and strong - the offending man doesn't know what has hit him!

Not only that, she punctuates it with a glass of water in the face!

Take that you scoundrel!

Pat then leads her crusading dancers to the street and onto female liberation!

It's the ultimate in pop music feminism.

Compare this to clips now - where we have these insipid undernourished women wiggling their hips 'provocatively' and you realize just how important and inspiring Pat and her legions of dancers were, and are.

Confronted with the 'stars' of today's music pop music scene, These stars from the 80's would scoff in their shoulder padded strength!

Words: Front Page