Joan Jett

Joan Jett

The video, directed by David Mallet, is a re-enactment of 23 record labels rejecting Joan Jett’s first solo album and her subsequent rise to the top of the charts with ‘I Love Rock and Roll’. Kenny Laguna cofounder of Blackheart Records, makes a cameo as the Warner Brothers executive.

David Bowie

David Bowie

The video clip for Ashes to Ashes was one of the most iconic of the 1980’s. Costing £250,000, it was at the time the most expensive music video ever made. It incorporated scene both in solarized colour and in stark black and white, featuring Bowie in the gaudy Pierrot costume that became the dominant visual representation of his Scary Monster phase. Also appearing were Steve Strange and other members of the London Blitz scene, including Judith Franklin and Darla Jane Gilroy, forerunners of the New Romantic movement that was heavily influenced by Bowie’s music and image.  Bowie described the shot of himself and the Blitz Kids marching towards the camera in front of a bulldozer as symbolizing ‘oncoming violence’. Although it appears that two of the Blitz Kids bow at intervals, they were actually trying to pull their gowns away from the bulldozer in an effort to avoid them getting caught. Scenes of the singer in a space suit that suggested a hospital life-support system and others showing him locked in what appeared to be a padded room, made reference to both Major Tom and to Bowie’s new, rueful interpretation of him. Contrary to received opinion, the elderly woman lecturing Bowie at the end of the clip was not his real mother. 

Queen

QUEEN

David Mallet’s music video for the song features scenes from Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction movie Metropolis. Freddie Mercury’s solo song ‘Love Kills’ was used in Giorgio Moroders restored version of the film, and in exchange Queen were granted the rights to use footage from it in their ‘Radio Ga Ga’ video. However, Queen had to buy performance rights to the film from the communist East German government, which was the copyright holder at the time.

The video also features footage from earlier Queen promo videos such as Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions, Don’t stop me now and Flash in a photo album. A different version of Bohemian Rhapsody is also shown 

Other Artist

        

      

      OTHER ARTIST HE HAS WORKED WITH

 Queen, Def Leppard, Billy Idol, Rush, Scorpions, Kool and the Gang, Freddie Mercury, Kiss, AC/DC, Eraser, Roger Taylor, Joan Jett.

Relevance to music and video

THE RELEVANCE TO THE LYRICS AND VIDEO?

When looking at the lyrics to Lets dance and them comparing it to the video the relevance of the video is all there. Within the song Bowie sings of dancing and being free where as in the beginning of the video we see two workers being put to their paces, you then see them being free and climbing the hill looking over the city as if they were free and dancing to the music. The red shoes are the main symbol in not only the song but the music video, when we think about the colour red we think of lust, anger and danger which is shown within the video. To add to the thought of their freedom they stamp and crush the red shoes at the end top symbolize a new beginning of freedom and life.

Why Mallet?

WHY DID I CHOOSE DAVID MALLET?

When I saw David Bowie’s music video I thought that it was really well made and that the video went perfectly for the lyrics in the song. Knowing this I wanted to look up the director of this music video and when I saw the other artists he worked with I was automatically sure that I wanted to look at the kind of things that he does.

David Mallet intro

DAVID MALLET

David Mallet directed David Bowies music video 

Lets Dance.

David Mallet is a British director particularly noted for his work on Music video's, including David Bowie's innovative 'Ashes to Ashes, Rush's "Distant and Early Warning, and Queen's "Radio Ga Ga" and "I want to break free" videos. He has also served as a producer on television programmes including 'The Kenny Everett Video Show". He is also known for directing some concert recordings of acclaimed British soprano Sarah Brightman and other major live music and spectacle events such as 46664 and Cirque De Soleil. He has also directed such prominent concerts as Pulse.