I’m just a normal guy
Continuing my celebration of Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday....
Landscape was a synth-pop band who lasted ten years, from 1974 to 1984. Their claim to fame, for some bizarre reason, was naming their songs after famous people--in addition to this little number, their other hits were ‘Einstein-A-Go-Go’ and ‘Sonja Henie.’ They produced three albums, followed by two singles produced by a stripped down line-up that dubbed themselves Landscape III.
I started going to Hunter College here in New York City in 1982, and one of the features of the student lounge was a television that was turned almost perpetually to MTV (except when the soap operas were on, but that’s another story). My time away from the classrooms were spent on the couch in front of that television, basking in the still developing art of the music video. Since most American bands were resistant to making videos (and some, according to the people behind the scenes, were outright disdainful of the idea), MTV had to frequently rely on content from Europe and Australia--which is why many new wave acts found themselves with a solid American fanbase.
I saw this video once. I don’t even think I was paying attention to it. But it stuck with me for years. I sometimes doubted it existed. It wasn’t until the late 90‘s when I entered the internet age that I discovered that this weird pastiche of Hitchcock set to a creepily repetitive synth score was real. I would still like to know who the actress was playing the Janet Leigh role in the video, as she does a pretty decent job.
More on the dawning of the Age of The Music Video soon....
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