By Anne-Marie Jones
Last year we told you about 8 Michel Gondry music videos you needed to see, now I’m back with some Tim Pope recommendations.
Who’s Tim Pope?
He directed “The Crow : City of Angels”, which isn’t a great movie by any means, but has an interesting aesthetic. Tim is best known as a music video director, which totally makes sense, so here are some of his videos I think you should check out.
He’s directed nearly 40 videos for The Cure so this is definitely just a small list, and in no particular order.
1 – Peter Murphy “The Sweetest Drop”
Many of Tim Pope’s videos are in some way gothic-inspired, so he is the perfect choice to direct a video for Peter Murphy (best known from one of the original goth bands, Bauhaus).
I can really see the visuals for this video working with some of Nine Inch Nails tracks, actually!
2 – Soft Cell – “Tainted Love”
So very 80’s, and a great song! Tim Pope directed a few videos for Soft Cell but this definitely remains their best known song.
3 – Dead or Alive “I’d Do Anything”
You thought Dead or Alive were a one-hit-wonder, right? No, they are actually a really great 80’s band, and Pete Burns is an absolute icon.
4 – Men Without Hats – “The Safety Dance”
So apparently this song is NOT a P.S.A about safe sex , it was actually about “pogo-dancing” being banned in clubs for being unsafe.
Either way, I’m telling my grandchildren that this was Game of Thrones.
5 – Siouxsie And The Banshees – “Dear Prudence”
Siouxsie Sioux gives The Beatles song a dash of 80’s goth, which of course is perfect for a Tim Pope video. The effects are pretty dated but you just have to take it as “it was the 80’s!”. Tim Pope directed a few other Siouxsie videos as well.
6 – Talk Talk – “It’s My Life”
I have a Gen-X workmate who recently introduced me to the music of Talk Talk, and as, ugh, excuse the expression, an “elder millenial”, I recognised this song from the No Doubt cover version.
Apparently this version was a statement against lip synching, later the band would be forced by their record label to record another version of the video, with lip synching.
7 – The Cure – “Lullaby”
Probably one of my all time favourite music videos, quite Tim Burton-esque (I’m gonna stop right here and give Henry Selick the credit he deserves too, as I could absolutely see this as one of his stop-motion films), so delightfully gothic and odd.
8 – The Cure – “The Love Cats”
Everyone sees The Cure as being such a “goth band” but then there’s this other side to them which is just bizarre and strange and weird and I love it.
It gives a little ‘Phoebe Buffey’, especially the intro.
Bonus Tim Pope Video –
In 1984, Tim Pope wrote a song and made a video called “I Want To Be A Tree”, it’s pretty weird but was apparently meant to be.
Have you seen The Crow : City of Angels, or any of Tim Pope’s music video work? Are you a fan?
