Music Video Breakdown: ‘Separate Ways’ By Journey

[tater1977]

Music Video Breakdown: ‘Separate Ways’ By Journey
Written by Danger Guerrero - 11.15.12


http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2012/11/journe ... wn/#page/1

The music video for "Separate Ways" by Journey is widely regarded as one of the worst of all-time. It was memorably mocked by Beavis & Butthead during the show's original run on MTV, and the network later went on to rank it as the 13th worst video ever made. There is a good reason for all the scorn it received: It is awful. Awful. The whole thing looks like it was shot in 30 minutes, edited in the next 30, and then shipped off to MTV in a manilla envelope labeled simply "MUSIC VIDEO." Needless to say, I love it dearly.

The first few times I watched it -- and I have watched it many, many times -- I tried to grade it on a curve. "Well, I mean, it was 1983," I said to myself. "Music videos were just becoming a thing, and they had to work with the limited resources they had at the time." But then I thought about that some more and realized that 1983 was also right around the time the videos for "Beat It" and "Thriller" came out, and Journey was also a big-ass deal back then. They had the juice to demand a big, elaborate concert video, or one with some sort of narrative structure, if they really wanted it. But no. They chose to hang out on a wharf and play air instruments for a while. And thank god they did.

Watch the video for yourself, then join me on the following pages for a breakdown of all its crappy pieces. This one is mess.