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The Human League Video Single (1983)
Encyclopedia
The Human League Video Single is a compilation of music video
s by the British Synthpop
group The Human League
released on VHS
and Betamax
format tape, and marketed as a "video single," released in the UK in August 1983.
It was the first "Video Single" to be released in the UK, designed to tap into the market created by the new and rapidly increasing popularity of domestic Videocassette recorder
s in the UK.
Although extremely innovating, because it was such a new concept it was not a huge commercial success at the time. It was also not helped by a retail price of £10.99 which in 1983 was very expensive compared to the average cost of a vinyl single at £1.99.
Within a few years such releases would be common place in the music industry. The video single would be a precursor to the Human Leagues next video venture, The Human League Greatest Hits
released five years later in 1988
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s by the British Synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
group The Human League
The Human League
The Human League are an English electronic New Wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. They achieved popularity after a key change in line-up in the early 1980s and have continued recording and performing with moderate commercial success throughout the 1980s up to the present day.The only constant...
released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
format tape, and marketed as a "video single," released in the UK in August 1983.
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
s in the UK.
Although extremely innovating, because it was such a new concept it was not a huge commercial success at the time. It was also not helped by a retail price of £10.99 which in 1983 was very expensive compared to the average cost of a vinyl single at £1.99.
Within a few years such releases would be common place in the music industry. The video single would be a precursor to the Human Leagues next video venture, The Human League Greatest Hits
The Human League Greatest Hits (VHS)
The Human League Greatest Hits is a compilation music video by the British Synthpop group The Human League released VHS and Laserdisc.The original version was released by Virgin Records in 1988, and ties in with the compilation album of the same name, released concurrently...
released five years later in 1988
Track list
The Video Single was released after the success of the single "Mirror Man" which had reached number two in the UK single charts in December 1982, and "Mirror Man" is the title track, bundled together with the band's two previous biggest selling single videos.- "Mirror ManMirror Man (song)"Mirror Man" is a Motown-inspired song by the British synthpop group The Human League. It was released as a single in the UK on 27 November 1982 and peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart. It was written jointly by lead singer Philip Oakey with keyboard players Jo Callis and Ian Burden...
" - "Love Action (I Believe in Love)Love Action (I Believe in Love)"Love Action " is a song by the British synthpop group The Human League, released as a single in the UK in July 1981. It peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart, the band's first Top 10 success....
" - "Don't You Want MeDon't You Want Me"Don't You Want Me" is a single by British synthpop group Human League, released from their album: Dare on 27 November 1981.It is the band's best known and most commercially successful recording to date, and was the Christmas number one in the UK, in 1981, where it sold over 1,400,000 copies,...
"
External links
- http://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/mirror_man_video.htm