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Music Video Distributors presents

I Want My DVD—Vol. 1: The Best of the '80s Music Videos (2000)

"Love's been a little bit hard on me!"- Juice Newton

Stars: Juice Newton, Earth Wind & Fire, Haircut 100, Eddie Money, Men At Work, Joe Jackson, Daryl Hall & John Oates
Other Stars: The Bus Boys, Santana, Billy Joel, Ted Nuggent, Fleetwood Mac, Adam & the Ants
Director: various

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (funky beats, mellow jams)
Run Time: 00h:47m:42s
Release Date: 2000-06-20
Genre: compilation

Style
Grade
Substance
Grade
Image Transfer
Grade
Audio Transfer
Grade
Extras
Grade
B+ BD-D- F

 

DVD Review

Back in the early 1980s, before MTV stopped playing music in favor of Jenny McCarthy game shows and Ozzy Osbourne sit-coms, the network was a great outlet for quirky music videos. They've become a near art form in recent years, a proving ground for great directors like David Fincher, Spike Jonze, and Tarsem. But few modern videos reach the heights of absurdity and surrealism of the early MTV clips.

I Want My DVD—Vol. 1 is a collection of 13 videos, and while many of the artists are familiar, the included songs aren't their big hits, and there are quite a few gems here that won't pop up on your average "Best of the '80s" compilations. The videos are undeniably odd (and often quaint) by today's standards, but they are a lot of fun. Many of the bland, uninspired videos of today could do with a little retro-pastiche. In my opinion, music is about the most subjective art form on the face of the earth, so I can't say that everyone will enjoy all of these songs, but I can say all the videos are worth a look, if only as a curiosity. My favorites are Love's Been a Little and the horror surrealism of I Think I'm in Love. Yours?

This DVD contains the following 13 songs:

Love's Been a Little
Juice Newton

Let's Groove
Earth Wind & Fire

Boy Meets Girl
Haircut 100

I Think I'm in Love
Eddie Money

Be Good Johnny
Men At Work

Breaking Us in Two
Joe Jackson

One On One
Hall & Oates

American Worker
The Bus Boys

Nowhere to Run
Santana

Pressure
Billy Joel

Bound & Gagged
Ted Nuggent

Gypsy
Fleetwood Mac

Dog Eat Dog
Adam and the Ants



Rating for Style: B+
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

 One
Aspect Ratio1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratioyes
Anamorphicno


Image Transfer Review: This is in the running for the worst DVD I've reviewed. I know most of these clips were shot on video, and I'm ready to accept the washed-out colors and fuzzy images that that format brings, especially with older material (most of these songs are from the early '80s). I will not, however, accept such source material presented in so shoddy a fashion. These clips look like they were taken from a second or third generation videotape, and there are frequent video dropouts, a few cases of rolling picture, making it look like someone is messing with the tracking on a VCR. Worst of all, most of the cuts are incomplete, with the picture dropping off before the end of the song!

Image Transfer Grade: D-
 

Audio Transfer

 LanguageRemote Access
MonoEnglishno


Audio Transfer Review: Audio is likewise erratic. Even at its best, this is a very poor mono track, with background hiss almost louder than the music and a severely distorted sound. Some of the songs are inexcusably muffled to the point of lyrical incomprehensibility. And the audio, too, suffers from frequent dropouts. I'll mention again that the beginning and end of nearly every song is cut off.

Audio Transfer Grade: D- 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Music/Song Access with 13 cues and remote access
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extras Review: Aside from the plainest menu I've ever seen (there's no main menu, just a plain white screen with each song title spelled out in barely legible blue text), cries of "I want my DVD extras!" go unanswered.

Extras Grade: F
 

Final Comments

The collection of videos on I Want My DVD—Vol. 1 is eclectic and enjoyable. Too bad the disc stinks. I can't really recommend a music DVD that cuts off the beginning and end of nearly every song, can I? The answer: No.

Joel Cunningham 2002-04-05