Monday, March 5, 2012

Anatomy of a Music Video - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "Lost in Emotion"



Let's analyze this gem, shall we?


  1. A few words about the clothes just to get them out of the way. There are TWO people wearing Hammer-style harem pants with reeeeeeally long zippers sewn into them. One is a man and the other is Lisa Lisa herself. The purpose of these 14 inch zippers is lost to time.
  2. Speaking of zippers...wow, I forgot how popular it was in the mid 1980s to have multiple zippers (that again, served no purpose) on everything! Pants, jackets, shirts, SOCKS. This video has them all.
  3. It also has men wearing multilple, colored skinny leather belts wrapped around the legs of their pants. Was this a style?
  4. One of the main guys in the video is sporting a Civil War era inspired Confederacy hat. Charming. Maybe that's why Lisa Lisa gives him the stink eye.
  5. I hated this shit back then when I was living it - Shoulder Pads in every single blouse, jacket, and T-shirt. Both men and women; young and old.
  6. And so many headbands.
  7. One of the dudes working at the carnival is wearing what can only be called a "tropical shant suit". "Shant", for the uninitiated, stands for "Short Pant". Take a gander around minute 2:00.

  • One of the plot points at the beginning of this video, which is set at some kind of carnival or as the sign says - "New Street Fair", involves one of Lisa's homegirls not being able to get ketchup to come out of the bottle onto her burger.
  • I guess Lisa Lisa is looking for love, but isn't interested in any of the guys who are trying to pick up on her and her friends?
  • And then there's a bit about Lisa climbing on stage because there's a carnival sign that says "COME - Sing with the Street Fair Band". WTF? Weak plot.
  • Finally everyone does a synchronized dance to the last verse of the song, that Lisa Lisa has been singing by herself for over 3 minutes.
  • Did she actually go by Lisa Lisa in real life?
Que sera, que sera.

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