Top 10 Gayest Music Videos of the ’80s: 1985-1989
By Tim Parks | June 16, 2024
Let’s face it, the 1980’s and MTV are as intrinsically linked as salt and pepper. Or rather, like Salt-N-Pepa, but I digress. So, paring down a list of videos to a mere 10 gayest ones from the era that brought us spandex, and hair teased so much that it bordered on bullying, was a tough call.
There are some very gay adjacent honorable mentions, from Madonna’s homoerotic video for the anthemic “Express Yourself,” to Janet Jackson’s ode to old school movie musicals with “When I Think of You,” and Prince in a crop top singing “Kiss” and how “you don’t have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude, uh.” Uh, indeed.
And then there were admitted bisexuals Mick Jagger and David Bowie shakin’ what their respective mothers gave them in “Dancing in the Streets.”
You also had Bananarama producing spank bank fodder with their video for “Venus,” with oily, loin-clothed men writhing at Keren Woodward’s feet, Whitney Houston just wanted to dance with somebody who loved her, and Cyndi Lauper made it ok to show your “True Colors.”
On that front, and because it’s Pride month, I’ll focus on the artists who would eventually show their own true colors by coming out, with some creating very campy videos along the way.
Baltimora, “Tarzan Boy” (1985)
Jimmy McShane, the lead singer for the Italian-based New Wave band Baltimora — yes, I was this many years old to learn it was an actual band and not just a singer named Baltimora — has so much pancake makeup on in this video, that I mistook it for a subliminal product placement for Log Cabin syrup! Despite its production value, this video was not filmed at a county fair, and was the only hit for the band. Albeit a very catchy one about being free at its core.
Sadly, McShane passed away from AIDS in 1995.
Fun Fact: The group’s name came from a 1978 Nina Simone album.
Jermaine Stewart, “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” (1986)
Jermaine Stewart flipped the script by having an aggressive female wanting “to move so fast.” Well, there may have been another reason for his hesitation, as he’s clearly strictly dickly.
If I may get Stefon from SNL for a minute...this video has everything you’d expect from a gay artist! There’s hand claps, high kicks, choreography, costume changes, some lady in the forefront of the video going from glam to graduate to a Sally Bowles understudy in Cabaret. But it’s Stewart’s winning smile, encouraging us to partake in “some cherry wine, uh-huh” that makes a lasting impression. Stewart, like McShane, lost his life to AIDS in 1997.
Fun Fact: Stewart appeared on a 1988 episode of Miami Vice performing his song “Talk Dirty to Me.”
Dead or Alive, “Something in my House” (1986)
I could have gone with the obvious choice of “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).” However, for camp value alone, the choice was clearly “Something In My House.” I mean, c’mon, it starts out with the late Pete Burns peeling a banana and then winking at the camera!
He also commands the screen by huffily vamping with an almost silent film star quality about the “ghost of the long, long dead affair.” Let’s just call it an angry Gloria Swanson performance. And Burns is definitely ready for his close-up, relegating the other band members to mere quick cuts. Sorry ’bout it.
Fun Fact: A 12” white label mix, known as “Naughty XXX,” featured snippets of dialogue from The Exorcist. Your mother spins me like a record...in Hell!
Judas Priest, “Turbo Lover” (1986)
Out of the many leather clad singers of the era, Rob Halford was definitely crush worthy, if only because I’d outgrown my pre-teen curiosity about the leather guy from The Village People. And as a teen, I was often wondering what made one a “Turbo Lover.”
According to the video, you ride around on motorcycles in a world with a Mad Max post-apocalyptic quality — which might explain the weird, animated skeleton-type creature in the video while Halford sings “you won’t hear me, but you’ll feel me.” Uh, that doesn’t sound very consensual. So, I’m still unclear on the “Turbo Lover” aspect. Maybe I should ask the stop motion skeleton for clarification?
Fun Fact: The album Turbo was Judas Priest’s tenth, and the first to incorporate synthesizers, giving them a “glam metal” sound. Haaaay!
Samantha Fox, “Naughty Girls Need Love Too” (1987)
Who doesn’t love a good recovering slut anthem? I know I do! And thanks to Sa-Sa-Samantha Fox I had one, circa 1987. We are introduced to her backup dancers, who seem, uh, light on their feet. In particular the one wearing an extremely plunged to above his navel tank top. Work it out, Linda!
Fox, with her blonde hair that is pink at the tips, seems extremely comfortable dancing among the men in a leather jacket, crop top and jeans, which she most likely borrowed from the aforementioned backup dancer. Thus, dispelling the myth that gays and lesbians don’t play well together, even though she didn’t come out officially until 2003.
Fun Fact: Fox collaborated with hip-hop group Full Force on the track. And they wrote songs for artists such as Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, ’N Sync, and some singer named Britney Spears. Never heard of her.
Erasure, “Chains of Love” (1988)
Jock straps are the first thing that come to mind when watching “Chains of Love.” Why you may ask? It’s quite simple...lead singer Andy Bell looks to be suspended by one on wires, amongst chains hanging from the ceiling, naturally. Keyboardist Vince Clarke joins him playing a piano mid-air, which Bell eventually dances on while sporting a Carmen Miranda-inspired Samba top.
The song highlights a time in our community when AIDS was decimating it, leaving Bell to lyrically lament “Do you remember there was a time, ahaha. When people on the street were walking hand in hand in hand. They used to talk about the weather. Making plans together. Days would last forever.” In 2004, Bell, who never hid his sexuality, announced he had been HIV + since 1998.
Fun Fact: Abba-esque, their covers EP of five ABBA songs, was the main reason for a big ABBA revival in the 1990s. Thank you, boys!
Pet Shop Boys, “Domino Dancing” (1988)
Another powerhouse English synth pop group, Pet Shop Boys, flirted with the fact that both Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were gay, long before they officially came out in the 1990s, with this video’s homoerotic content.
Filmed on location in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the video starts out with a shot of two shirtless boys, both are in love with the same girl, who when she walks “always turns every head.” And what are the two lads to do about a lust triangle? Why, fight shirtless in the ocean surf, of course!
Fun Fact: Pet Shop Boys recently released their 15th studio album, Nonetheless, and the BBC documentary Pet Shop Boys: Then and Now! chronicles their 38-year career. Feel old yet?
George Michael, “Faith” (1987)
The titular single from the late, great George Michael’s first solo effort, Faith, led to him later singing on “Freedom! ’90” that “when you shake your ass, they notice fast, and some mistakes were built to last.” And shake that bum he did. Make no mistake; I was not mad about it!
And this wasn’t your older sister’s George Michael from Wham! He had undergone a drastic makeover from his pop duo days. Gone were the Choose Life t-shirt and dolphin shorts from “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” In their place were a leather jacket with a strand of pearls on its left shoulder, torn jeans, steel toed cowboy boots, a single cross earring, and aviator sunglasses. Did I mention the jeans hugged his butt in just the right way? Could I talk about the opening shot that panned around said derriere? All day, every day.
Fun Fact: “Faith” was the number-one single of the year in the United States in 1988.
Joan Jett, “I Hate Myself for Loving You” (1988)
This video cemented the fact that you don’t want to mess around with Joan Jett! She looks like she’d cut a beeyatch, all decked out in studded leather, performing with an intensity that denotes how much she hates herself for loving the person who would dare stand her up!
For my money, she can out “ow” the likes of Billy Idol. Yeah, I said it — whatcha gonna do ’bout it? Sorry, the video inspired me to get in touch with my tougher side. Did it work? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.
Fun Fact: Jett’s producer Kenny Laguna has stated that Jett originally wrote the song as “I Hate Myself Because I Can’t Get Laid.” Ooh, that would have put a bee in Tipper Gore’s bonnet.
The B-52's, “Love Shack” (1989)
Ten years after their self-titled debut, The B-52’s shot into the stratosphere with “Love Shack,” from Cosmic Thing. You couldn’t escape this song if you wanted to — and who would? — with the video in heavy rotation on MTV, for good reason.
The funky little shack that had a tin roof, rusted, glitter on the front porch, hallway and mattress, looked like the place to be in Hotlanta. The fun being had by those in the Shaque D’amour was palpable, even through the TV screen.
And nobody was having a better time than Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, and Keith Strickland, as this would be their biggest hit after the death of original guitarist and founding member, Ricky Wilson from AIDS in 1985.
Fun Fact: One of the “everybody’s movin’, everybody’s groovin’” partygoers is none other than RuPaul, sporting a lavender halter top, hot pants, and enormous Afro wig. You better work, indeed.
Want more? Check out Tim’s picks for the gayest 1980s videos from the previous five years here.
Tim Parks is the Lambda Literary Award-nominated author of The Scheme of Things and The Best Laid Plans. Parks is a freelance entertainment writer for 23 years and columnist for 18 years with his latest one, Hollywood, appearing in The Rage Monthly. In his spare time, he sells movie memorabilia on his Cult Pop Shop SD page on Etsy.