Given the standards of the time, was “Rock Me Tonite” a weird video? Absolutely! Every detail in that video only raises more questions than answers. Why is there a pink, smoky elevator that opens to the bedroom of this loft apartment? Why does the fire escape outside his window have a spiral staircase? Who choreographed this, a cranky five-year-old who just learned how to snap their fingers? Why does he seem to only own three equally wrong-looking shirts, and why does the worst one match his guitar?
But in its defense, this really wasn’t even the weirdest music video that came out that year. Ratt’s “Round and Round,” ZZ Top’s “Legs,” “Magic” by The Cars, Billy Idol’s "Eyes Without a Face" … watch any of those videos on mute and try to tell us they don’t feel like the fever dream of a madman who struck out with his cocaine dealer and settled for whippets and cough syrup.
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Rock Me Tonite wasn’t the first music video to feature the singer prancing around like an idiot. It certainly wasn’t the first one where it was clear they were trying to do something different. It wasn’t even the first video that made people question the singer’s sexuality. It was perhaps the first music video that became famous for being awful but without enough campy charm to qualify as “so bad it’s actually good.”