Today’s video is a throwback to a bygone era in popular culture. Here is the first pop media cyberpunk hero Max Headroom in an Art of Noise music video for their banter song Paranoimia.
This isn’t a new video. In fact, it’s very very old. Max Headroom was a pop media phenomenon. 1984 was the year. He was the creation of George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, and portrayed by Matt Frewer. Billed as “The World’s first computer-generated TV host,” though it was mostly just Frewer in heavy rubber makeup and a polished fiberglass chest and shoulders with some electronic tweaks thrown in to complete the effect. We could make Max now pretty easily, but at the time, computer technology wasn’t up to the task. Preparing the look for filming involved a four-and-a-half-hour session in make-up, which Frewer described as “grueling” and “not fun,” likening it to “being on the inside of a giant tennis ball.”
Still, he was wildly popular, and even had his own dance show on British television, The Max Headroom Show.
And, why yes, of course this song is on SCIFI.radio. It’s one of DJ Gary DaBaum’s favorite cuts, and it’s also part of the station’s library. Enjoy.
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