Geezer expertise

The joys of VH1 Classic:

The whole point of VH1 Classic is the 80's.

Here's what was big in the 80's: everything. It was a decade of largeness. Bob Geldof's shoulder pads, Sade's earrings, Cyndi Lauper's bangs, Axl Rose's dementia. Here's what wasn't big in the 80's: originality. The videos all seem oddly similar, quickly sorting into recurring leitmotifs: friendly street gangs, dandyish lads romping through developing nations, and ironic depictions of middle-class family life. If VH1 Classic were a department store, there would be an entire floor devoted to women's bodies silhouetted against Venetian blinds. David Lee Roth would be the elevator operator.

It's easy to make fun of the spandex, but the alternative videos are equally hilarious. Morrissey's "Every Day Is Like Sunday" features a sad vegetarian girl in a trench coat gazing morbidly at some raw chickens in a shop window. And one surprise of VH1 Classic is just how many videos there are of underground 1980's bands. I've caught videos by Killing Joke, the Cocteau Twins and Echo and the Bunnymen. When I bumped into a video by the seminal art-punk band Wire, I felt a sneaky, member-of-the-club glee.