The Pointer Sisters - Dare Me

What this video is

Released in 1985 as the lead single from the Pointer Sisters' platinum album Contact, 'Dare Me' arrived at the apex of MTV's transformation of pop music marketing. The video's deployment of Michael Chapman — the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Raging Bull — to direct a music video at the same Main Street Gym used in Scorsese's film represents a notable collision of New Hollywood cinematic prestige with the…

Why it matters

A landmark mid-80s R&B/dance crossover demonstrating how major acts leveraged Hollywood production talent for music video prestige. 'Dare Me' was the Pointer Sisters' only Billboard Dance Club Songs number-one, and its video's intertextual boxing-gym setting — tied directly to Raging Bull via…

The director

Michael Crawford Chapman (November 21, 1935 – September 20, 2020) was an American cinematographer and film director, twice Oscar-nominated for Best Cinematography (Raging Bull, 1980; The Fugitive, 1993). He began as a camera operator on The Godfather and…