Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

What this video is

Released January 1981 on Sire Records, 'Once in a Lifetime' arrived as the lead single from Talking Heads' fourth album Remain in Light — a record built on Brian Eno-produced Afrobeat-influenced polyrhythmic jams inspired by Fela Kuti. Its music video predates the August 1981 launch of MTV by several months, placing it at the absolute origin point of the music video as a mass-cultural art form. The video's content…

Why it matters

A foundational artifact of the New Wave music video canon and arguably the first music video to function simultaneously as pop promotion, performance art, and anthropological document. The video's co-direction by an artist-frontman (Byrne) and a professional choreographer-director (Basil) with…

The director

Toni Basil (born Antonia Christina Basilotta, September 22, 1943, Philadelphia) is an American singer, choreographer, dancer, actress, and director. A founding member of street dance group The Lockers, she choreographed American Graffiti (1973), David…