The Human League - Life On Your Own, By EMI

What this video is

Released in June 1984 as the second UK single from The Human League's difficult fourth album Hysteria, 'Life On Your Own' arrived during a period of intense commercial pressure on the Sheffield synth-pop group to follow the global success of Dare (1981). The track was heavily LinnDrum and synthesizer-driven, and its video—filmed in a deserted London in April 1984—deployed a post-apocalyptic visual metaphor drawn…

Why it matters

A key artefact in the maturation of the British synth-pop music video: where earlier New Romantic promos favoured fantasy tableau and fashion spectacle, this video embraces stripped, location-based narrative filmmaking. Its post-apocalyptic cinephilia signals the genre's shift toward…

The director

New Zealand-born director who grew up in Italy and completed his education in the UK. Began career as an assistant photographer before transitioning into film editing in the early 1980s, then moved into writing and directing music videos during the formative…