Howard Jones - New Song

What this video is

Released in August 1983, 'New Song' arrived at the precise moment British synth-pop was achieving mainstream commercial breakthrough in both the UK and US. Howard Jones's debut single self-consciously positioned itself as a manifesto of personal liberation — a theme made literal in the video's factory-escape narrative. The clip's working-class setting and anti-authoritarian resolution (workers abandoning their boss…

Why it matters

As Howard Jones's debut single, 'New Song' was a landmark entry in the British synth-pop canon. It reached #3 in the UK and #27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, helping establish Jones as a leading figure of the Second British Invasion alongside contemporaries such as Duran Duran and Culture Club. The…