They Might Be Giants-Purple Toupee - They Might Be Giants-Purple Toupee

What this video is

Released in 1989 as a promotional single from the 1988 album Lincoln (Bar/None Records), 'Purple Toupee' satirizes the warped, nostalgic misremembering of 1960s political history by a confused, self-aggrandizing narrator. The video's Coney Island setting — a site of working-class American populist entertainment in sharp decline by the late 1980s — visually reinforces the song's theme of kitsch nostalgia and…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of late-80s American indie/college rock music video production, 'Purple Toupee' exemplifies the lo-fi, concept-driven aesthetic that distinguished Bar/None and similar indie labels from major-label MTV polish. Its rapid-cut editing rhythm synchronized to drum machine,…

The director

Helene Silverman is a graphic designer and music video director who collaborated with They Might Be Giants in the late 1980s. She directed the 'Purple Toupee' video (1989) and created cover art for the Don't Let's Start compilation and the Birdhouse In Your…