Rupert Hine - Surface Tension (1981)

What this video is

Released in 1981 as the lead single from the album Immunity (A&M Records), 'Surface Tension' arrived at the precise historical moment when MTV launched (August 1, 1981) and the promotional music video became a commercial necessity. Hine occupied an unusual position: a producer's producer whose solo artistry was considered uncommercial by labels, yet whose technical mastery and collaborator network (lyricist…

Why it matters

Surface Tension is a defining example of the British art-electronic subgenre — synth-driven, lyrically dense, and production-forward — that bridged the prog-rock 1970s and the synth-pop 1980s. Hine's Immunity album would go on to directly influence the artists he subsequently produced (The Fixx,…

The director

Rupert Neville Hine (21 September 1947, Wimbledon, Surrey – 4 June 2020, Wiltshire) was a British musician, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career in the mid-1960s as half of folk duo Rupert & David, later founding Quantum Jump. He released…