Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters

What this video is

Released in the summer of 1984 alongside the highest-grossing film of that year, this video occupies a pivotal position in both music video and Hollywood promotional history. It was among the first film-themed videos to achieve heavy MTV rotation and chart dominance simultaneously, with the song reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. Crucially, the video helped break racial barriers in MTV's…

Why it matters

A landmark in the convergence of film and music video as promotional media, 'Ghostbusters' demonstrated that a soundtrack single could match or exceed the cultural impact of the film itself. Its cameo-dense, narrative-adjacent format influenced the mid-1980s wave of celebrity-studded videos and…

The director

Ivan Reitman (1946–2022) was a Canadian film producer and director best known for blockbuster comedies including Animal House (1978), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), and Twins (1988). He founded the Montecito Picture Company and…