The Tubes - Talk To Ya Later

What this video is

Released in 1981 to coincide with the launch of MTV, 'Talk To Ya Later' became a foundational case study in music video marketing. The clip — extracted from Mulcahy's long-form 'The Tubes Video' — aired during MTV's earliest weeks, generating measurable sales spikes in Midwestern cable markets before the channel reached New York or Los Angeles. The video's corporate-satire aesthetic directly embodied the album's…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact in New Wave and early MTV history, 'Talk To Ya Later' is one of the first songs whose commercial success can be directly attributed to music video rotation rather than radio airplay. Produced by David Foster with guitar by Steve Lukather, it bridged theater rock, power pop, and…

The director

Russell Mulcahy (born 23 June 1953, Melbourne, Australia) is a director, writer, and producer who became one of the most prominent music video directors of the 1980s. He directed the Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' (1979), the first video ever aired…