Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

What this video is

Released in September 1983, 'Karma Chameleon' arrived at the precise apex of the Second British Invasion, when UK new wave acts were dominating the US charts largely through MTV saturation. Culture Club, led by the flamboyantly androgynous Boy George, embodied a post-punk democratisation of gender and identity that was simultaneously provocative and commercially mainstream. The song became the UK's biggest-selling…

Why it matters

A foundational artefact of New Wave pop video production, 'Karma Chameleon' demonstrates the fully realised narrative music video format that MTV had made commercially essential by 1983. Its location-shot period drama structure, ensemble cast, and comedic storyline influenced countless subsequent…

The director

Peter Sinclair BSC (1948–2026) was a British cinematographer and music video director who became a DOP in 1976. With the arrival of MTV in the early 1980s, he filmed music videos for Limelight Productions and Medialab, working across more than 200 acts…