Elvis Costello & The Attractions - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding

What this video is

Released in 1979 as part of the Armed Forces campaign, this promo clip captures Elvis Costello & The Attractions at the peak of their confrontational new wave energy. The song itself — a Nick Lowe composition originally recorded by Brinsley Schwarz in 1974 and revived as a B-side to Lowe's 1978 single 'American Squirm' — became an unlikely anthem of sincerity within a movement defined by irony and alienation.…

Why it matters

An essential artifact of British new wave's American crossover moment. The track's position as a closing anthem on Armed Forces — bookending an album of bristling post-punk anxiety — makes the performance clip both a genre statement and a cultural provocation. Statler's documentary approach strips…

The director

Akron-born, Minneapolis-based filmmaker widely called 'the godfather of the music video.' Studied at Kent State University alongside DEVO founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale, and began collaborating on music films with them in the early 1970s. Became…