Richard Marx - Should've Known Better

What this video is

Released in September 1987 as the second single from Richard Marx's self-titled debut album on Manhattan/EMI Records, 'Should've Known Better' arrived at the apex of MTV's influence on mainstream pop-rock. The video reflects the era's dominant music video grammar: performance-forward, emotionally legible, and designed for heavy rotation. Marx peaked at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 with this single, and became the…

Why it matters

A landmark example of late-1980s adult contemporary pop-rock music video production. The video helped establish Richard Marx as a dominant MTV-era crossover figure and showcases Dominic Sena's early Propaganda Films aesthetic — warm, performance-centered, and emotionally direct — which would later…

The director

Dominic Sena (born April 26, 1949, Niles, Ohio) is an American film and music video director and co-founder of Propaganda Films. He directed over 100 music videos in the 1980s–90s for artists including Richard Marx, Janet Jackson, Bryan Adams, Sting, and…