Blondie - Heart Of Glass

What this video is

Released in January 1979, 'Heart of Glass' captured Blondie at the precise cultural fault line between New York's CBGB punk underground and mainstream commercial pop. The song — produced with a Roland CR-78 drum machine in one of the earliest uses of the device in popular music — blended disco's four-on-the-floor pulse with new wave's angular sensibility, provoking accusations of sell-out from the band's punk peers…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of the new wave/disco crossover moment. 'Heart of Glass' is one of the first major examples of a rock-identified band embracing electronic rhythm programming (Roland CR-78) for a mainstream hit, anticipating synth-pop and dance-rock by several years. The video's unadorned…

The director

Born 24 November 1927 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian in Paris. Co-created and directed BBC's Top of the Pops (1964) and In Concert (1970), pioneering the music television format. Relocated to…