Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love

What this video is

Released in 1986 at the height of MTV's cultural dominance, 'Addicted to Love' arrived during the channel's formative years when a visually striking video could single-handedly break a song commercially. The video's aesthetic draws heavily on Patrick Nagel's graphic femme illustration style — hyper-stylised, flat, and decorative — translating a visual art movement into a music video grammar. The model-band conceit…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of mid-1980s power pop and MTV-era rock crossover. The video established a replicable visual template — uniform models, performance staging, high-fashion aesthetics — that influenced music video production for the remainder of the decade and beyond. It demonstrated that…

The director

Terence Donovan (1936–1996) was a British fashion photographer and film director, prominent in 1960s London alongside David Bailey and Brian Duffy. Renowned for his work in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, he transitioned into directing commercials and music…