Styx - The Best Of Times

What this video is

Released as the lead single from Paradise Theatre (A&M Records, January 19, 1981), The Best of Times arrived at a pivotal inflection point in rock music's relationship with visual media. Styx's decision to produce multiple videos in a single day was highly unusual for American acts of the era, when the music video format was still nascent in the US. The gamble proved prescient: MTV launched eight months later and…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of the arena rock / pomp rock genre's visual turn, this video is among the earliest examples of an American rock band deliberately producing music videos for anticipated broadcast on a not-yet-launched cable network. Its theatrical staging and slow-burn performance aesthetic…

The director

Jerry Kramer (d. September 15, 2023, Los Angeles) was a prolific music video director and producer whose career spanned the 1980s–1990s. He is best known for producing and directing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (1988) and Leave Me Alone (1989), and for…