Joe Jackson-Nineteen forever - Joe Jackson-Nineteen forever

What this video is

Released in 1989 at a moment when the first generation of rock stars who had emerged in the 1960s and 70s were visibly aging, 'Nineteen Forever' participates in a sharp cultural debate about the mythology of eternal youth in rock music. The video, directed by the then-emerging Alex Proyas, literalizes that critique through theatrical prosthetics and gothic staging, prefiguring the darker, more self-aware rock video…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in late-80s British art-rock video production, 'Nineteen Forever' is significant as an early showcase of Alex Proyas's cinematic gothic vocabulary before his feature breakthrough, and as one of the few music videos of its era to deploy prosthetic transformation as a sustained…

The director

Alex Proyas is an Egyptian-born, Australian-raised director who built his early career directing music videos before moving into feature films. He is best known for the cult films The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998), both celebrated for their expressionist…