The B-52's - Roam

What this video is

Released during the B-52's commercial renaissance following the massive success of 'Love Shack,' 'Roam' was the third/fourth single from Cosmic Thing (1989, Reprise Records), their first album since the AIDS-related death of guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985. The video's world-travel concept—compositing the band against ethnographic stock footage and animations—channelled the era's growing multiculturalist optimism…

Why it matters

A landmark late-period new wave video that demonstrates the genre's full commercial maturation: the chromakey-collage technique distils the B-52's kitsch-globe-trotting identity into a precise visual language, influencing the world-beat pop video aesthetic of the early 1990s. Its playful…

The director

Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960, Princeton, NJ) is an American director who began his career as an animator, producing the first original programming for Nickelodeon at age 26. He directed over seventy music videos, then transitioned to television,…