Sade - The Sweetest Taboo - Official - 1985

What this video is

Released in October 1985 as the lead single from Sade's second album Promise, 'The Sweetest Taboo' arrived at the height of the Quiet Storm radio format's cultural influence and MTV's expansion into adult contemporary programming. The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Sade's second consecutive number-one on the Adult Contemporary chart, following 'Smooth Operator.' The video's…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of 1980s sophisti-pop and Quiet Storm soul, this video established visual conventions — warm tungsten interiors, intimate performance framing, dual-continent romantic narrative — that would be widely adopted by adult contemporary and neo-soul acts throughout the late 1980s and…

The director

Glasgow-born director; studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art, then writing and directing at the UK's National Film & Television School. Between 1984 and 1994 directed more than 60 music videos for artists including Sade, AC/DC, Art Garfunkel,…