Joe Jackson - Breaking Us In Two

What this video is

Released in August 1982 as the third single from Joe Jackson's landmark guitar-free LP Night and Day, 'Breaking Us in Two' arrived during MTV's first full operational year, when the channel was disproportionately populated by British artists who had already produced promotional clips for European broadcast. Jackson occupied an unusual position: critically associated with post-punk and new wave intellectualism, he…

Why it matters

A foundational artifact of British New Wave crossover into American mainstream consciousness via MTV. 'Breaking Us in Two' demonstrated that guitar-absent, piano-led adult pop could achieve Top 20 US chart success in the early MTV era. It exemplifies the narrative-realist school of early music…

The director

Steve Barron (born 4 May 1956, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish-British filmmaker who began his career as a camera assistant on productions including A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Superman (1978). He co-founded Limelight, which became the world's largest music…