They Might Be Giants - Don't Let's Start

What this video is

Released in 1986 on the independent Bar/None label and achieving MTV rotation by 1987, 'Don't Let's Start' emerged at a pivotal intersection: college radio had just begun coalescing into a national indie infrastructure capable of breaking artists without major-label support. The video's location — Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, remnant of the 1964 World's Fair — grounds its surrealism in a distinctly New York…

Why it matters

A foundational document of mid-1980s American indie alternative aesthetics, the video demonstrates how low-budget, prop-driven surrealism and fast editorial pacing could substitute for expensive production values. It helped establish the template for quirky, intellectual alt-rock video craft that…

The director

Adam Bernstein (born May 7, 1960, Princeton, NJ) began his career as an animator and produced the first original programming for Nickelodeon. He directed over seventy music videos and went on to direct acclaimed television including the pilots of 30 Rock,…