Sawyer Brown - Betty's Bein' Bad

What this video is

Released in September 1985, 'Betty's Bein' Bad' sits at the intersection of country music's embrace of the music video format and the broader 1980s pop-culture love of cartoon nostalgia and comedic pastiche. The Betty Boop visual concept tapped into a wave of retro-Americana iconography popular in mid-decade pop culture. Sawyer Brown, a band formed in Florida and relocated to Nashville after winning Star Search in…

Why it matters

A key artifact of mid-1980s country music's video era, this clip demonstrates how country acts adopted the narrative music video format pioneered by pop and rock. Its cartoon-character visual conceit was unusual for country at the time and signaled a genre-wide willingness to embrace humor,…

The director

Martin Kahan (April 17, 1947 – July 18, 2021) was a New York-born music video director who launched his career directing Rush live promo clips in Canada before returning to New York in 1983 and becoming a house director for Columbia Records. His rock-era…