Pat Wilson - Bop Girl

What this video is

Released September 1983 at the apex of Australia's homegrown pop boom, 'Bop Girl' reached #2 on the Australian Kent Music Report and won Best Debut Single at the 1983 Countdown Music Awards, the dominant Australian music TV institution of the era. The song was written by Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool / Mondo Rock), connecting the new wave pop moment to Australia's earlier rock heritage. The video achieved limited but…

Why it matters

A defining artefact of early-1980s Australian pop: uptempo, hook-driven, and produced with an eye toward the emerging global music video format. The song's fiddle-inflected new wave arrangement and spell-along chorus typify the accessible, danceable pop aesthetic that briefly allowed Australian…

The director

Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950, Melbourne, Australia) is an award-winning Australian feature film and documentary director. She is best known for My Brilliant Career (1979), Mrs. Soffel (1984), High Tide (1987), The Last Days of Chez Nous…