Howard Jones - What Is Love

What this video is

Released 17 November 1983, 'What Is Love?' arrived at the crest of British synth-pop's commercial dominance, months before Howard Jones' debut album Human's Lib (March 1984). The video's Paris location shoot, restrained aesthetic, and philosophical subject matter reflect the art-school intellectualism that differentiated Jones from more flamboyant contemporaries. The fast edit pace (3.39s avg shot) mirrors the…

Why it matters

A canonical artefact of British synth-pop's philosophical wing; 'What Is Love?' sits alongside Depeche Mode and Gary Numan in interrogating emotional abstraction through synthesizer pop. The video's understated location-documentary approach prefigures the introspective music video aesthetic that…

The director

Born 23 December 1955, Kleinman is a British music video and commercial director. After graduating from Hornsey Art School, he entered the emerging music video industry in 1983. He pioneered post-production special effects across 100+ videos in the 1980s for…