Soft Cell - What？

What this video is

Released in July 1982, 'What!' arrived at the height of Soft Cell's commercial peak and the global explosion of MTV-era music video culture. The track is a synth-pop cover of a 1965 Melinda Marx song, later popularised on the Northern Soul circuit by Judy Street in 1968, recontextualising that working-class dancefloor heritage through a cold, electronic lens. The single appeared on the mini-album Non Stop Ecstatic…

Why it matters

A key artefact of early-1980s British synth-pop at its most commercially potent, 'What!' demonstrates the genre's capacity to absorb and reframe pre-existing soul and R&B material through electronic production. Its video exemplifies the period's low-budget, high-impact promo aesthetic — fast-cut,…

The director

Timothy Michael Pope (born 12 February 1956, Hackney, London) is a British film director best known for his music video work in the 1980s. He studied at Ravensbourne College of Art and later directed the majority of Soft Cell's promotional videos, as well as…